Another great day of achievement was had by our Youth XC Team at the Region 1 Junior Olympic Championships. Our team had 12 personal records en route to earning 3 team titles. The top 3 teams and top 20 individuals from this Region 1 meet qualify for the Nationals in Alabama on Dec. 12. This marks the 8th consecutive year that our Club has qualified for the Nationals.

In the 8-10 girls’ race, Chloe Taylor, who won last week’s New England Championships, finished first again with a 13 second PR in 12:29. Michaela Jones had her best race of the season, finishing second with a 32 second PR, also in 12:29. Einat Gavish had a 19 second PR, finishing 8 (5th team) in 12:59, Alana Winston-Khan was 17th (9th team) in 13:18, Sofia Caira had the biggest PR of the day of 2:01, finishing 53d (21st team) in 14:49, Adriana Reilly was 64th (26th team) in 15:56, Jackie Fitzgerald was 65th (27th team) with a 35 second PR of 16:17 and Julia Kendall was 67th (28th team) in 16:22. The team won with 38 points, with Greater Lowell at 2nd with 48 and Granite State at 3d with 55.

The 11-12 boys also won with 81 points over Bradford’s 91. Christian Herlihy was 12th (8th team) in 11:09, Michael and Daniel O’Donoghue were 17th & 18th (11th & 12th team) in 11:11 & 11:12, Jeremy Taylor was 37th (24th team) in 11:49, Daniel Steinfeld 41st (26h team) in 11:52, Jacob Jampel was 42d (27th team) in 11:54, Conor Carroll was 48th (32d team) in 11:59 and Will Rhatigan was 81st (56th team) in 12:41.

The 13-14 girls won with 55 points over Granite State and Gate City, who had 68 points. Annika Gompers was 5th (3d team) in 14:49, Sonya Jampel was 8th (5th team) in a 13 second PR of 15:01, Courtney Aylaian was 12th (8th team) with a 15 second PR of 15:11, Lauren Barrett was 26th (18th team) with a 3 second PR of 15:41, Madi McLaughlin was 29th (21st team) in 15:51, Julia Kern was 30th (22d team) with a 14 second PR of 15:52, Emma Fitzgerald was 46th (33d team) in 16:28 and Leanne Go was 53d (36th team) with a PR of 16:34.

In the 11-12 girls’ race, Leah Brams was 3d (1st team) with a 17 second PR of 11:36, Gabby Vandendries was 45th (32d team) with a 5 second PR of 12:44, Zoe Gompers was 55th (38th team) in 13:00, Lillian Joyce was 68th (49th team) in 13:25, Valentina Rugiero was 77th (56th team) in 13:50, Katie Cronin was 88th (64th team) in 14:06, Isabel Joyce was 107th (76th team) with a 35 second PR of 15:39 and Annika Burch was 110th (78th team) in 16:41. The girls finished 7th as a team with 176 points.

From a performance standpoint, this was our Youth XC Program’s best year, as the 8-10 girls, 11-12 boys and 13-14 girls won every major race that they competed on – the Wayland Festival Race, the Mayor’s Cup, last week’s NE Championships and yesterday’s Regional meet. This is a very rare feat -one that no other team has ever accomplished. CONGRATS AND THANKS FOR A GREAT SEASON!!

Another GRRRREAT day at the races this past Sunday at the NE Junior Olympics at Burillville Middle School in Harrisville, RI.  Fabulous attitude and overall team support throughout and some really fantastic competition.  All of our members represented themselves extremely well and displayed awesome competitive spirit.  We had 2 individual winners (Chloe Taylor – 8-10 girls and Leah Brams – 11-12 girls); 2 2nd place finishes (Calvin Perkins – 8-10 boys and Annika Gompers – 13-14 girls).  We qualified 4 teams, with 3 of those teams winning team titles.  Even without the team titles, we would have had 16 members move on as individuals.  The top 3 teams and top 25 individuals qualified for the Region 1 Junior Olympic Championships and National qualifier this Sunday, on the same course.  The top 3 teams and top 20 individuals this Sunday will qualify for the National Championships in Alabama on December 12.

The 8-10 girls won a very tightly contested race, edging out Greater Lowell by 4 points, 46-50.  Granite State had 55 for third.  We had 4 girls finish in the top 11, which was impressive.  Those 4 finished within 38 seconds of each other.  Special kudos for Adiana Reilly, who fell sick with about 300 yards to go, but was able to recover and finish the race strongly.  Not to diminish any of the other 8-10 performances, but her  courage is what enabled our team to pull out the slim victory.  Chloe Taylor defended her Bantam title with a winning time of 12:42.  Michaela Jones was 6th (5th team) in 13:01, Alana Winston-Khan was 10th (8th team) in 13:11, Einat Gavish was 11th (9th team) in 13:20, Adriana Reilly was 34th (23d team) in 14:57, Julia Kendall was 50th (32d team) in 15:56, Sophia Caira was 56th (37th team) in 16:50 and Jackie Fitzgerald was 58th (38th team) in 16:52.  Despite taking a fall during the race, Jackie ran a 2:24 PR on this course, beating her previous time of 19:12.  All 8 girls will run next week.

Calvin Perkins ran a tremendous race in the 8-10 boys, finishing 2nd in 11:55.

The 11-12 boys had the most hotly contested team competition, as only a few points separated the 2nd to 5th place teams.  Our team took 1st with outstanding execution of their start, which essentially iced the win the first 300 meters – the rest of the field simply couldn’t catch up from that point on – the competitive spirit of our team really stood out.  Christian Herlihy was 3d (2dteam) in 11:04, Michael and Daniel O’Donoghue were 7th & 8th (6th & 7th team) in 11:10, Jacob Jampel was 15th (11th team) in 11:25, Connor Carroll was 27th (19th team) in 11:45, Jeremy Taylor was 29th (21st team) in 11:49, Daniel Steinfeld was 32 (23d team) in 11:51, Will Rhatigan was 51st (28th team), Andy Theall was 54th in 12:33, Connor Meaney was 59th in 12:39 and Michael Fenn was 97th in 15:31.  Our top five were within 41 seconds of each other and our top 7 within 47 seconds of each other.  Anytime you have a winning team finishing within a minute of each other, you have a true championship caliber group.  Finishing within 30 seconds of each other is their ultimate goal.  Michael & Daniel (11:10) beat their previous PR time of 13:31, as did Jacob (11:25) beating his previous PR of 13:31 and Jeremy (11:49) with his at 12:15.

Our 11-12 girls also qualified for next week.  Leah Brams ran a very strong race, winning in 11:53. She had won this race on this same course 2 years ago as an 8-10 year old.  Zoe Gompers was 18th in 12:32, Gabby Vandendries was 28th (25th team) in 12:49, Lillian Joyce was 29th (26th team) in 12:49, Valentina Rugiero was 42d (team) in 13:08, Katie Cronin was 61st (47th team), Isabel Joyce was 97th (61st team) in 16:14, Annika Burch was 98th in 16:15 and Ava Madden was 100th in 16:18.  Leah, Zoe, Gabby, Lillian, Valentina, Katie, Isabel and Annika will represent the team next Sunday.  Leah (11:53) beat her previous best of 12:58, Zoe (12:32) beat her previous PR of 14:48 and Ava (16:18) beat her previous PR of 16:28.

The 13-14 girls also had a tight race, edging out Granite State for the team title, 40-43.  Coutney Aylaian’s late surge the last 800 made the difference, as she passed 5 girls in the last 300 meters to give us the slim victory.  Annika Gompers ran brilliantly, finishing 2nd in 14:49, Sonya Jampel was 5th (4th team) in 15:14, Courtney Aylaian was 7th (6th team) in 15:26, Madi McLaughlin was 17th (14th team) in 15:47, Lauren Barrett was 21st (15th team) in 15:52, Julia Kern was 29th (20th team) in 16:06, Emma Fitzgerald was 32d (23d team) in 16:21, Leanne Go was 35th (26th team) in 16:35, Elena Chiulli was43d in 17:00, Lindsey Mogan was 57th in 17:46, Hannah Randolph was 59th in 17:49, Martyna Pawlikowska was 60th in 18:01.   Annika, Sonya, Courtney, Madi, Lauren, Julia, Emma and Leanne will represent the team next week.

The 13-14 boys were 9th, lead by Gavin McEwen’s 20th place (13th team) in 14:13, Eric Latimer was 47th (34th team) in 14:46, Thomas O’Donoghue was 49th (36th team), in 14:46, Ryan Leonard was 101 (65th team) in 16:46 and Justin Wadsworth was 103 (66th team) in 17:09.  Gavin will move as a top 25 individual.

Sonya Jampel had the fastest time of the day for the girls, winning the team championship race in 10:30, slightly ahead of Club teammate Courtney Aylaian, who was 2nd in 10:35 and Lauren Barrett who was 5th in10:56.

Leah Brams won the 7th grade race in 10:44, while Emma Fitzgerald was 7th in 11:35 and Lindsey Mogan was 28th in 12:29.

Eric Latimer was 3d in 10:28 in the boys’ 7th grade race, while Andy Theall and Will Rhatigan were 41st & 42nd in 11:30 and Connor Meaney was 57th in 12:03.  In the 8th grade race, Julia Kern was 8th in 11:21 and Leanne Go was 16th in 11:43 and Hannah Randolph was 27th in 12:28.   In the boys’ championship race, Thomas O’Donoghue led his Lexington team to a 2nd place with is 24th place in 10:20, followed closely by Christian Herlihy at 26th in 10:23.  In the girls’ 5th-6th grade race, Gabby Vandendries was 4th in 11:37 and Katie Cronin was 24th in 12:42. Other winter team members, Emma Houston (7th), Hayley Gambone (12th), and Olivia Manickas-Hill (33) lead their middle school team to a 1st place finish.

This was only the second year of this meet and it doubled its entries to more than 1800, making the high finishes of our members even more impressive.