The Knights raced against tough competition at the Rensselaer Invitational on 13 September. Our runners competed with nearly 30 schools from around the region. The race event format subdivided the Knights into 8th, 7th and 6th grade, thus only our 8th grade boys had sufficient numbers to score as a team. We're mid-way through our season, and have been talking about taking bigger risks, daring to push the limits of their perceived performance. They're listening! The individual performance synopsis of the day for the Knights was "Wow"! Best racing performances of the season thus far. Seven PRs, and three runners just a couple seconds off PR. In the boys 8th grade race, Patrick Seeley executed another master class in XC racing, finishing 6th overall and bringing home a new PR of 10 min 54 sec. Seeley is the first Knight to break the 11 min mark in an XC race in over 10 years! Zach Kerr and Andrew Miller turned in awesome performances, finishing 2nd and 3rd for the Knights. Big day for Miller, a rookie no more, as he posted a new PR of 12:56. Beckett White and Jeremy Sison pushed the pace and secured the 4th and 5th scoring positions for the Knights. Awesome running, as Beckett finished just 2 seconds off PR and Sison just decided he'd break through and set a new PR of 13:44. The Knight's collective efforts resulted in a team placement of 7th of 17 scoring teams: 269 (4, 56, 58, 75, 76). In the girls 8th grade race, Maria Penn and Katie Brown continued with their recipe for success, pushing/pulling one another through the race. Penn, a rookie no more, crossed the line with a new PR of 14:04. Katie brought it home in 14:07, a best performance this season! In the boys 7th grade race, veteran Andrew Thiel stood alone, the sole Knight. That didn't stop him from tearing up the course though. He turned in an excellent performance and brought home a new PR of 11:58, a 10 second improvement. In the girls 7th grade race, veteran Julia Duso and Naomi Vogel ran terrific races. Duso led with a 15:30 finish. Just two seconds from a new PR, Naomi demonstrated her continued strength and consistency with a 17:16 finish. Good show girls! In our sport, weather will always be the big 'X Factor'. Sixth grader Micah Worster was toeing the start line with the boys race field. Chomping at the bit to tear off the line and race hard. Weather had other plans though, as storms and inclement weather forced the cancellation of the remainder of the Invitational. No worries, Micah, 4 races left to go! We're proud of their hard work and love to watch it culminate on the racecourse! Next up, your Knights come home to race at the Central Catholic Invitational on 18 Sep. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. Eliot.