The girls cross country team lost to both Newton North and Needham on Wednesday, with scores of 31-26 and 43-16 to make the girls record 3-5. “The girls performed really well as a whole, there was a lot of PRs” said Coach Jamie Farrell. The windy circular course for the race was 5K or 3.1 miles. Along the course there were many rocks and roots protruding from the ground, making the course even more difficult for some runners who finished with some minor injuries.
In the varsity race, junior Megan Peterson came in first for Walpole and seventh overall with a time of 21:16, a PR (personal record) for her. Peterson finished hard as she tried to beat the Newton North runner ahead of her. Sophmore Rachael Barry was not t00 far behind Peterson and finished ninth overall and second for the Walpole girls with a time of 21:47, setting a new personal record of her own in the process. Sophomore Mackenzie Wilson had a great race, shedding over three minutes off of her previous PR with a time of 22:03 and in 12th place overall and third for Walpole.
Two freshmen, Katherine Lawton and Emma Campbell, ran their first varsity race. “The girls did especially well since they are not use to running 5Ks” said Farrell. Campbell finished with a time of 23:06, finishing fifth for Walpole and setting a PR. Campbell explained her motivation to to finish the race, “all my teammates cheering me on, throughout whole the race”. Lawton performed well for her first varsity race finishing eighth for Walpole with a time of 23:45 which was a big PR of about two minutes for her. Lawton felt she was prepared for her varsity race because she has been running with some of the varsity girls at practices.
The JV girls were not use to running this long of a distance but they all performed very well. Sophomore Casey Ganshirt performed well by finishing at 23:40, which was over a minute PR for her. A lot of the girls who PR’d in the JV race beat there times by a minute or over, including juniors Katie Heiberger and Danielle Levya who both PR’d by over three minutes with times of 24:14 and 24:17. One of the biggest PRs of the day was 11 minutes from sophomore Katie Le Blanc. The girls look forward to continue to reach PR’s this week in their upcoming meets on Tuesday and Saturday.
