Earlier in the month, the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams traveled to Walt Disney World to compete in the Walt Disney World Classic 4A varsity race.  The event contained lots of schools from other parts of the country that East would never see at any other point during the season. 

Both the boys and girls teams fared very well against the unfamiliar competition, as the boys placed third and the girls finished in sixth.  The boys’ runners included Mike Minion (’13), Mike Bruce (’13), Jared Dashevsky (’14), Ben Dillion (’14) and Dan Helfand (’15) while the girls were led by Maddy Berman (’14) and Monica Lee (’15). 

Perhaps being in Disney World and the level of excitement to participate in such an event was the key factor among others for the strong results.  

“We all were excited to race there, and turned that excitement into positive energy for the race which led to a successful day,” said Minion. 

All five of the East’s boy runners placed in the top 18 out of 329 runners in the race. 

Berman and Lee also placed highly in their event, finishing 14^th and 11^th respectively.  The most gratifying achievement for the girls may have been placing ahead of one of the more familiar schools in the event, conference-rival Eastern.  All in all, both the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams succeeded immensely as the trip seemed to be well worth it for both teams.