Boys cross country team wins championship

On a day made for running (temperatures in mid70s, cloud cover and a light northerly breeze), the ECS middle school boys cross country team was able to place five runners in the top 10 and win by the Shelby League Championship by a narrow margin over Memphis University School and eight other schools.

Brandon Brackett led the Eagle charge with a school record time of 11:19 (over the 2-mile course) for first place.

Branden Rogers followed with a third-place time of 11:22.

Evan Stookey was eighth at 12:04. Cristian Salazar and Cameron Gagnon finished ninth and 10th, respectively, with times of 12:05 and 12:12.

The team had watched the movie “Chariots of Fire” earlier in the day and the main character’s speech in which he compared running in a race to life clearly made an impression on the runners.

“It requires concentration of the will, energy of soul — the power comes from within,” said movie character Eric Liddle. The boys remained focused throughout the race and 27 out of the 29 that ran had their best time of the year.

Even the last runner on the ECS team, Jack Gibson, cut 4 minutes and 31 seconds off his time.

“It was a great way to end the season against quality competition. The boys had to run their best race of the year to come out on top,” ECS coach John Roelofs said.