Walpole Boys Cross Country claimed the title of Eastern Massachusetts Division 3 Champions on Saturday, Nov. 10, as they earned 93 points, defeating all other Division 3 teams, including Wakefield, the expected winner. Girls Cross Country placed second in the division scoring 74 points behind a strong Milton team who scored 63 points.
“Going into the race we felt that we had something to prove. It was expected that Wakefield would win, so we were definitely motivated to prove everyone wrong,” junior Nathan Shnaider said. “We went out with a target on Wakefield, and I feel as though from our first finisher to our last we did our parts.”
Out of the 199 athletes in the race, three out of the top 15 came from Walpole. Tyler Sullivan, who consistently led the Rebels throughout the season, placed 5th overall with a personal record of 16:31 on the challenging Wrentham course, followed by Shane Grant in 11th with a time of 16:58 and Nathan Schnaider in 14th at 17:01. The fourth and fifth runners, Anthony Borelli and Ryan Stockwell, came in together at 17:20 placing 31st and 32nd, clinching the win for the Rebels. Behind them were junior Dan Forester finishing at 17:39 and senior Kevin Taylor at 17:47.
Heading into the meet, the Rebels focused more on the mental aspect of the race, instead of the physical aspect.
“Going into this race we knew it wasn't going to come down to how physically in shape we were, but how mentally prepared we were. We knew we had the capability to beat Wakefield and win, so it was just a matter of if we could mentally stay focused and competitive throughout the race,” Shnaider said.
Last year, the Rebels came up short of clinching a spot at the All State meet, placing fifth in the Division 3 Championship. This year, the boys used their performance from last year to adjust their race strategy entering the meet.
“The past two years we mentally broke down in the race, so going into it we knew we had to be better,” Shnaider said, “To prepare for that we had a team meeting with only the athletes and we got each other motivated to race.”
On the girls' side, Caroline McGrath stepped up to place fifth overall out of 147 runners with a personal best for the course at 19:17. Also medalling, Mia Costa finished with a time of 19:39, placing eighth. The two fastest freshmen in the Division 3 race were Walpole’s Cate Stanton coming in at 20:07 for 17th place and Elyse Scales at 20:18 for 21st place. Danielle Dentremont came in just two seconds after Scales at 20:20, contributing 23 points to the team’s total 74. Walpole’s sixth and seventh runners, Colleen Barry and Katie Soule, finished at 20:39, making the team spread 1:22. All seven girls finished before the fifth runner of every team excluding Milton, whom they were narrowly defeated by.
“I think our performance on Saturday was solid and everyone individually ran well. Even though it was a disappointment to not get first, we still came out strong knowing our competition was going to be hard to beat,” Scales said.
Entering the race, the girls felt comfortable with the course and their training; however, the unexpected weather conditions seemed to cause difficulty for the Rebels.
“Waiting before the race for a couple hours in the freezing wind and then being on the line in just our uniforms is always tough in that kind of weather,” McGrath said. “Not to mention, it was pretty windy for the race so when you have whole sections where you’re running straight into a strong headwind that hurts your performance.”
Despite Walpole’s top five finishing before Milton’s fifth runner, Milton came out on top due to efforts specifically from Ava Duggan and Elise O’Leary. Duggan placed second overall in the race with a personal record of 18:52, and O’Leary was shortly behind in fourth place at 19:03.
“One of the Milton girls who we had predicted to be in a certain place had a really unexpected and amazing race and ended up finishing second in the whole race, way ahead of where we thought she would be, but that’s just how it goes sometimes,” McGrath said. “Everything that we could control was pretty much according to plan and that’s the best we can do.”
For the first time in the history of the program, both the girls and boys will be advancing to the All State Meet which will be held at Stanley Park in Westfield on Sunday, Nov. 18. Although neither team is favored to win the Division 1 State Championship, athletes continue to see this race as an opportunity to compete with the best runners throughout Massachusetts.
“All States has some amazing teams and athletes competing. As of this year, we don't have the talent to place top four at the meet. However, that's not to say we can't be competitive,” Shnaider said. “Our goal is simple: Race hard and score as well as possible. Nobody on the team has experienced an All State Meet, so we want to go out there and just have some fun with it.”
The girls, who will be returning to All States for the third year in a row, want to use this race as a rematch against Milton and place as high as they possibly can.
“The last poll we were ranked 7th in the state, so I’d definitely like to do better than that to try to take down some teams ahead of us,” McGrath said. “We also go against Milton again after losing to them in the divisional race, so there’s an opportunity for some redemption if we beat them.”