Top Wilmington, 15-45, in return to home course
SENIOR EMILY Hammond (left) and junior Sara Custodio (second from left) lead the pack of runners during a recent meet. The Warriors returned home on Tuesday and had many PRs against Wilmington in a 15-45 victory. (Donna Larsson File Photo)
WAKEFIELD — Being back on the Beasley Track and Field Course for the first time in nearly a month for a meet must have given the members of the Warrior girls’ cross country team quite an adrenaline rush given the fact that most of the Wakefield runners ran PR times on Tuesday afternoon.
As a result of the Warriors’ fine performance, it easily defeated Wilmington, 15-45, to increase its overall record to 3-2 on the season and, more importantly, to 3-0 in the Middlesex League Freedom Division.
Wakefield captured the top five places to cruise to the easy victory.
Senior co-captain Emily Hammond captured the victory with a time of 20:01 on the home course.
Junior Sara Custodio, senior co-captain Lauren Sallade, sophomore Abby Harrington and sophomore Jordan Stackhouse secured second, third, fourth and fifth places with PR times of 20:12, 21:00, 21:24 and 21:28, respectively. Sallade’s time of 21:00 was a PR for this season.
Wakefield’s sixth and seventh runners in the varsity were Maeve Conway, a sophomore, and Reilly McNamara, a junior. Conway finished eighth overall at 22:01 and McNamara came in 10th overall in a time of 22:09. Both were PR times.
The Warriors had several PR times among their JV runners as well.
Junior Catherine Urbano and senior Joanna Hammond finished 11th and 12th with PR times of 23:02 and 23:24.
Gillian Russell, a freshman, and Sam Ross, a junior, took 13th and 14th place with times of 23:44 and 24:29.
Sophomore Emily Heil and junior Marissa Pesce finished in 18th and 19th place overall in the race as they posted times of 25:41 and 29:59. After them was Cubra Umit in 21st place with a time of 29:59.
Freshmen runners, Sarah Filleul and Victoria Popp, finished in 22nd and 23rd place with PR times of 30:03 and 30:05.
Hailey Bishop, a freshman, finished in 27th place and was the last Warrior to complete the race. She ran a time of 33:19.
“(It was a) Great win. I am really happy with all the PRs,” said Coach Karen Barrett. “We have to really stay mentally tough this week.”
The Warriors are preparing to take on Melrose (4-1 overall, 3-0 in the M.L. Freedom division) in a league showdown next Tuesday afternoon at 3:45 p.m. at the Beasley Course. The winner will take one big step toward winning the M.L. Freedom division title outright.
