For the third year in a row, the WHS cross country season kicked off with a meet on Martha's Vineyard. Compared to the last two years at this meet, the weather was much more favorable with lower temperatures and humidity. There was a strong wind 15-20 mph from the north which wound up being a tailwind to start and a headwind in the later stages with the layout of the courses. There was a lot of racing savvy on display from both experienced team members and new athletes as well. Wayland athletes won medals in multiple races and there were competitive battles throughout the roster.
9th grade boys 3k (46 finishers): Evan Hopps 1st, Thomas Markey 34th, Brendan Tripp 37th. Evan led from start to finish and put on a clinic in his first high school race.
JV girls 5k (44 finishers): Cordia Wang 5th, Lily Hage 6th, Anya Brown 7th, Ainsley Jay 26th. Very impressive racing led by co-captain Cordia Wang who improved 21 places from last year. She was followed directly by Hage and Brown, both rookies in their first high school race. Co-captain Jay rounded out the foursome in the top 30 overall.
JV boys 5k (74 finishers): Daniel Sondey 4th, Grady Spence 11th, Jack Ricci 16th, Johan Versteeg 31st, Griffin Jorgensen 42nd. With medals going to the top 25 finishers in the JV race, there were three more medal winners for Wayland in this race. The team scored 4th out of 8 teams.
Varsity girls (72 finishers): Ava Miller 29th, Henrietta Schoeffler 46th. Ava and Henrietta ran the two fastest times for Wayland female runners on this course in the three years Wayland has participated in this event.
Varsity boys 5k (115 finishers): Brandon Hopps 5th, Ryan Young 17th, Ryan Foley 25th, Archie Baker 27th, Reese Migdal 47th, Elliot Hopper 60th. This race was once again quite competitive, with a front pack that was racing at a high level from the gun. After leading early on, Brandon Hopps was able to secure a top five finish and a medal. He ran the fastest time of any WHS athlete at this meet in the three years Wayland has participated. Behind him the team depth was much improved over previous editions of this meet, with the rest of the scoring top five runners all having impressive time drops compared to last year at this meet. The team score had Wayland in third out of fifteen (last year 5th). The two teams finishing ahead of Wayland were Catholic Memorial, a parochial school that recruits athletes, and East Greenwich, one of the better teams in Rhode Island.
All this and there was time to frolic in the surf at Vineyard Haven, where many interesting t-shirts can be purchased, before boarding the ferry to return to the mainland.
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