Middlesex hosted its first race of the season today, including a historic first regular season JV girls race. Twenty-eight members of the cross country team completed the race, despite the shortened early season schedule of practices. Lawrence, St. George's, and non-ISL Tabor came to campus on a busy day for Middlesex athletics. In the varsity race, Middlesex defeated Lawrence to notch their first league win of the season, but fell to a very strong Tabor team and their traditional rivals of St. George's. The varsity race was won by Julia O'Rourke from Tabor, who set a course record as she won her duel with Mia Del Rosso from St. George's (who also finished under the old record). Middlesex senior captain Mahal Alvarez-Backus ran a smart race to finish third. The race against Lawrence was won when junior Sonia Tremblay passed most of the field to finish fifth, setting a PR and finishing ahead of the first runner from Lawrence. Senior Alex Schoen stepped up to her new role in the middle of the varsity MX lineup, finishing ahead of the St. George's third runner and the second runner from Lawrence. Also scoring for Middlesex were junior Phoebe Lindsay, senior captain Madeleine Mullaney (in her first varsity finish), senior Jenni Welch (also in the first varsity finish of her career), and sophomore Julia McClelland (also, no surprise, in her first varsity finish). Junior Megan Seymour finished her first cross country race admirably, battling both the course and her competition.
In the JV race, the Zebras were led by rookie runner and senior Toni Mattessich, who passed the whole field in the last mile to win the race. Junior Raphaele Sevrain and sophomore Olivia Gish followed her example to finish ahead of the first JV runners from all ISL opponents, thus securing the team victories over Lawrence and St. George's. Running in their first first cross country races ever, Caroline Price and Gabriella Resnick scored points for Middlesex, while senior Zarena Jafry and freshman Valerie Chen rounded out the official team scoring.
Special congratulations to the 14 members of the team running their first cross country races today: Megan, Toni, Caroline, Gabriella, Valerie Chen, Cally Queally, Emily Li, Lexi Stankard, Palden Lhamo, Katie Lovell, Sarah Binda, Pema Doma, Amelia Danoff, Lucy Hirsch. Also, special congrats to Rochelle Greenidge who took nearly 5 minutes off her previous best time on our home course.
The Zebras look forward to more improvements, first races, and team wins to come.
