For the second straight week the boys' cross country team recorded an impressive performance by taking second place (out of eleven teams) at the Georgetown Prep Invitational September 21.

Rockville (MD) high school took four of the top six spots to win the overall title, but those other two top finishers were Mercersburg's Ryan Du Plessis '25 (second in 17:39.9) and Joey Cechini '28 (third in 17:59.3).

Head coach David Grady said, "Ryan Du Plessis ran right on the heels of the eventual individual champion from Rockville High School for the first two miles of the race. In the later stages of the race, the two separated, with the Rockville runner pulling away. Joey Cechini ran in third position the entire race, including holding off a couple of fast charging Rockville runners in the later stages of the race. It was nice to see Ryan and Joey confidently position themselves near the front of the race early on. They were strong in the middle of the race, and held up well through the hills in the third mile. It was a very solid race for our top two runners today. Cechini snuck under 18:00 for the first time on a 5k cross country course, a nice milestone for a 9th-grader. 

"Ahman Habib '26 (15th) and Will Wallace '27 (16th) finished close together for the second week in a row," Grady added, "and Iman Zhakan '26 (24th) closed the gap between himself and those two runners from well over a minute last week to a little over thirty seconds this week. Having these three runners push each other in practice and in races should translate to continued improvement for the team."

Du Plessis, Cechini, Habib, Wallace, and Zhakan all earned medalist honors by finishing in the top 25.

For complete meet results click here.

Next weekend the Storm will host the Family Weekend Invitational on the Mercersburg cross country course.  The race begins at 10 am on Saturday, September 28.