On Saturday, Sept. 13, GDS competed in the Braddock Relays, a meet unlike any they had raced in before. The meet had runners competing in 2.5-kilometer races and relays instead of the usual five-kilometer event.
The meet consisted of five men’s open races and three women’s open races, as well as one men’s and one women’s relay. GDS had two teams in both relays. Both the men’s and women’s varsity A teams finished 11th, of 41 and 36 teams, respectively.
Head coach Anthony Belber called the meet “almost a glorified workout,” adding, “We weren’t worried about how we performed in our team scores. We were just trying to use it for good experience.”
Senior Charlotte Glendinning, a captain on the team, echoed Belber’s sentiment, saying the meet was about preparing for the season.
The course started with a lap around a track before continuing on through turf, concrete and grass. Many runners found the course’s hills difficult, and also struggled with the concrete, which was less familiar due to the wooded terrain of their usual meets. Sophomore Heath Holley, who finished 12th of 66 runners in the men’s open 1 race, said he enjoyed the course because there was no long uphill, just flat terrain and abrupt hills.
Many on the team expressed their preference for the 2.5K over their standard 5K. “I love the 2.5K,” freshman Priya Kasargod-Staub, who competed in the women’s open 3 race, said. “I love the speed of it. It’s so much better. I just prefer that kind of speed. And like, knowing it’ll be over soon enough.”
At 7:35 p.m., after a false start, the men’s championship relay began. All 41 runners set off, neon baton in hand, and within only a few meters converged into the inner three lanes. By 7:42, GDS had completed its first handoff.
The varsity A team, consisting of sophomore Gavin Solomon, junior James Fitzgibbons and seniors Leo Johnson-Goldfrank, Oliver Malkin and Oliver Wolin, placed 11th of 41 teams, finishing only four seconds after the 10th place team. The varsity B team, consisting of sophomores Arav Bapna, Ben Altschuler and Parker Dunbar, freshman Hugo Fine and senior Dominic Bloch-Prime, finished 31st.
“I like the relay because everyone’s going on one team; there really is one shared time for everybody,” Wolin, another captain, said. He also said the relay could be difficult, calling it a “mental battle,” because of the length.
“Over the 45 minutes that we’re running, it gets quite spread out,” Wolin said. “So it’s a little harder because there’s not always someone right next to you to race against. You have to look ahead and look behind, and it’s more of a mental battle.”
By the time the women’s championship relay started, the stadium lights were illuminating the track as fans lined its perimeter. At approximately 8:30, GDS took off for the final race of the day.
The varsity A team, consisting of sophomore Zoe Wolin, junior Shira Wenthe and seniors Anya Finkelstein, Charlotte Glendinning and Zoe Maas, finished 11th of 36 teams. The varsity B team, consisting of sophomores Eila Priestap, Nikki Smallwood and Alexandra Ezrow and freshmen Lucy Newman and Lucille Hletko Wood, finished 18th.
Glendinning said she was impressed with the team’s “adaptability” while racing a “distance we’ve never done before, and a course we’ve never been at.”
Belber highlighted the performance of sophomore Shira Wenthe, who broke the school’s 1600-meter record twice last year. “Shira Wenthe, for example, moved us from roughly 19th place to around fourth place while she carried the baton,” Belber said. “That’s really exceptional.”
Wenthe said she found the first bit on the track difficult: “I was kind of worried, wondering if I took it out too quickly.”
After all the races had finished, the team gathered for a brief meeting where Belber commended the team on their performance and acknowledged the unusual format of the meet. “This was down right confusing,” Belber said, “and it was delightful.”
CORRECTION (Sept. 15, 2025 at 8:05 a.m.): The original version of this article misquoted Anthony Belber. It has been updated to correctly show what he told the track team after the races.