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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
The Westwood, Dover-Sherborn, and Medfield High boys and girls cross country teams competed in the Tri-Valley League’s Championship Meet (5K) at Hospital Hill on Wednesday afternoon in Medfield.
Led by second-placed Ashley Walker (19:33.47), third-placed Sarah Conant (19:35.23), and sixth-placed Emma Harte (20:15.94), Westwood took home first place in overall team score in the girls varsity race.
Dover-Sherborn took home third thanks in large part to Alexandra Scatchard (19:53.94) who placed fourth. Meanwhile, ninth-placed Julia Letai (20:29.31) led Medfield to a fourth place finish in overall total score.
In the boys varsity race, Westwood again took home first place in overall score with top-ten finishes coming from Zach Conant (second, 16:44.84), Jack Terzian (fifth, 17:32.83), Ben Nagel (sixth, 17:32.94), Brian Shi (ninth, 17:38.91), and Aiden Walsh (tenth, 17:40.71).
Peter Phelan (16:45.29) finished third and along with the help of 16-placed Kelvin Donoghue (18:19.61), 21-placed Louis Parizeau (18:24.37) and 22-placed Will Brown (18:26.32), DS fought to a third place finish in overall total score.
DS head coach Stephen Harte praised his team’s effort following the meet, calling it a complete team effort.
“I was thrilled by our performance,” said Harte. “The guys executed our game plan to perfection. We had a few runners not perform as well as they had hoped they would, but they were picked up by other guys who performed better than they have all season. It was a true team effort and we are very happy with both our second-place finishes in JV and varsity. The guys should be proud of their effort.”
Two weeks ago following the annual rivalry match between Medfield and DS, Medfield head coach Mike Kraemer praised his top-two runners for their hard work and predicted that it would pay off at the all-conference meet on Wednesday.
“Our top two guys (Mark Fitzpatrick and John Churchill) ran better than they’ve ever run, it was awesome,” said Kraemer when speaking on October 14. “If they run with that same intensity they brought today throughout the next couple weeks of training, both should see great results at the Conference Championship Meet.”
As fate would have it, the hard work paid off for Churchill (17:51.58) and Fitzpatrick (18:18.04) with both placing in the top-15 in Wednesday’s TVL Championship, guiding Medfield to fifth in overall score.
“Great day and an even greater effort by our guys,” said Kraemer. “I was proud of the way each runner went out there and competed, especially with the conditions as raw and cold as they were.”
In the JV girls race, Westwood’s Mula Jordan (seventh, 22:43.29) and Molly Hurley (eighth, 22:49.11) fought hard to top-10 finishes, while DS’s Sophie Fallon (22:56.91) placed tenth and Eva Koehl (23:07.12) at 11. Medfield’s 12-placed Anna Terry (23:07.45), 14-placed Hayley Robartea (23:27.46), and 15-placed Emily Thompson (23:32.62) all fought hard to top-15 finishes. Westwood placed second in overall score with DS placing third and Medfield fourth.
Westwood owned the top-10 in the JV boys race with Ryan Marten (first, 18:29.92), Alex Haney (second, 18:38.08), Andrew Cabey (fourth, 18:42.82), Phil Bligh (sixth, 19:09.41), and Patrick Garratt (eleventh, 19:20.83) leading the Wolverines to a first-place finish in overall score.
Scott Sirri (ninth, 19:17.62) and Jacob Brown (tenth, 19:20.60) placed in the top-10 and led DS to second in total score.
21-placed Dan Whelan (19:46) and 28-placed Trevor Ruzzo (20:16.02) led Medfield to a fifth place finish in overall score.
