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.

Congratulations to WTC members who competed at the Carlisle Middle School Invitational yesterday. Leah Brams won the varsity girls race with a PR time of 12:20 (which Joe believes is a meet record) and helped to lead her Belmont team to a 2nd place finish. (Leah finished 4th in this race last year with a time of 12:53). Clare Martin was 6th in 12:53 and Alex Wolf was 16th in 13:26. In the boy’s race, Christian Herlihy was 4th, (with a huge PR time of 11:29 over last year’s 12:45), Zachary Manickus-Hill was 7th, Daniel & Michael O’Donoghue were 9th & 10th and Thomas O’Donoghue was 19th. Christian, Daniel, Michael & Thomas led their team to a 1st place finish.

Complete results can be found here.

Despite more challenging course conditions at Franklin Park today (many muddy areas which made the course a bit slower than for our first race a few weeks ago) we still had 8 members make personal records and many, many others that were only seconds off.

Today’s Franklin Park Results

CALVIN PERKINS 6:45
GABBY VANDENDRIES 7:05
HENDERSON SYKES 7:10 PR
EINAT GAVISH 7:15
CONNOR MEANEY 7:32
CHARLOTTE SYKES 7:37
LINDSEY MOGAN 7:45
LILLIAN JOYCE 7:46
OWEN PICKETTE 8:02
ROBERT MOUNTAIN 8:02 PR
SEAN O’NEIL 8:04
JACK CRONIN 8:05
KATIE CRONIN 8:06
PHILIP BATLER 8:16
GRIFFIN STEELE 8:37
THADDEUS DUFRESNE 8:38
JULIA KENDALL 8:3
SHEA BRAMS 8:51
ISABEL JOYCE 9:04
VICTORIA DEFABRITIIS 9:30 PR
MICHAEL CARPENITO-KRONENFIELD 9:38
AVA MADDEN 9:39
ROSE JOYCE 9:47
ALESSIA CAIRA 9:47
ANNA KRAFFMILLER 9:52 PR
HANNAH RANDOLPH 9:57
JACK ARAUJO 10:20
GEROME LUSSIER 10:39
WILL ARAUJO 12:34 PR
ALEXANDRA DEFABRITIIS 13:45 PR
GABRIELLA DEFABRITIIS 13:58 PR
CATARINA HAMEL SELLMAN 14:16 PR

Complete results may be found here (scroll down for youth race).

At the Paddy’s 3 mile race in Newton today, club members swept the 14 and under age group, with Will Rhatigan, Jacob Jampel and Andy Theall taking the top 3 spots in the boys’ results, and Sonya Jampel and Zoe Gompers placing 1st & 3d in the girls’.

Complete results can be found here.

Winning 11-14 Boys Team

Our Club had some sizzling performances at the annual Wayland XC Festival, held on a reasonably hot day and on a bit more challenging course at Wayland HS. Both of our boy’s and girl’s 11-14 teams won their division with only 15 points, the lowest possible point total that can be scored in a team competition, as a result of both teams taking the top 5 places in the team scoring (after displacement).

In the boy’s 11-12 age group, DANIEL O’DONOGHUE, MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE and CALVIN PERKINS placed 1-2-3, as did LEAH BRAMS, SONYA JAMPEL and ZOE GOMPERS for the 13-14 girls. CLARE MARTIN AND EINAT GAVISH were 1st and 3rd for the 11-12 girls and WILL RHATIGAN was 3rd for the 13-14 boys.

Special Congrats to those members who raced the 1.8 mile distance for the first time. RACHEL SOLOMON 14:24, BEVERLY ORTIZ 18:03, BRYSON LIPSON 14:05, OWEN PICKETTE 14:17, LIAM O’CALLAGHAN 14:39, PHILLIP BATLER 16:49, JACK CRONIN 13:46; ANNA KRAFFMILLER 17:39

Wayland Race Results

11-14 GIRLS
1 – A1 LEAH BRAMS 11:36
2 – A2 SONYA JAMPEL 11:38
3 – A3 CLARE MARTIN 12:07
5 – A4 ZOE GOMPERS 12:14
6 – A5 EINAT GAVISH 12:19
9 – A7 GABBY VANDENDRIES 12:26
11 – A8 ALEX WOLF 12:32
21 – B10 LILLIAN JOYCE 13:23
22 – B11 LINDSEY MOGAN 13:47
23 – B12 CHARLOTTE SYKES 13:50
27 – B14 VALENTINA RUGIERO 14:07
28 – B15 KATIE CRONIN 14:11
30 – B17 IZZY COLE 14:13
34 – B19 RACHEL SOLOMON 14:24
36 ISABEL JOYCE 15:58
38 ANNIKA BURCH 16:05
45 BEVERLY ORTIZ 18:03

11-14 BOYS
2 – A1 DANIEL O”DONOGHUE 11:02
4 – A2 MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE 11:17
5 – A3 WILL RHATIGAN 11:27
6 – A4 CALVIN PERKINS 11:31
7 – A5 THOMAS O’DONOGHUE 11:32
8 – A6 ANDY THEALL 11:33
20 – B16 HENDERSON SYKES 12:34
37 – B27 BRYSON LIPSON 14:05
38 – B26 OWEN PICKETTE 14:17
43 – B28 LIAM O’CALLAGHAN 14:39
57 – B32 PHILLIP BATLER 16:49

Full results are posted at www.coolrunning.com.