The prequel to the featured Championship races is set to bring plenty of excitement in the Large School divisions at Saturday’s Bob Glennon Twilight Invitational. Here’s a look at the Freshmen and Sophomore races, held under the lights at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds.
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FRESHMEN BOYS
We’re giving the No. 1 nod to Belmont’s Ishaan Kanagararaj. He holds the top seed with his 5K best of 16:30 from a league meet with Reading on Sept. 30. The course at the Reading Town Forest, where the meet was held, is not considered too difficult in terms of elevation, etc. But neither is the Fairgrounds. Kanagararaj.will be running a mile shorter this weekend with the Frosh races at 2.1 miles. Expect him to be in that low 11-minute range, possibly faster on Saturday night. He’ll be tough to beat based on the listed entries.
Kanagararaj’s biggest threats appear to be Duncan Foster of Burlington and Colby Anderson of North Kingstown (RI). Foster owns an 18:00.6 PR for 5K from a meet with Wakefield, while Anderson went sub-18 earlier this season with a 17:53. Anderson also placed sixth in the Freshmen race at the Ocean State Invitational, clocking 14:21.1 for 2.5 miles.
FRESHMEN GIRLS
This race for individual honors in this race could be determined early. The clear-cut favorite is Xi Rondo of Notre Dame Academy. The niece of former NBA and Celtics’ star Rajon Rondo was fifth in this race last year as an eighth-grader where she ran 12:37.6. She was also a winner in the Frosh race at the Battle of the Borders in 2024 and ran a PR of 20:13.1 at the Meet of Champions. This season, she’s competed three times, placing second at the Vineyard Invitational (SB 12:37.5) and earning sixth and third in league meets with Ursuline and Fontbonne, the latter producing a SB of 20:19.4. Sana Kandasamy of Hopkinton appears next in line with a 21:22 best from a recent league meet.
SOPHOMORE BOYS
This race is loaded — 18 runners boast seed times under 18 minutes. On the fast 5K course at the Fairgrounds, expect several contenders eyeing sub-17 territory.
Leading the way is Noah Johnson of Classical (RI) with a 16:58 best from last week. He’ll have company from Belmont’s William Olmsted (17:07), Natick’s Dylan Cooke (17:13), and Brookline’s Nam Danh (17:13.6) and Noah Karp (17:15.5). Both Natick and Brookline enter with three runners at 17:41 or faster, setting up a potential pack-running strategy that could decide the team scoring and overall finish order.
SOPHOMORE GIRLS
The favorite, based on seeds, is Sonia Souto of Weymouth, the Wildcats’. top performer this season. Souto raced to a PR of 19:13.1 to finish second in a league meet with Needham and Braintree in early September and was eighth overall at the season-opening Vineyard XC Invitational where she was timed in 20:11.1. Even though her seed time is 40-plus seconds ahead of the next closest runner, we are not expecting this to be a solo effort. There are few in this field that could make things interesting up front. At the two seed is Braintree’s Chloe Dinh, who brings a 19:54 best to the line. She was third behind Souto in their league meet at 19:56. A few weeks ago, Dinh placed fifth in the Sophomore race at the Frank Kelley Invitational where she clocked 11:19.6 for 3K. Other top runners in this race include Framingham’s Daria Lamankina (20:08.8), Natick’s Kailie Rader (20:35) and Classical’s Fiona Hughes (20:48.48). Look for Hughes to potential stir some things up front. She’s only run twice this season. As a ninth-grader last year, she was 25th at the RI State Meet with a PR of 19:51.6.
