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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
The Westwood High School cross-country team capped off an incredibly successful 2017 season last Saturday in the MIAA Division IV Eastern Mass Championships.
Despite feeling under the weather before the start of the race, junior Zach Conant stepped up and excelled, placing second in the entire state at 17:08.74 for Westwood.
On the girls side, senior captain Ashley Walker and junior Sarah Conant placed in the top ten - enough to give Westwood a fourth-place finish in Division IV with 147 total points. Walker’s time of 18:35.20 was enough to earn fourth overall, while Conant finished in 18:57.15, cracking 19 minutes for the first time this season and 9.24 seconds better than her placement time in her previous race.
Hopefully Thanksgiving dinner was as delicious as the medals were for these two Wolverine runners.
Emma Harte placed No. 51 overall at 20:28.19 and Bridget Pickard came in right behind at No. 53 in 20:29.15. Freshman phenom Alex Ponte finished No. 111 overall and No. 5 for Westwood at 21:39.88. Jamie Murphy came in right behind Ponte at 21:50.83 and Mairead Walsh (22:52.70) finished at No. 156.
Off the course, Walker was recently recognized as TVL MVP, while her teammates Pickard and Harte were each named TVL All-Stars with Harte also earning the team’s Coaches Award. Westwood girls head coach Jen Teahan was named TVL Coach of the Year. Murphy earned the honor of Most Improved Player.
For funny and incisive sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter at @fLAno0, or read his blog at www.flannylive.wordpress.com.
