Running on its home course, the Mercersburg boys' cross country team concluded its season by finishing second to Lawrenceville by just three points in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League Championship race November 2.

With three of the top seven runners, the Storm put in an impressive team performance. Joey Cechini '28 (second), Ryan Du Plessis '25 (third), and Winston Watkins '25 (seventh) all earned ALL-MAPL honors with their high finishes, and Cechini the only ninth-grader in the field to achieve the distinction. Imangali Zhakan '26 (13th) and Will Wallace '27 (16th) completed the scoring for Mercersburg.

"Joey Cechini went out strong and ran a gutsy race," said head coach David Grady, "running in second place from start to finish.  Ryan Du Plessis ran with the chase pack of several runners, but pulled away from them in the third mile as he closed the gap to Cechini. Winston Watkins ran his best race of the season, battling runners from other schools the whole way. Iman Zhakan broke 18:00 on a 5k cross country course for the first time."   

"I was really proud of how our team ran today," coach Grady continued. "Every runner ran their fastest time on our course this season.  It was a great team effort. Our guys really went after Lawrenceville, who was heavily favored to win the team title.  We came up just short of winning the championship. I was really hoping the boys would pull it off because they have worked so hard throughout the season to be ready for this race. However, it’s hard to be too disappointed when every runner went out and had a great race. For each runner to have their best race is exactly what you want to do in your league championship. Lawrenceville is a very good team and we almost got them today. Our boys had a very distinguished performance today that was the result of a lot of hard training within a supportive team environment.  It was quite satisfying for me and assistant coach Rich Heffron to witness their significant growth over the season and their strong effort today."

For complete team results please click here, and for individual results click here.