It was a beautiful day for racing on the picturesque Brooks course, among the oldest and most storied in the ISL. The Middlesex runners took advantage of the favorable fall weather to push themselves to great performances despite the challenging terrain. The team won all contests, bringing their season dual meet record to 8-0. The second seven scored another perfect score win, as well, bring their record to 5-0.
Teamwork was the theme of the day, with junior Gabby Walsh, senior captain Maud McCole, and senior captain Charlotte O'Toole working together around the course to finish 1-2-3, securing the win over both schools before any of their teammates finished. The tri-meet win for Gabby was the 6th of her career. Junior Alene Fernandes passed the Govs first runner in the final half mile to finish 5th, behind a speedy front runner from host Brooks. The Middlesex pack wasn't far behind, however, with sophomore Jillian Robertson leading at the finish a pack of four that included Jillian, Annabelle Rogers, Grace Hu, and Maya Sidhu and that traded pacing duties many times before finishing in 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th places, ahead of the second runner from any other school. While technically that makes Maya our 8th finisher and winner of the "JV" race-within-a-race, it was obvious to anyone watching that these were all varsity performances.
The JV perfect score was secured by Maya, senior Soleil Kerfoot (13th), sophomore Amelia Stevens (14th), senior captain Tess Kelley (17th), and sophomore Grace Luettgen (20th). Junior Phoebe Lu scored displacement points against the first JV runner from Governor's, and sophomore Megan Ding rounded out the JV seven.
A number of girls ran season best and even personal best times despite the hilly course. Freshmen Ruby Massengale, Neha Kommineni, and juniors Phoebe Lu and Isabella Luong were especially impressive for their improvements this week. Nearly everyone on the team had the experience of pushing themselves hard while being supported and challenged by their teammates, and the coaches were especially grateful for the care and attention of Wani Pandey, Marie Krou, and Shreya Jain.
