The Bromfield boys and girls cross-country teams opened their season last week with tri-meet victories at Ayer-Shirley Regional High School.
The meet marked a new beginning for both squads. The girls welcomed a new coach, Kristen Taschereau, who brings with her enthusiasm and new training ideas along with an influx of many new middle school recruits. The boys were running for the first time in four years without their perennial top racers, Nick Kronauer and Ellis Toll.
In the 2011 season, the Bromfield boys were undefeated, winning all 10 regular season league matchups as well as the league championship, placing third at districts, and earning a berth at the state championships.
At the season opener this year, the boys were able to extend the stretch by handily defeating both Ayer and Clinton. Coach Kevin Foster’s squad did it without their top five finishers from last year. Toll, Kronauer, and Drew Banker have moved on either to college or other pursuits, while junior Sam Dyer sat out the race to nurse a sore heel. Unfortunately, sophomore sensation Price Day ran off course, not finishing the race, but the remainder of the runners stepped up to fill the gaps and keep their undefeated streak alive.
Freshman Nick Steele led the Trojans with a third-place finish overall, besting his time from last year by well over a minute. Former soccer player and premier 400-meter runner Patrick Griffin switched gears to cross country this fall to be the second Trojan across the line (fourth overall) while ever-improving Matt Polimou placed third for Bromfield (sixth overall).
The senior tag team of Jared Gall and Ian Harrington rounded out the scoring positions for the boys.
The future of the team looks bright as several of the younger Bromfield runners ran strong races as well. Eighth-grader Will Day, and ninth-graders Ian Rowatt and Thos Brown all ran over four minutes faster than they did last year on the same course. Seventh-grader Ryell deRuitjer made a remarkable debut with a 15th place finish out of 43 runners.
On the girls side, Sophia Collins crossed the line first after junior Alexia Lipman ran off course and had to circle back, adding an extra 100 yards to her run. Lipman, a track standout who sat out last cross-country season, finished third despite this setback. This was a repeat victory for sophomore Collins, who also finished first in the Ayer meet last year as a freshman.
Ninth-grader Kate Toll was the third female Trojan to cross the line, while junior Shannon Barrett and captain Kate Rowatt rounded out the scoring positions for the girls. As a team, the girls outscored Ayer 22-39 and Clinton 18-45 (lower score wins by tallying the place points from the first five runners of each school).
More promising than the score for the girls is the influx of many new middle school participants. After several years of declining participation, the girls team welcomed well over 10 new faces to their roster. The strong middle school contingent was led by Alex Saganich, seventh-grader, who crossed the line as Bromfield’s sixth runner. A tight grouping of Hannah Lochiatto, Chloe Alfieri, Sophie Beckman, and Bethany Ross was not far behind.
The tri-meet was originally scheduled to be on the home course, but trails behind Harvard Park have been deemed unfit for racing, so the meet was moved to Ayer. After having four top runners go off course at Ayer over the past two years, the Trojans are looking forward to a course of their own. It is anticipated that the new venue (possibly at Fruitlands) will be available for their only other scheduled home race this season on Oct. 10.
Next up for the runners is a dual meet at Narragansett.
