The fast start for Big Red cross country continued at the annual Black Bear Invitational at Coe-Brown Northwood Academy on Saturday afternoon. The Exeter girls varsity squad tied for first place on the day while the boys side captured second place overall. The JV races also belonged to Big Red as the girls' and boys' sides each ran away with a first-place victory.

Ava Bullock paced the Exeter girls, who had all seven runners finish inside the top-20 of the event. Bullock crossed the finish at 19:11 to capture third place overall while Harper Peters followed in fourth place with a time of 19:34. Norah Pratt (20:22) finished tenth overall and Alice Rourke (21:15) followed in 14^th. Mari Ciaschini (21:39), Annika Nystedt (21:39), and Buddho Voelker (21:42) rounded out the top-seven for Big Red.

On the boys side, Bo Howland-Vlahakis captured the top spot for the third straight race to open his season. Howland-Vlahakis was all alone at the finish, coming in at 15:46, 1:14 ahead of the second place finisher. Owen Welch captured fifth place overall with a time of 17:07 while Will Miller earned a top-ten finish at 17:19. Ethan Benenson (17:58), Truman Tee (18:09), Artur Novaes Ferreira (18:14), and Owen Cosgrove (18:43) all put forth strong races to lift Big Red to a second place finish in a 19-team field.

The girls JV race saw Big Red place all seven runners finish inside the top-8 with Jocelyn Wen leading the way to claim the top spot at 21:55. Lia Blitz (22:01) finished third overall while Lucia Rosen (22:23), Emerson Seymour (22:33), Eleanor Bullock (22:57), Olivia Littlefield (23:14), and Cecily Reed (23:24) added terrific performances on the day.

The JV boys race finished in the same fashion as Big Red placed all seven runners in the top-8 of the results. Carsten Flowers led the charge and claimed first overall with a time of 18:59. Neal Veeranna (19:07), Sean Ricard (19:27), Ved Reddy (19:28), Mitchell Carson (19:31), Nathi Lomax (19:53), and Sarek Ranadive (19:57) rounded out Exeter's squad.

Big Red is back in action on October 11^th when they travel to the Hopkinton Cross Country Festival.