The University School X-Country season has started strong with many runners already setting personal records. The past three meets at Kenston (3rd out of 14), Clements (3rd out of 9), McDonough (4th out of 12), have all shown impressive times from our runners as we work up our way toward states. The George Clements and McDonough invitational meets are considered to be some of the most difficult in the region, and these recent meets highlight our potential for the season. Sophomore Justin Idler continues to lead the team with spectacularly fast times, coming 1st in every race so far. His time of 15:55 at the Kenston meet secured his position as the 3rd fastest runner in US history behind JP Trojan and David Michael. With even faster courses coming this season, Justin is sure to break that record. In a recent interview, I asked Justin to elaborate on his recent successes and passion for running. He said that, “The health benefits of running have always intrigued me. The discipline for dieting is ultimately the best quality of any great runner… you can only get out of your body what u put in. If you put in junk you’ll get sub-par results.” Justin has high hopes for the team, predicting that, “we will make it to regionals as a team with the addition of Ben Chao and assistant Coach Lewis … we have a good shot.” Senior Dan Accordino also believes we have a real chance at regionals. Dan has been competitively running since 8th grade and has ran what coach Somers calls, “smart, fast races.” “Pain tolerance and determination,” Dan says, “is a trait any good runner should have.” Senior Rahul Jagetia started X-Country his sophomore year and now is one of the fastest runners on the team. He dropped over 30 seconds off his personal record during the Kenston meet on September 2nd. Rahul admires the “endurance, grit, and strength required for X-country that you just can’t find in other sports.” He sees a bright future for the US X-country program: “we have a lot of new freshmen who show huge potential, especially people like Griffin [Walsh] who are definitely going to do well… we also have great leaders like Michael [Castellanos] and Cole [Bowes] who can really make us into a competitive team for this year.” Clearly for the team, this season has the potential to yield some excellent results.