The over 200 schools competing in the state are broken down into three divisions based on school size, with Division 1 schools being the largest and Division 3 schools the smallest. Each division is further broken down into three "waves," again based solely on school size. Each of the waves has around twenty to thirty teams competing, with not all of them fielding the necessary five runners to make a scoring team. Wayland competes in 2B which sits squarely in the middle of the size breakdown, with 2A schools being a little larger and 2C schools a little smaller. 2B also includes DCL opponent Bedford, which has almost exactly the same student population as WHS.
The top seven teams in each wave and top ten individuals not on those top seven teams qualify to next weekend's second and final round, where all the qualifiers from 2A, 2B, and 2C face each other in the Division 2 Meet of Champions. There are also two wildcard teams qualifying from across all three Division 2 waves. Last year the boys team squeaked in as the last wildcard team, and Arya Samaratunga qualified as an individual wildcard.
The multi-loop layout meant that the wind would alternate between being in the runners' faces or at their backs. The third and final loop of the course takes the runners up and over Malvern Hill with a stair-step style ascent and somewhat terrifying, curving descent back to the field below. The final third of the course runs significantly slower than the first two thirds for all the runners due to this hill. The wind, blowing persistently around 15 mph from the northwest, made for another factor to account for in tackling this undulating course.
The girls raced first, with Mia Rent continuing her very impressive rookie season. Hanging back off the early leaders, four of whom broke from the pack right away, she patiently reeled in all but the top two finishers to take a well-run third. This is the highest finish by a WHS female athlete at this level of competition since Sarah Tully's 2nd place finish in 2015. Not far back, Samaratunga kept herself in the mix for a medal, given out to the top 15 finishers. Running steadily throughout, Arya came in 14th improving over her 20th place of a year ago in the 2B race. Next was Dana Golanova who impressed once again in her first season of running cross country. She was followed closely by 10th grader Ainsley Jay with the Wayland scoring five rounded out by senior co-captain Naomi Rice. With only five runners in the race, all of them had to finish for Wayland to have a team score. This was the case, and in fact the 11th place finish is the highest by a Wayland girls team at this level since 2011. The 293 points the girls team scored is also the lowest total since 2011.
On the boys side a large and deep pack formed up front which took a while to separate. Senior captain Luke Chisum stayed near the front of this group throughout to finish a strong fifth, matching his finishing place from 2 years ago and improving upon last year's 8th place. This year's 8th place runner was captain Will Jackson who was 10th a year ago. Both of them raced exceptionally well under pressure from a very competitive field. Chisum and Jackson matched their finishing places from last month's DCL Championship, giving an indication of just how strong the DCL is for boys cross country (most of the DCL schools are in Division 1 as they have much larger student populations).
The next Wayland runner across the line was 9th grader Cyriaque Schaff, who was the second 9th grader across the line in 37th place. He was followed closely by senior captain Owen Williams who rallied strongly in the latter stages of the race. Rounding out the top five was 9th grader Ryan Foley who had the best race of a very good season when it mattered the most. Yet another 9th grader, Brandon Hopps was the sixth runner, making three freshmen in the top seven which is exceedingly rare. Junior Matthew Tan competed the seven runner Wayland contingent.
When the team scores were tallied, Wayland came out a strong fourth, a single point behind third place Amherst. Pre-race favorites Ludlow were missing two of their top five runners from the group that dominated last month's Twilight Invitational in Falmouth and finished 8th. Meanwhile, for the first time all season and when it mattered the most, Wayland put its best top five runners on the line in the same race. Like last year, boys Wave 2B was much deeper than either 2A or 2C, as evidenced by the fact that both of the wildcard teams (teams that finished outside of the top seven that qualify for next week based on time) came from 2B, Ludlow and Newburyport.
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