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.

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).

Competing in the season’s first cross country race at Franklin Park, our youth team displayed a tremendous team effort and had some outstanding individual times, highlighted by 10 personal records. Personal records were set by Gabby Vandendries, Einat Gavish, Izzy Cole, Julia Kendall, Leah Brams, Zoe Gompers, Sonya Jampel, Daniel O’Donoghue, Michael O’Donoghue, Jacob Jampel, and Thomas O’Donoghue. The 11-12 girls, 11-12 boys and 13-14 girls took the top four spots in each of the age categories, which bodes well for their upcoming races at next weekend’s Wayland Festival and the Mayor’s Cup on October 23.

8-10 GIRLS – SHEALAGH BRAMS 8:43.6, ANNA KRAFFMILLER 9:55, CATARINA HAMEL SELLMAN 15:52, GABRIELLA DEFABRITIIS 15:54

11-12 GIRLS – GABBY VANDENDRIES 7:00 PR, ALEXANDRA WOLF 7:03.8, EINAT GAVISH 7:07.2 PR, CLARE MARTIN 7:07.6, KATIE CRONIN 7:54.6, ISABEL COLE 8:07.5 PR, JULIA KENDALL 8:31.7 PR, JACKIE FITZGERALD 9:39, ANNIKA BURCH 9:40.8, AVA MADDEN 9:58, ALEXANDRA DEFABRITIIS 15:48

13-14 GIRLS – SONYA JAMPEL 6:26.2 PR, LEAH BRAMS 6:37.5 PR, ZOE GOMPERS 6:56 PR, CHARLOTTE SYKES 7:27.3, RACHEL SOLOMON 8:19.9, HANNAH RANDOLPH 9:38, VICTORIA DEFABRITIIS 10:01, BEVERLY ORTIZ 10:06

8-10 BOYS – JACK CRONIN 7:45.6, GRIFFIN STEELE 8:33, THADDEUS DUFRESNE 8:35, DANTE VETRONE 9:40.2, WILL ARAUJO 19:38

11-12 BOYS – DANIEL O’DONOGHUE 6:20.2 PR, MICHAEL O’DONOGHUE 6:20.7 PR, JACOB JAMPEL 6:35.2 PR, CALVIN PERKINS 6:41, HENDERSON SYKES 7:25.6, BRYSON LIPSON 7:55.4, OWEN PICKETTE 8:00, ROBERT MOUNTAIN 8:03.5, LIAM O’CALLAGHAN 8:10.4, JACK ARAUJO 9:47

13-14 BOYS – THOMAS O’DONOGHUE 6:26.1 PR, WILL RHATIGAN 6:31.8, ANDY THEALL 6:45, CONNOR MEANEY 7:22.4, PHILIP BATLER 8:10.3

Our youth cross country team had its best showing ever at this year’s Mayor’s Cup youth races, as we had 29 personal records, 2 individual race winners, 4 team titles, 8 members who finished in the top 3 and 15 in the top 10 in their respective races.  Our 8-10 girls took the top 3 places to secure the team title with Michaela Jones in 1st with a PR 7:19, Alana Winston-Khan in 2nd with a PR 7:28 and Einat Gavish in 3rd with a PR 7:30 and Lillian Joyce in 5th with a PR 7:37.  Our 11-12 girls finished first with Leah Brams in 1st with a PR 6:43, Zoe Gompers in 5th with a PR 7:08 and Gabby Vandendries in 13th with a PR 7:20.  The 13-14 girls won with Kaitlin McCauley in 2nd with a PR 6:30, Maddy McLaughlin in 3d with a PR 6:32 and Sonya Jampel in 4th with a PR 6:33.  The closest race of the day came with our 11-12 boys, who took 1st by one point.  Michael O’Donoghue was 3rd, Daniel O’Donoghue was 4th and Jacob Jampel was 6th, all with PR times of 6:30, 6:33 and 6:41 respectively.  Other notable performances were achieved by Calvin Perkins (3rd place in the 8-10 boys with a PR 6:40), Olja Rapaic (10th in the 13-14 girls with a PR of 6:45) and Gavin McEwen (9th in the 13-14 boys with a PR 6:11).