Bromfield’s Evelyn Wool races to a first-place finish in Division 3C, Nov. 13. (Photo by Adam Wool)
The boys and girls cross-country teams are both on their way to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 3 state finals at Devens this Saturday, Nov. 19. Both placed among the top five schools in their Division 3C qualifying races on a muddy Gardner Municipal Golf Course Sunday afternoon.
Sophomore Evelyn Wool won the girls 3C race with a time of 19 minutes, 59.7 seconds, nearly a half-minute faster than her second-place finish last month at the Midland-Wachusett Division C championship in Lunenburg. Her time was also only six seconds behind the fastest finish of the day by 3A Norfolk County Agricultural runner Madelyn Germain.
With 48 teams and more than 350 runners eligible to compete in the Division 3 states, MIAA officials subdivided the boys and girls fields into three “waves”—3A, 3B, and 3C—each comprising one to two dozen schools with similar enrollments. To earn a spot at the finals, a school had to be among the seven top scorers in its wave race this weekend, each team’s score determined by adding the individual scores of its top five runners.
Led by Wool and seventh-place finisher freshman Rosie Bradley, the Bromfield Lady Trojans finished fourth overall with 101 points. Lenox Memorial won the qualifier with a score of 74, followed by Mount Greylock Regional and Sutton. Bromfield was the only qualifying 3C school with two runners among the top 10 finishers.
“I’m used to running in this,” winner Wool told Steve Mazzone of BayStateRunners.com, making reference to the day’s 40-degree temperatures and on-and-off-again drizzle. Wool and her family are new to Massachusetts, having moved here this year from Alaska. “It definitely wasn’t comfortable, though,” she added.
In an email to the Press, Wool wrote, “I want to thank my coach and everyone that cheered me on during the race, without them I doubt I would have been able to do as well as I did.”
Finishing first for Wool meant beating Murdock’s Avery Murphy, whom Wool has faced four times this season in an evolving rivalry between the two sophomores. Murphy won the Mid-Wach C race two weeks ago, but in Sunday’s race, Wool outpaced Murphy, who placed second, by 14.2 seconds. “Evelyn ran a really smart race, shadowing Murphy through the first two miles, waiting for her to tire before making her decisive move. A smart and disciplined race for Evelyn,” Coach Matt Lynde told the Press. The runners, who are tied 2-2 in race wins, will face each other one last time at the states.
The Bromfield girls cross-country team starts the MIAA State Division 3C qualifier at the Gardner Golf Course. From left: Evelyn Wool (#56), team captain Molly Squire (#53), Arpi Mirzabegian (#52), Vivian Cogan (#50), and Isabel Jackson (#51). The team finished fourth overall. (Photo by Adam Wool)
Lynde also had praise for the efforts of Bromfield’s other top four finishers: Bradley, sophomore Isabel Jackson, senior captain Molly Squire, and seventh-grader Vivienne Cogan. Cogan has been the top runner on Bromfield’s middle school team this season. Lynde said he had invited Cogan to run with the team during the final weeks of the season. When a spot opened up due to injuries, Lynde added her to Sunday’s roster. “Fabulous effort,” he said of her performance.
“Finishing among the top four was no small feat,” Lynde wrote in a Monday email. “In my opinion, our [3C] division was the most competitive.” Lynde said that the team rarely has a chance to compete against the day’s first- and second-place finishers, Lenox and Mount Greylock Regional, both located in western Massachusetts. Perennial rival Sutton finished third, but Lynde said Bromfield had gained ground on the Suzies compared to previous encounters.
Saturday’s Division 3 girls state championship race gets underway at 11:30 a.m. with an award ceremony to follow at 1:15 p.m.
Hampered by absence of top runners, boys finish fifth
In spite of missing two of its runners, the Bromfield boys team earned fifth place at Sunday’s Division 3 qualifier with a score of 171. Lenox Memorial was first with a score of 46, followed by runner-up Parker Charter with a score of 72. Mount Greylock Regional was a close third (73) and Hopedale was fourth (143).
The Bromfield boys cross-country team runs in the start pack at the MIAA State Division 3C qualifier at the Gardner Golf Course. Left to right: Ben McWaters (#547), Chris Johannesen (#543), Harrison Binnick (#542), and Liam Kemeza (#546). The boys finished fifth overall to qualify for state finals. (Photo by Kate Wool)
“Not the best outing for our team today,” said Coach Marisa Steele in an email to the Press. “But we accomplished our main goal of qualifying for the state meet next weekend.”
Steele elected to hold senior captain Jack Steele—the team’s No. 1 runner—from the race to give him time to recover from a recent illness, and the team’s No. 3 runner, freshman Harrison Binnick, was unable to finish. But eighth-grader Ben McWaters made sure his team was among the top seven with a blazing 12th-place time of 17:54.9, the fastest of any eighth-grader racing in a Division 3 qualifier. “A huge accomplishment,” wrote Steele. Stepping up to fill the team’s fifth position was seventh-grader Kai Kemeza, whose 20:31.4 finish was the fastest seventh-grader time of the day.
Bromfield’s top five included a seventh-grader, Kemeza; an eighth-grader, McWaters; two freshmen, Christian Johannesen and Liam Kemeza; and one junior, Diesel Whitten. “I think it’s sometimes easy to forget that these kids are two to three years younger than the majority of their competitors and that age differential means a lot in terms of physical maturity, strength and speed, especially in boys,” said Steele.
Saturday’s Division 3 boys state championship race gets underway at 12:15 p.m. with an award ceremony to follow at 1:15 p.m. “I’m looking forward to having my full squad together,” said Steele.
Girls individual results
- 1. Evelyn Wool, sophomore, 19:59.7
- 7. Rosie Bradley, freshman, 21:26.2
- 20. Isabel Jackson, sophomore, 22:28.9
- 27. Molly Squire, senior, 22:50.6
- 55. Vivienne Cogan, seventh-grader, 24:21.7
- 61. Arpi Mirzabegian, junior, 24:22.0
- 93. Gabriella Temps, eighth-grader, 26:05.8
Boys individual results
- 12. Ben McWaters, eighth-grader, 17:54.9
- 29. Christian Johannesen, freshman, 18:56.8
- 36. Liam Kemeza, freshman, 19:10.1
- 52. Diesel Whitten, junior, 20:27.6
- 53. Kai Kemeza, seventh-grader, 20:31.4
- 59. Shaan Patel, senior, 20:58.1
