The final portion of the season began today with the DCL Championship at Franklin Park, the site of cross country races since the late 19th century. The current course layouts for both 3k and 5k have been in place since the mid-90s; with the impending renovations to White Stadium the routes will likely change as soon as next year. The DCL includes 11 schools, the vast majority of them having much larger enrollments than Wayland. With the league divided into Thorpe (large) and Foley (small) divisions, this is the first and only time Wayland faced the schools in the Thorpe category. This group includes multiple teams that are among the best in MIAA Division 1.
The WHS contingent was led by the all-star level efforts of the top two runners for both the girls and boys teams. For the girls, Mia Rent ran a calculated race to finish third in only the second 5k race of her season. She was followed by senior co-captain Arya Samaratunga who also cracked the top 20 in 17th. In the boys race, it was very tactical up front for much of the way with the leaders stretching things out in the second half of the race. Senior captains Luke Chisum and Will Jackson were in the thick of the battle throughout coming through in 5th and 8th place.
Other medal winners for Wayland came in the boys 9th grade race. Wayland took three of the seven medals on offer, led by Cyriaque Schaff who won the race comfortably followed by Ryan Foley in second and Brandon Hopps in fourth. Schaff and fellow 9th grade teammate Archie Baker then treated the crowd to an impromptu violin concert in the park which was almost as impressive as their running perfomances.
With most of the Wayland team members this year being new to the sport, only a few WHS runners had experience running on the course. There were many PR efforts from this group, and overall the racing was impressively executed on a course that starts out relatively flat in the first mile before offering more challenging terrain later on in the course.
overall meet results - note varsity results are separated by division (Foley and Thorpe) even though both divisions ran together.
all time WHS Performance List at Franklin Park - this list dates back to 1997, the longest period of time that WHS Cross Country teams have been running on the same course. With the likely changes to the course in the offing, a new Franklin Park performance list will be established going forward.
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