The final stage of the season arrived yesterday at the Wrentham Developmental Center, with the top WHS athletes racing against the best runners from other Massachusetts schools of similar size. The conditions were somewhat blustery with temperatures in the mid 40s, but the wind was a manageable 5-10 mph throughout the day. The Division 2B meet is the first of two rounds in the state tournament; unlike with other sports there are no power rankings or brackets. Every school with a cross country team can enter up to seven runners in the Divisional round, with the top five finishers from each school comprising their scoring team. Only the top teams and the fastest individual finishers who aren't on those top teams make it to next week's Meet of Champions (MOC), the final race of the official high school calendar in Massachusetts.
There are over 200 schools in the state with cross country teams, which are broken down into three divisions based on school size. 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 twenty to thirty teams competing; not every team fields 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. 2C includes Weston. All other DCL schools compete in Division 1, as they have substantially larger enrollments than Wayland, Bedford, and Weston.
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 waves in Division 2. Last year the boys team finished 6th at this meet and qualified as a team.
This year the girls raced first, with five Wayland runners taking on the Wrentham course. Scouting of the other teams competing led to the belief that the duo of Ava Miller and Ivy Robertson had a good chance of attaining qualification for the Meet of Champions as individual wildcards; meanwhile after not having enough starters to field a scoring team of five runners last year, the hope was to be able to have the Wayland group be ranked in the team scoring at the end of the day. The early pace was quite fast up front, with Miller and Roberston hanging back a bit. As the race progressed the effort sunk in for those who had gone out too quickly, and the Wayland pair picked their way through to finish in the top 25 overall. The top 20 places overall were filled with runners from teams that qualified (including both Division 2 wildcard teams), meaning that both Miller (4th WC) and Robertson (5th WC) were well within the top 10 individual wildcards. Behind these two Henrietta Schoeffler ran consistently throughout to be Wayland's third runner, with Anya Brown and Emily Davids rounding out the team scoring such that Wayland was 15th of 20 teams on the day. The top five average time for the girls team today is the best on the Wrentham course at this meet since 2013, and the second fastest in 10 visits to Wrentham for this meet over the years. Miller and Robertson now rank among the top five WHS athletes on the Wrentham 5k course.
The boys were next to race. Based on meet results over the course of the season, it was clear that there were three teams--Groton-Dunstable, Amherst-Pelham, and Northampton--that were a cut above the others, with Wayland among a second group of three that included Pembroke and Ashland. Who would come fourth out of this group was very much up in the air. In a championship race, it's every team competing against every other team at the same time. It can be very difficult to determine past the top couple of teams who might be filling the rest of the team places. Early on there was a large pack up front marking each other's moves, a group that included Brandon Hopps and Ryan Foley. As the race developed further Hopps established himself among the top dozen or so with Foley in the top 20. In the end, with a strong close in the final mile they were able to finish 9th and 19th respectively. It's worth noting that their finishing places at this tournament level race were better than their places at the DCL Championship, attesting to the strength of the DCL. Like Miller and Robertson on the girls side, Hopps and Foley rank among the top 5 WHS athletes all-time on the Wrentham 5k course.
Behind the Wayland top two Ryan Young had another strong effort to finish in the top 40 (last year just inside the top 50). The Wayland scoring five was completed by a hard charging Elliot Hopper and Archie Baker. The Wayland seven was rounded out by senior Reese Migdal and 9th grader Evan Hopps. It was clear that the Wayland runners had raced the course well, but it was hard to tell during the race what the team place might end up being. When the results were tallied, in fact Wayland came 4th of 25, well clear of Pembroke and everyone else. With a top 7 team finish the WHS boys have qualified for the MOC for the fifth year in a row; in addition, the Wayland boys team has a streak of top 10 finishes in this first round of the tournament going back to 2019. This year's team compares favorably to any of its recent predecessors. In fact, the top five average time for this year's group is the fastest by far of any Wayland team to race on the Wrentham course at this meet.
The season concludes next weekend at Willard Park in Devens with the Division 2 race at the Meet of Champions. Wayland will be well represented.
WHS team and individual results at the MIAA and DCL Championship, 1997-present
WHS Performance List at Wrentham Developmental Center, 2010-present
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