The Newark Academy boys' and girls' cross country teams hosted the 45th annual Newark Academy Bill Blaskopf Invitational on Saturday, September 10. Teams in attendance included Blair Academy, Gill St. Bernard's School, Morristown-Beard School, Mount St. Mary Academy, Oak Knoll School, Rutgers Prep, St. Benedict's Prep and Wardlaw-Hartridge School.

On the boys' side, the Minutemen took the first place spot, with a team score of 29 and an average of 18:34.6. Blair Academy took the second place spot with a team score of 40 and an average of 18:50.4. Filling the third place team was Morristown-Beard School with a team score of 72 and an average of 20:29.

Pierce Malloy '23, Luka Opacic Rodrigues '24, Connor Polen '26, Brody Linenberg '25, Leon Sarkissian '25, Andrew Kapferer '24 and Yavan Vyas '23 made up the group of seven that represented the Minutemen in the varsity race. Pierce led the pack with a final time of 17:28 closely followed by Luka with a time of 17:52.

The Minutemen top seven is made up of both veterans and newcomers to the team. With this strong start, Newark Academy is looking forward to having another competitive season this year and hopes to bring home more hardware.