The perfect racing conditions - cool, crisp, sunny &dry, with little wind - that helped Pioneer’s varsity set new PRs also gave a boost to our JV squad earlier that morning.  Thirteen new JV PRs were set in this meet, as well as 5 additional season-best times to be updated on the honor roll.

Senior co-captain David Cogswell absolutely dominated this race, claiming first place in 16:48, a season-best time, and very close to his all-time PR.  David took control of the #1 position near the beginning of the race, and just kept widening his lead over the competition until he crossed the finish line far, far ahead of the #2 runner.  His strong performance was an inspiration for the Pioneer varsity (who raced an hour after the JV).  Way to go, David!

Sophomore Andy Sanz-Guerrero and senior Jonathan Henrichs also ran great races, near the front of the pack for the entire race.  Andy finished in fifth place with a season-best time (by 13 seconds) of 17:36, and Jonathan finished sixth with a time of 17:41.   Senior Kinshuk Rajan knocked 38 seconds from his PR to break through the 18-minute barrier for the first time, finishing twelfth in just 17:57.  Congratulations!

Sophomore Niko Rombes slashed 1 minute, 5 seconds from his PR to finish in 18:29.  Sophomore Aaron Trierweiller knocked 23 seconds from his time to set a new PR of 18:34, and first-year Junior Julius Theophilus finished right behind him, taking 36^th place in 18:35 while cutting 43 seconds from his PR.  Great work today!

Sophomore Michael Sullivant cut 52 seconds from his PR to finish in 19:01.  Junior Hayden Spitzley was right behind him, chopping 33 seconds from his time for season-best 19:02, and Kevin Chaperon also set a new 14 seconds faster season-best time of 19:05 for a 65^th place finish.  All three of these runners are very close to breaking the 19-minute barrier, and are definitely guys to watch for in upcoming races.

Exchange-student Robin Nitzer finished in 82^nd place, 8-seconds faster than last week to set a new PR of 19:15, and first-year sophomore Joe Frakes was close behind, chopping 51 seconds to set a new PR of 19:19.  Freshman David Torres subtracted 1:02 from his time for a new PR of 19:46, and first-year junior RJ Marable stayed with the same program by taking 1:07 off his old PR with a 19:49 finish.

Senior co-captain Jacob Whiten dropped 53 seconds to set a new season best and tie his previous PR of 20:00.  Sophomore Aaron Kurz dropped 33 seconds for a new PR of 20:14.  Sophomore Ben Aukerman dropped 32 seconds for a new PR of 20:23, finishing just in front of sophomore Jonathan Diep, who also finished in 20:23, a new season-best time for him.  First-year sophomore Lucas Arias dropped another 3 seconds from his PR to slip under 21-minutes for the first time.

First –year runners John Fonte (sophomore), Noah Kaczor, Manuel Akard (junior) and Eric Seitz (freshman) all continue to add valuable experience, and  first-year sophomore Zack Keller sliced off 25 seconds for a new PR of 26:54.

With such a fast Pioneer varsity, it can be difficult to remember just how fast our JV group really is:  Half of the runners in the D1 Varsity race at Holly had times greater than 18 minutes and about a quarter of them had times greater than 19 minutes.  Our JV compares very favorably with many of those Holly D1 varsity runners, even though about half of our JV are in their first cross-country season!  It’s great to see how quickly these guys are dropping seconds – and minutes – from their PRs.

Pioneer JV