Championship season kicked off today at Franklin Park with the DCL Championship meet. With both the boys and girls varsity teams having members racing in separate 9th grade races the emphasis today was on individual accomplishment on a course that's been in use for decades. In fact the World Cross Country Championships were held at Franklin Park in 1992 (the women's race was won by an American, Lynn Jennings).
There were many performances of note in what were deep and competitive races throughout the day. The course, soggy from recent rains, ran relatively slow and yet times compared favorably to other, faster courses like the ones at Weston and Wrentham that the team has raced on earlier in the season.
There were three medal winners on the day, all of them in the 9th grade races in which Wayland was well represented. Arya Samaratunga ran a strong second place in the 9th grade girls race, moving up smartly in the second half of the race and finishing impressively. Her time puts her third on the list of Wayland athletes for this course that has performances going back to 2003.
In the 9th grade boys race Luke Chisum and Owen Williams were part of a pack that broke away from the field in the early stages of the race. The trip up and over Bear Cage Hill gave Chisum the opportunity to show his heels to the field as he pulled away and then stormed to the line, with Williams following close behind in third. Both of them finished in under 11 minutes, something that hasn't happened for a Wayland 9th grader since 2007.
All-Time lists for current Franklin Park 3k and 5k courses going back to 1997
and don't forget, real men love cats...
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