The Bromfield boys cross-country team added another win to its season this week. Racing on their home course on Oct. 26, the boys came out 14 points ahead of the Advanced Math and Science Academy (AMSA) of Marlborough.
Senior Connor Lepore of AMSA took the top spot on Wednesday with a 5-kilometer time of 19 minutes, 1 second. Close behind were Bromfield’s top two: junior captain Julian Iverson in 19:03 and junior Nick Russo in 19:09.
Freshman Jack Stahl (19:31), eighth-grader Ethan Russo (19:57), and seventh-grader Harrison Binnick (20:00) rounded out the top five runners.
“I knew it was going to be a close contest before the race, and I was worried about the outcome when I was giving splits to the runners at the mile mark,” coach Marisa Steele wrote in an email to the Press. At that point, she said that AMSA had a clear lead over Bromfield.
Over the next few miles, however, the race tightened. Iverson and Russo each put forth a tremendous effort to close the 20-second gap AMSA’s two lead runners had formed over the first mile. Both finished ahead of AMSA’s second runner, and Iverson shaved the distance between himself and the lead runner down to 2 seconds.
Additionally, six Bromfield runners, two of whom are middle-schoolers, came in ahead of AMSA’s third finisher. “I was most proud of how tough our guys raced,” wrote Steele. “To see us pack [six] runners into the top [eight] was really quite exciting.”
Steele highlighted the performances of a few of her youngest athletes. She said that Stahl, Binnick, Russo, and freshman Diesel Whitten are great competitors. “Despite their young age, these guys are racing like they have more years of experience under their belts.”
The win is Bromfield’s second of the season. After their first two scheduled meets against Marlborough and Hudson were postponed, the boys won their first dual meet of the season 24-33 against Maynard. A week later, the tide turned and they suffered a 33-point defeat on their home course in which Nashoba Regional High School swept up the top six spots.
Also in Bromfield’s top 10 on Wednesday were senior Dallas Briggs-Adams (20:07), freshman Whitten (20:17), senior Gavin Maddalone (20:59), freshman Demetrios Kekis (21:02), and sophomore Shaan Patel (21:09).
The boys are tentatively scheduled to compete on Nov. 2 in another home meet against Marlborough High School. Two days later, they will finish out their dual meet season with an away meet at Hudson High School.
