The 39th Walpole Road Race was once again put on successfully by the Walpole High School Cross Country and Track Boosters. The race was held on September 3rd and began at 10am starting with the “Walpole Ed” 5K and followed by the Herb Lewis Memorial & John D. Murphy & Co. 10K run. An estimate of about 711 runners attended the road race this year. Although it was a slightly small number than the 723 that ran last year the showing was still respectable. Stop & Shop once again made generous donations of water, bananas, apples, oranges, and bagels for the athletes to have after their races. Jim Erker hosted the award ceremonies at the end of the event again this year as well.
The road race is an extremely important fundraiser for the girls and boys Cross Country and Track teams. It is the biggest as far as participants as well as the most profitable. Following tradition both the boys and girls Cross Country teams ran the 5K to start out their season. However, there was a little more competition this year because the Sharon boys and girls Cross Country team also ran the race.
Nevertheless, the Walpole athletes still performed well in the race. For the boys, Junior Anthony DiVirgilio and Senior Sean Herlihy got 2nd and 3rd in the 15-19 age category both with a time of 17:33. The two ran together for most of the race, and DiVirgilio said, “It shows we can do well if we work together.”
The girls also performed well with Junior Gina Conti coming in 2nd overall for women with time of 19:49. Senior Captain Megan Peterson and Junior Captain Kristen Coyne also did well for themselves. Peterson came in 1st for her age category with a time of 20:09, and Coyne came in 2nd for her age category with a time of 20:49. The Freshmen girls on the team swept their age category with Alyssa Murphy getting 1st (23:03), Molly Rockwood getting 2nd (23:34) and Julia Averill getting 3rd (24:11). Coyne said, “The race set a good precedent and I think the team will continue to improve.”
In the 10k Justin Lutz came in 1st overall with a time of 32:15, and coming in 6th overall and 1st for women Emily Logan Hurley ran a time of 41:13. The final profit of the fundraiser was about $20,000. This year the money will be going toward the coach’s salaries and possibly more new uniforms for the team and an electronic clock. Next year the Boosters hope to get more Cross Country teams from other towns to participate as Sharon did this year. However, Boosters President Kathy Peterson said, “We appreciate all of the local support, and we believe overall it was an enjoyable day.”
