The 2025 season came to a close earlier today at Devens, on the Willard Park course that has been used for the Meet of Champions since 2022. On a mostly sunny and brisk morning the boys team was among the first group to toe the line in the Division 2 race. Wayland was one of 23 teams to qualify for this race, and scouting of the meet as seen on the "2025 D2 Qualifiers" tab of this spreadsheet showed that the team likely slotted somewhere in the middle of the pack.
The course features an initial stretch of almost dead straight and flat terrain for almost 600m before the first turn or change in elevation. The first of three loops saw the Wayland runners establishing position within a crowded and evenly matched field of almost 200 runners. As the race progressed through a second loop covering much of the same ground again, The WHS athletes were able to move forward through the pack somewhat before encountering the only major climb of note in the third and final loop. This hill, with a stair-step variable slope ascent and somewhat perilous steep off-camber corner on the descent, forced the runners to concentrate fully on the task at hand.
The Wayland runners stayed focused throughout, and were led by the 10th grade duo of Ryan Foley and Brandon Hopps who both ran in the top 30 out of almost 190 finishers. Both the time and place were massive improvements for each athlete over a year ago at this meet. Ryan Young consolidated his position near the end to be a strong third finisher, with Archie Baker being the fourth 10th grader in the Wayland top four. Senior co-captain Matthew Tan was the final scorer for Wayland, running his best time on this course in his final high school cross country race. Senior Morgan Fallace was very close behind him, and junior Reese Migdal rounded out the Wayland contingent.
As a team, Wayland came in 13th, finishing ahead of two of the teams that had beaten them the previous week in the Division 2B race and within six points of the two teams directly ahead of them. This finish represented just about the best possible team result that could be hoped for. With the top four WHS runners from today being 10th graders, the future is bright for the team to take another crack at this level next year.
With the final meet of the season in the books, this website will go into hibernation until next spring. Be on the lookout for a post about the preseason interest meeting that will take place sometime in June before school lets out. It's been a memorable season, thanks again to everyone who took part.
splits for WHS athletes
Willard Park Performance List - Wayland athletes who have raced on the layout used today. the current course has been in use for three years now. This is a short list at the moment, the hope is to add names to it going forward.
Bruce and the gang say hello from Amity Island
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