The Mt. Greylock’s boys cross country running team kicked off their season on Wednesday, September 10th with a successful team race on the hilly Lenox High School five kilometer course. Racing against athletes from the North County teams Lenox, Pittsfield, Monument, and Taconic, the Mounties faced many of the top runners in the county. Mt. Greylock runners took the first four finishes. Senior and team co-captain Tommy Kirby finished first with a time of 17:52. Within one minute, freshman Jacob Fink and sophomores Owen Brandriss and Sam Culver crossed the finish line in second, third and fourth place. Junior Cameron Castonguay, Mt. Greylock’s fifth and final scorer, completed the course in eighth place at 19:24.

The boys’ cross country team coach and Mt. Greylock chemistry teacher, Scott Burdick, feels content with the team’s performance. He said, “As always, our goal is to race our best at the end of the season and to win the county and Western Mass races. So far, the team is performing well.”

Co-captain Sam Swoap, a senior, added, “We are looking to defend our Western Mass titles and win our sixth consecutive title.The results of the first race show that there are great things to come this season.”

Burdick said, “I was especially impressed with Jacob Fink’s second place finish as just a ninth-grader and Cameron Castonguay’s top ten finish as a new runner on the team. Also, considering that it was over ninety degrees and humid, I am proud of all fifteen of the seventh graders on the team for their great races.”

The cross country team has high hopes for the rest of the season. Burdick said, “I believe that, once again, the road to the county title goes right through Mt. Greylock. The team that wins the county will have to beat us.”

The boys cross country team’s next race is on Thursday, September 24th at 4:00 P.M. at Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA.