Labor Day of 2025 marked the 52nd anniversary of the Walpole Road Race. The event, which is the third oldest road race in the state of Massachusetts, serves to fund the high school’s boys and girls cross country and track programs. Since its inception, the road race has grown immensely, with it receiving a record breaking 1,162 signups across the Herb Lewis Memorial 10 kilometer race, the Walpole-Ed 5 kilometer race and the Youth Mile.
The Road Race has been a major part of Walpole’s community for over half of a century and is even more popular now than ever. Since the 2023 race, the participant record has been broken every year. 2023 was a major jump in attention, hosting 887 runners whilst the count had remained consistently near 500 for the past decade. Last year’s total of 1,077 was a landmark amount as it was the first time the race ever had over 1,000 participants and this year, the race comfortably broke that number again with 1,162 sign ups.
The 10k race this year, was won by Christopher Luciano who ran a 32:09; Luciano narrowly beat last year’s 5k winner, Jeffrey Seelaus. Rounding out the top three finishers of the 10k was Bishop Feehan cross country and track coach Brendan Sullivan. The overall winner of the women’s race was Allison Skelly, finishing in 37:53. Following Skelly was Hillary Tsibiris and Claire Perrault. In the 5k, Luke Zahurak, the captain of Walpole High School’s boys cross country team won with a time of 16:15, beating second place finisher Sean Parham by nearly a minute. The race’s third place finisher was Jeff Okerman. On the girls side of the field, Ellen Barrett won with a 19:22, followed by Sarah Kemble and Saleena Rambooer running 19:40 and 20:02. Of the top 10 finishers, six were members of the WHS boys cross country team and two of the top 10 females were on the girls team.
Following another record breaking road race, the WHS track team again has enough funding to get through the year. The road race keeps the track team from having to do other fundraisers in order to have enough money for their season like other teams. With the money and awareness raised by the road race, Walpole hopes to continue the success that they have found in recent years with four divisional titles and one second place divisionals finish in the past two years between the boys and girls cross country and track teams.
With the completion of this road race, the Walpole Track Boosters have begun planning for next year, hoping to again break the participant record. As the event gets bigger, it brings more attention and funding to both the Walpole cross country and track program and the town as a whole. Even after 52 years, the Labor Day Road Race continues to serve as a major showcase of Walpole determination.
