For the first time in the school’s history, both the boys and girls teams traveled together to the State XC Championship on Sunday, November 5th.
After competing on the Ponagansett course at last week’s Class Meet, the teams knew what to expect of the course and were a bit better positioned for strong races. Today’s goals involved individual efforts and achieving their personal bests.
The Girls race lined up first with our 7 runners at the line. Senior Meg O’Brien and Freshmen Hope Tyska continued their tag team effort of working together, attacking the hills and fighting through the corners. Both girls set new personal records of their running career, with Meg finishing 20:20 and Hope at 20:26.
Sophomore Ella Hanley’s goal was to break 22 mins and she easily attained that with a time of 21:51. The triple team of Freshmen Katherine Barker and Junior Mackenzie Boucher and Sophomore Drew Tyska had a strong race, finishing in their top tiers of times with Drew attaining a new personal record of 22:48. Freshmen Erika Wheeler had a minor collision in the beginning of the race but managed to bounce back with a strong time of just over 24 mins.
These combined efforts allowed the team to finish 14th in the State. With the team only losing O’Brien, they are set for a strong year next year as well.
The Boys race kicked off 45 mins later and it was shaping up to be a very fast race. Junior Nick Januario took the lead for the time and held a strong pace over the 3.1 mi course. Nick finished in the 24th spot, securing a ride to the New England Championship next weekend and setting a new school course record with his time of 16:48.
The rest of the team also had strong performances, many improving their times from last week.
Final results:
Girls:
Meg O’Brien, 20:20, 28th
Hope Tyska, 20:26, 31st
Ella Hanley, 21:51, 84th
Katherine Barker, 22:41, 111th
Drew Tyska, 22:48, 115th
Mackenzie Boucher, 23:25, 127th
Erika Wheeler, 24:48, 136th
Boys:
Nick Januario, 16:48, 24th
Cam Rancourt, 18:08, 91st
Josh Moore, 18:09, 94th
Ryder Ferris, 18:16, 103rd
Keegan Hanley, 19:20,
Ben Harley, 19:22, 133rd
Hunter Heyden, 20:09, 139th