Our Club completed one of its most successful cross country seasons ever this past weekend when our girl’s 13-14 team won the National Jr. Olympic Championship in Myrtle Beach, SC with 131 points, just ahead of the San Diego Road Runners, who had 143 points.  This is the third national title for the Club and the eighth time that we have scored in the top five, including two second place finishes and one third.  It was also the fourth major win of the season for the girls after victories at the Boston Mayor’s Cup, Wayland Festival and New England Championships.

The times on the national course, which was run at the Whispering Pines Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, were extremely fast, making the team’s win even more impressive.  Teams from New England are much more accustomed to more challenging, hilly courses, so adjusting to a flat, extremely fast course was a real challenge.  The Club’s top four girls all covered the first mile in under 5:39 and then came through the two mile under 11:52, finishing the full 4k course just 19 seconds apart.  “I stated after the Regional meet three weeks that our strength was our ability to run as a pack”, stated an elated Coach Joe Tranchita.  “To have executed so well at such an intense, high level competition speaks volumes for their physical abilities and mental focus.  This was just an outstanding performance and tremendous achievement”.

The Club’s 11-12 girl’s team also ran well, finishing 6th with 197 points, while the boy’s 11-12 team was 10th with 281 points.  The girl’s team showed great promise for the future as they placed their top six runners within 35 seconds of each other.  “This experience will hopefully provide these girls the impetus to come back next year with the goal of equally what our older girls were able to accomplish.  If they continue to improve over the coming year, they could be a real force next season”.

13-14 GIRL’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM SCORING PERFORMANCES – LEAH BRAMS WAS 11TH IN 14:40.38, REBECCA GRUSBY WAS 16TH TEAM IN 14:49.62, LAUREN ILSLEY WAS 20TH IN 14:55.08, SONYA JAMPEL WAS 24TH IN 14:59.1, COURTNEY AYLAIAN WAS 60TH IN 15:49.02, ZOE GOMPERS WAS 71ST IN 16:02.7,CHARLOTTE SYKES WAS 126TH IN 17:29.79, LINDSEY MOGAN WAS 129TH TEAM IN 17:33.62

11-12 GIRL’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM SCORING PERFORMANCES – CLARE MARTIN WAS 26TH IN 11:16.85, GABBY VANDENDRIES WAS 36TH IN 11:25.96, EINAT GAVISH WAS 38TH IN 11:30.74, MICHAELA JONES WAS 45TH IN 11:39.6, ALEX WOLF WAS 52D IN 11:48.9, CATHERINE DEGROOT WAS 54TH IN 11:50.97, OLIVIA VERNON WAS  55TH IN 11:51.84, ROSE TESZLER WAS 80TH IN 12:16.94

11-12 BOY’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM SCORING PERFORMANCES – DANIEL O’DONOGHUE WAS 16TH IN 10:18.87, MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE WAS 39TH IN 10:42.63, CALVIN PERKINS WAS 45TH IN 10:44.22,HENDERSON SYKES WAS 89TH IN 11:15.83, ANDREW MAH WAS 92D IN 11:17.31, JACOB JAMPEL WAS 121 IN 11:43.18, STEVE INGMAN WAS 131 IN 11:52.1, SEAN O’NEILL WAS 133 IN 11:55.52

WTC’s youth XC team had another great day in Queensbury, NY, this past Sunday.

Our 11-12 girls finished 2nd with 61 points. Gabby Vandendries was 7th (5th team) in 11:50, Clare Martin was 9th (6th team)11:53, Einat Gavish was 21st (12th team) in 12:08, Olivia Vernon was 30th (17th team) in 12:26, Catherine DeGroot was 36th (21st team) in 12:33, Alex Wolf was 49th (28th team) in 12:49, Rose Teszler was 59th (31st team) in 12:58 and Lillian Joyce was 68th (39th team) 13:25.

Our 11-12 boys were 1st with 64 points. Jacob Jampel was 6th (3rd team) in 11:02.98, Calvin Perkins was 1th (6th team) in 11:12.18, Daniel O’Donoghue was 13th (7th team) in 11:13.8, Michael O’Donoghue was 21st (14th team) in 11:24,16, Henderson Sykes was 57th (34th team) in 12:05.36, Andrew Mah was 65th (39th team) in 12:17.36, Sean O’Neill was 71st (41st team) in 12:22.8 and Steve Ingman was 78th (48th team).

The 13-14 girls title was a battle of the sprints over the final 200 meters of the race with Granite State’s Margaret Coogan and our own Rebecca Grusby, Lauren Ilsley and Sonya Jampel. Each traded leads at various points of the final 200. It appeared that we had opened a slight lead with about 50 to go, but a gutsy and determined last minute effort by Coogan allowed her to nip our three at the wire, with less than 64 hundredths of a second separating three of them. Despite our placing 4 in the top 10, it gave Granite State a 1 point win over us, 38-39. It was a classic cross country dual. Lots of fun to watch. Leah Brams was our top finisher in 4th place (3rd team) in 14:51.33, Rebecca Grusby was 6th (5th team) in 15:00.64, Lauren Ilsley was 7th (6th team) in 15:00.92, Sonya Jampel was 8th (7th team) in 15:03.96, Courtney Aylaian was 29th (18th team) in 15:39.44, Zoe Gompers was 54th (30th team) in16:32.66 (after falling in the first 400), Charlotte Sykes was 72nd (36th team) in 17:32.74 and Lindsey Mogan was 79th (40th team) in 18:04.

Individually, Blissie Vernon was 10th in the 7-8 age group race in 9:21.73 and Jack Cronin was 46th in the 9-10 boy’s race in 13:25.65.

Our 3 teams will now be moving on to the Nationals on December 10 in Myrtle Beach, SC. Full results may be found here.

WTC Boys at the Start of the Midget Race
(Photo by David Ilsley)

Youth members put in another outstanding team performance Sunday at the New England Junior Olympic Championships at Free Style Farm in Amherst, NH. We had 17 top 25 individual performances, two first place teams and one second place team finish and 6 personal records. The top 25 individuals in each race and the top 3 teams (top 4 for the 11-12 boys) automatically move on to the Region 1 Championships next week in Queensbury, NY.

Individual place finishers included Blissie Vernon in the Sub-bantam Girls’ race (4th place in 9:56), Jack Cronin (24th in the 9-10 Bantam Boys’ race in 13:25) and Christian Herlihy (25th in the 13-14 Youth Boys’ race in 15:29).

In the team scoring, our 11-12 boys finished first with 48 points. Daniel O’Donoghue was 2nd overall in a PR 10:56 (previous PR from 2 years ago was 12:26.85), Jacob Jampel was 4th in a PR 11:01 (previous PR from 2 years ago was 12:17.12), Michael O’Donoghue was 9th (7th team) in a PR 11:15 (previous PR from 2 years ago was 1:26.56), Calvin Perkins was 11th (8th team) in 11:23, and Henderson Sykes was 36th (27th team) in 12:13. Rounding out our team was Steven Ingman in 47th (35th team) in 12:34, Andrew Mah in 52nd (39th team) in 12:39, Sean O’Neill in 63d (39th team) in 13:02, Tommy O’Neil in 66th with a PR 13:11 (previous PR from 2 years ago was 13:32.8) and Liam O’Callaghan in 81st (45th team) in 14:03.

Our other winning team was our 13-14 girls with 30 points which included Leah Brams in 2nd (1st team) in 16:06, Sonya Jampel in 4th (2nd team) in 16:14, Lauren Ilesley in 5th (3rd team) in 16:21, Becky Grusby in 9th (7th team) in 16:34, and Zoe Gompers in 19th (17th team) in 16:59. Rounding out our team was Courtney Aylaian in 21st (19th team) in 17:02, Lindsey Mogan in 75th (56th place team) in 19:26, Charlotte Sykes in 79th in 19:34 and Hannah Randolph in 97th in 23:20.

Our other scoring team was our 11-12 girls, who were 2nd with 49 points. Clare Martin was 4th overall in 11:58, Gabby Vandendries was 10th (5th team) in 12:14, Einat Gavish was 11th (6th team) in a PR 12:17 (previous PR from 2 years ago was 13:59), Olivia Vernon was 24th (15th team) in 12:34 and Alex Wolf was 28th (19th team) in 12:44. Rounding out our team was Catherine DeGroot in 35th (23rd team) in 12:51, Rose Teszler in 44th (27th team) in 13:14, Lillian Joyce in 63rd (40th team) in 13:59, Katie Cronin in 77th in 14:59, Julia Kendall in 85th in 16:03 and Jackie Fitzgerald in 89th in a PR 16:42 (previous PR from 2 years ago was 18:12.19).

Einat Gavish Fights for 11th Place
(Photo by David Ilsley)

Our 13-14 boys finished 5th with 162 points and included Christian Herlihy in 25th (20th team) in 15:29, Will Rhatigan in 42nd (24th team) in 15:59, Andy Theall in 79th (27th team) in 17:02, Connor Meaney in 80th (45th team) in 17:10, Thomas O’Donoghue in 104th (46th team) in 19:38 and Phil Batler in 105th (58th team) in 19:55.

Our other competitors were Dante Vetrone in the 9-10 Boys’ (43rd in 15:13) and Alessia Caira (32nd in 16:07) and Anna Kraffmiller (41st in 17:16) in the 9-10 Girls’.

Complete results may be found here.

Congratulations to those members who competed in the Middle School State Meet today, achieving 3 state titles and 2 meet records, 2 second place finishes, 1 third and 8 top 10 finishes in the process!

Leah Brams started the day off with a win in the 8th grade girls’ race with a meet record and PR of 10:27, improving on her time of 10:44 from last year’s 7th grade win. She was followed by Rebecca Grusby in 2nd with 10:49.  Lindsey Mogan was 40th in 12:48, Rachel Solomon was 55th in 13:34, and Beverly Ortiz was 96th in 15:09. Connor Meaney was 59th in the boys’ race in a PR 11:42 (bettering last year’s 12:03 time) and Philip Batler was 111th with 12:44.

In the 7th grade girls’ race, Gabby Vandendries finished 2nd in a PR 11:04, improving on her 4th place finish from last year’s 11:37. Kate Cronin was 48th in 13:01.  In the boy’s race, Liam O’Callaghan was 81st in 12:23.

In the girls’ 5th & 6th grade race, Einat Gavish won in 11:18, Rose Teszler was 20th in 12:04  and Lillian Joyce was 23rd in 12:16.  In the boys’ race, Calvin Perkins was 1st in a meet record time of 10:33.

In the team championship races, Clare Martin was 5th in 10:33, Courtney Aylaian was 7th in 10:41 and Alex Wolf was 20th in 11:15.  In the boys’ race, which had the largest field of the day with 206 runners, Christian Herlihy was 3rd in a PR 9:40, improving on last year’s time of 10:23, Zach Manikas-Hill was 5th in 9:41 (bettering last year’s 10:11), Daniel O’Donoghue was 8th in 9:52, Michael O’Donoghue was 21st in 10:09, Jacob Jampel was 22nd in 10:09, Thomas O’Donoghue was 26th in a PR 10:16 (last year’s time was 10:20), Will Rhatigan was 28th in a PR 10:18 and Andy Theall was 71st in a PR 10:48 (both Will and Andy ran 11:30 last year), Nick Manikas-Hill was 126th in 11:42.

Complete results may be found here.

The Close Finish in the 11-12 Boy's Race
(Photo by Stephen Kraffmiller)

What an absolutely fabulous effort we saw today at the Mayor’s Cup! WTC members set 32 personal records, had 12 top 10 finishes (two members came in first), and captured 3 team titles and one second and one third team place! It was apparent that our previous exposure to the race course was a huge advantage for most of our members, as they had a much better feel for the course and the speed of the race. We also had triple the number of participants of any other club.

The 11-12 boys put 4 in the top 8; 11-2 girls had 4 in the top 6 and the 13-14 girls had 3 in the top 6.

The competition was rather fierce in all divisions, but especially so in the 11-12 races, which had extremely large boy’s and girl’s fields. The 11-12 boy’s race had, in Coach Joe’s words, “one of the closest and most exciting finishes that I have ever witnessed.” It was a three-way battle the entire final 200. With 5 meters to go, Daniel O’Donoghue was a stride or so behind in 3rd place and it appeared that he would be unable to catch the 2 boys in front of him. But just as we always emphasize—to drive through the finish and keep going another 10 meters—Daniel did just so, while the other 2 boys tied up and slowed a bit just before the finish line and Daniel nipped both of them right at the line. All 3 boys were given the same time, but Daniel was clearly ahead at the wire. We’ll be talking about that one for a while!

Congrats also to Kaitlyn McCauley who ran a PR 20:18 in the Open 5K race; she was 8th overall and the first for 18 and under’s. Her experience will hopefully help her in the upcoming state championships, which will be run on the same course.

Mayor’s Cup Results

Note: times in parentheses are members’ previous best times.

8-10 BOYS (3D PLACE TEAM)

8-10 GIRLS

11-12 BOYS (1ST PLACE TEAM)

11-12 GIRLS (1ST PLACE TEAM)

13-14 BOYS (2ND PLACE TEAM)

13-14 GIRLS (1ST PLACE TEAM)

Full results may be found here.