RL Varsity ran their best race of the fall, earning the 4th place plaque at the Dll Championships, defeating, among many others, strong teams from Tabor, Groton, and Hopkins. Ben Lawlor (13th) and Rafa Brantley (15th) led RL to the surprising 4th place finish. Xander Boyd (28th), Ian Kelly (35th), and Jim McCoy (52nd) were RL’s other scorers. Jacob Gendelman (54th) and Dan Penella (70th) also were part of the Varsity.

RL Junior Varsity ran a great team race and garnered the NE DII JV championship. As usual, the JVs ran as a pack, particularly in the early stages of the race. In a field of 158 runners, RL’s runners all placed in the top 25, with those finishing in the top 20 earning individual medals. The spread—the difference between RL’s 1st and 5th finishers—was a mere 38 seconds. Erik Zou (3rd), Robert Cunningham (4th), Daniel Gillis (7th), Will Connaughton (14th), Esteban Enrique (17th), Robert Crawford (18th), and Evan Lim (25th) represented RL in the JV race.

The team improved dramatically as the season progressed, avenging earlier losses to Nobles and Williston at the New England meet.

Despite a chaotic start in which the entire field of runners went the wrong way on the course, the RL Junior Cross Country team kept its cool and relied on its patience and experience to take home the Jamboree title on Wednesday, 4 November. The team was missing two of its top-10 runners due to injury, but the squad still rallied to place 6 runners in the top 20—an excellent showing, given that there were 134 finishers overall! Daniel Gillis V led the way for the RL harriers, finishing 5th. Javi Werner VI, Daniel McElroy IV, and Nolan McKenna VI took places 7, 10, and 13, respectively. Luke Streckenbach IV returned to his early-season form to grab the all-important final scoring spot at 14th place. All five of these boys averaged under 6:10 per mile pace for the 1.65 mile course!

This year’s Junior team scored just 49 points at the Jamboree; in cross country, as in golf, the lowest point total wins. Since last year’s winning Jamboree team scored 72 points in 2014, it is easy to see that the 2015 squad is even better than ever! Congratulations to all the RL runners on defending their home turf by winning their second Jamboree in a row.See Mike Pojman’s photos here, and John Werner’s photos here.

Inspired by the sculpture of British earthworks artist Andy Goldsworthy, Class III students of Technology and Art produced organic sculptures for their Land Art unit, in which the boys explored form, color, texture, and ephemerality in a genre that eschews modern technological practices. See photos of their creations here.

Congratulations to the victorious Roxbury Latin squad that took home the team title at the Park Invitational on 22 October, defeating 15 other teams on the way. Out of 178 runners, all of RL’s harriers finished in the top 100. Daniel Gillis (2nd overall) and Nolan McKenna (3rd overall) won individual medals for their very strong efforts at the front of the pack.

And a word from Coach Dromgoole:

Boys: Here is an important lesson about a team’s critical 5th runner: Milton placed 4 runners in the top 13 (!). They were ahead of RL by 15 points after the 4th runners came in (RL’s #1-4 = 49 points / Milton’s #1-4 = 34 points). However, Milton’s 5th runner placed 73rd in the team scoring. RL had 11 runners in before Milton’s 5th! Those guys were our difference-makers today. Well done!Team results hereIndividual results here

Sue McCrory’s Technology and Art class made a trip to the studio of Somerville-based kinetic artist Anne Lilly on 5 October, whose machined stainless works of sculpture are powerful, elegant, and mesmerizing to behold.

Lilly “uses carefully engineered motion to shift and manipulate our perceptions of time, space and energy. … Employing opposing modalities—analytical and intuitive, rational and emotional—Lilly’s sculptures elicit new connections between the physical space outside ourselves and our own private, psychological domain. They are usually fabricated in machined stainless steel, but require the viewer’s touch to initiate movement: pressing clinical qualities against the sensuous response of each piece.” (From artist’s website) See examples of her work.

In class the boys study the technology behind art, examining the sort of innovative engineering and technological practices that explain how a pagoda was built without nails or a massive dome was built without collapsing, as well as the technology behind other arts—sculpture, painting, and printing. See photos from the visit.