Wayland had a banner day at the MIAA Division 2 Meet of Champions to close out the 2024 season. This meet is the final stage of the statewide tournament, with three divisions based on school enrollment and all the teams and individuals competing having qualified from the previous week's divisional round. For Wayland and the other Division 2 teams it also was an opportunity to race on the same course as a week ago.
The girls were the first to run, with a large and deep pack forming behind the two front runners that gapped the field. Mia Rent, who has raced all season with a wisdom and maturity belying her relative lack of experience, hung back a bit early before establishing her position in the top 15. In the end she came in 12th which earned her a medal and All-State status for Division 2. Not far behind senior co-captain Arya Samaratunga established her position early on and proceeded to maintain it through the rest of the race, coming in 22nd overall. This result marks the culmination of three years of competing at this level, steadily improving over that time. After finishing 39th in 2022 and 35th last year, it was very much up in the air as to whether this trend would continue this year, as can be seen in looking at a performance list from last week's races on this same course.
The boys race that followed was competitive from front to back. A tight lead pack formed early on and it took well into the second of three loops on the course for it to string out. Senior co-captain Luke Chisum established his position in this group straight away, and kept all but the top two runners close throughout. Behind him co-captain Will Jackson ran with great poise, weathering the fast early pace to gradually pick off runners who had started off too quickly. Behind this pair two ninth grades, Cyriaque Schaff and Ryan Foley, ran boldly in the first mile and hung in the rest of the way. Senior co-captain Owen Williams rounded out the scoring five, with 9th grader Brandon Hopps and 11th grader Matthew Tan rounding out the Wayland seven runner contingent. The final mile, with a climb up and over the only significant hill on the course followed by a long flat stretch to the finish line, made for high drama. Chisum was locked in a battle for the third place spot, taking it on a well-timed lean, while Jackson held off a charging horde behind him to secure 10th. With many evenly matched teams competing, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, it was possible that Wayland could finish anywhere between 5th and 10th as a team based on how last week's divisional round played out. When the dust finally settled (literally, there was dust everywhere after the dry fall we've experienced) Wayland had come 6th as a team, sandwiched between Walpole and Latin Academy by the slimmest of possible margins. Amherst, a team that had finished a point in front of Wayland last week, was 8th with 6 points separating 5th and 8th place.
The 6th place finish for the Wayland boys is the highest place achieved in the current era of a Meet of Champions with three divisions; prior to 2022, no Wayland boys team had qualified for the final round of the tournament since 1997. Digging into the online yearbook archive, there was a run of very good boys teams in the early 90s. This year's group compares favorably with any of them. Meanwhile it appears safe to say that there's no record of both the girls and boys teams experiencing the level of accomplishment together that was seen this year, with three athletes achieving All-State status in addition to the boys' team place. The seniors involved in today's results--Samaratunga on the girls side, Chisum, Jackson and Williams for the boys--have left an impressive legacy for current and future Wayland runners, with a combined 13 appearances at the highest level of racing for Massachusetts high schools.
With the final meet of the season in the books, this website will go into hibernation until next spring when the preseason interest meeting rolls around. It's been a memorable season. Thanks to everyone who took part.
Team and Individual Results at DCL and MIAA Championship, 1997-present
No comments:
Post a Comment