Boys halt Lexington’s 5-year winning streak

Published in the November 1, 2017 edition

THE BOYS’ cross country team celebrates their Middlesex League Meet championship on Monday in Woburn.

WOBURN — The Middlesex League Championship meet is usually dominated by the Lexington Minutemen. Yesterday the Wakefield boys’ decided they wanted to change the name that has been on top of the standings the past 5 years, and they did it in dramatic fashion, holding off a late charge of Lexington’s 3rd, 4th, and 5th runners who tried to make a final move over the last 100 meters of the 2.5-mile course at the Woburn Country Club. Sophomore Matt Roberto and senior Riley Brackett were not about to let that happen as they both held the trio off to help secure the win for the Warriors. The final score was 42-49, Wakefield over Lexington. Arlington was 3rd with 107 points. Winchester placed 4th with 124 points.

The race went out conservatively slow as New Balance National Champion Ryan Oosting of Arlington controlled the tempo of the race. A pack of 20, most of which belonged to Wakefield and Lexington, stuck together over the first half of the race. It was only with a little more than a half mile to go when Oosting made a break for it.

In the end the talented junior earned the victory in a time of 12:29. Wakefield’s senior Matt Greatorex ran a strong race and held off two Lexington runners to finish 2nd place in a time of 12:39.

Senior Tommy Lucey and Junior Rohan Singhvi ran excellent races as they both came in the top 10. Lucey placed 8th in 12:57.4 and Singvhi was 9th in 12:57.9 to finish as Wakefield’s 2nd and 3rd runners.

Sophomore Matt Roberto had another great race as he placed 11th in a time of 13:04. Roberto was the top sophomore in the race.

Senior Riley Brackett ran the best race of his career after a consistent early season. Brackett ran strong to the finish and placed 12th in 13:05 to round off the scoring for the Warriors. The Lexington trio ended up 13th, 14th, and 15th. Brackett has made enormous gains over the past few years. As a sophomore he finished 77th in the junior varsity in a time of 15:47 while last year he was 36th in the varsity race.

Billy Stevens provided the depth as he too finished very strong in 16th place with a time of 13:21.

Sophomore Tanner Jellison was another one of the top sophomores in the league as he placed 38th in 13:55.

In the JV race, the boys finished well in 2nd place behind the Lexington JV squad. Junior Casey Brackett was first for the Warriors as he finished 5th overall in 13:55. Junior Derryn Langlois also ran well placing 11th in 14:20. Sophomore Trevor Zupan had a great day, finishing 16th in 14:26. Senior Ryan Smith had a big jump from his 46th place last year to finish 18th in 14:28. Senior David Lee also showed major improvements from last year’s 63rd place finish to place 25th in 14:45. Lee finished off the scoring for the Warriors. Sophomore Jimmy Crump also broke 15 minutes as he ran 14:53 to finish in 34th.

In the freshman race, Jonathan D’Ambrosio earned a ribbon for his 19th place effort over the 1.3-mile course. Zack Jellison finished 22nd, Andrew Roos finished 27th, Dan King finished 30th, Alex Skeldon finished 36th, Cory Sample finished 42nd, Aaron Canestaro finished 43rd, David Schurter finished 47th, Dylan Fahey 53rd and Nolawi Gerawork finished 79th.

Next up, the varsity runners set their sights on defending their divisional state title that takes place on November 11 in Wrentham.