Warriors will go for an outright championship next Tuesday
THE WARRIOR girls’ cross country team clinched a share of its sixth straight M.L. Freedom division title and win it outright with a win over Watertown in the dual meet finale. (Donna Larsson File Photo)
Published in the October 19, 2016 edition
BURLINGTON — The Wakefield Memorial High girls’ cross country team has achieved its goal of winning its sixth straight league championship. The only unfinished business is winning the title outright.
The Warriors cruised to a 19-42 victory over Burlington yesterday afternoon at Burlington High School.
With Melrose’s 28-29 win over Watertown yesterday, Wakefield has clinched at least a share of the Middlesex League Freedom division championship.
Wakefield is now 4-0 in the league (4-2 overall), while both Watertown and Melrose have one loss in league competition. The Warriors need to beat Watertown next Tuesday to claim the title outright.
“The Wakefield girls are one step closer to achieving their goal,” said Coach Karen Barrett. “They ran a fantastic race on the Burlington course.
Jordan Stackhouse, a senior captain, took the lead and never looked back. She was over a minute ahead of everybody and had another great day. Her first place time was a 22:10.
Freshman Olivia Lucey was second for the team and second overall. Lucey clocked in at 21:04.
“She beat both of Burlington’s top runners. Every week I am more impressed with Olivia. She runs like a seasoned veteran,” said Barrett.
After Burlington’s Alyssa Healey came in third at 21:05, junior Gillian Russell ran a very strong race finishing fourth overall and third for the Warriors. Russell posted a time of 21:31.
Senior captain Abby Harrington showed a lot of guts in a sprint off for fifth place with Burlington’s second runner, Morgan Powers. Harrington ended up beating her by five seconds, 21:36-21:41.
Cassie Lucci, a senior captain, ran a much improved race finishing fifth for the team and seventh overall at 21:56.
Isabella Kehoe, a sophomore, and Amanda Westlake, a freshman, finished off the varsity squad with great races. They secured eighth and ninth with times of 22:02 and 22:06.
The JV girls all put in a great effort yesterday as well.
Those runners included junior Yvonne Lucas (22:40), senior captain Maeve Conway (22:59), junior Gabby Peduto (23:16), sophomore Cladia Nerden (23:49), junior Emmalee Connors (23:51), sophomore Nicole Lima (24:45), junior Kate Lynch (25:03) and freshman Megan Larrow (25:38).
“We will now focus on Watertown. We will be training hard this week. We will be focusing on more speed work as Watertown’s course is only 2.8 miles, no hills and a very fast course,” said Barrett. “I am confident that if we continue to focus, train hard and stay mentally tough, we can come out with a win. We definitely don’t want to share the title.”
Wakefield takes on Watertown on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 3:30 p.m. at Arsenal Park.
