Wildcats Dominate Westminster XC Invitational

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On Saturday, October 3rd at the annual Richard Miller Invitational, hosted by Westminster, the Boys’ and Girls’ XC teams dominated the day, capturing either first or second places as teams in each of the four races.

The Varsity Boys defeated six opponents on an unseasonably cold afternoon to take home the first place plaque. With a time of 17:33.2, Rob Champigny ’18 was the first to cross the finish line in the Varsity race. Teammate and team co-captain Nick Hill ’17 trailed Champigny by just 3.5 seconds for second place.

Members of the Men's XC after winning first place in the JV and Varsity races. Courtesy of
Members of the Men’s XC team after winning first place in the JV and Varsity races.

In the Girls Varsity Race, Caroline Borden ’16 finished second overall with a time of 21:40.4 and Williston girls took places 11, 15, 21, 23, 27, and 28 to take home second place as a team.

About the day, Borden, who is running cross country for her first time as a senior, says, “Williston cross country had an awesome day on Saturday! We were facing a lot of strong teams, but we definitely rose to the occasion. The JV race was especially exciting because we really swept away the competition. It was so fun to watch and it really made me proud to be a part of the cross country team!”

In both the boys and girls JV races, Williston runners secured six of the top ten places, more than enough for both JV teams to win each race.

Henry Poehlein ‘18 led the JV race almost from the start. He beat out a Salisbury runner by half a second to finish first with a time of 19:57.1. Williston runners Nat Markey ’20, Tim Jacques ’20, Bryan Bates ’16, Bryan Soder ’18, and Max Livingston ’18 came in places three, four, five, eight, and nine, respectively.

Girls JV was equally dominant. Julie Lord ’16 led the Wildcats taking second place. Sam Madden ’17, Maya Soley ’18, Anabelle Farnham ’18, Emily Yeager ’17, and Marielle McHale ’18 all were top ten finishers.

Both cross country teams are off to superb starts to their seasons. Not including the invitational, the boys’ team has beaten four of five teams, losing narrowly to NMH. The girls’ team is currently undefeated with very convincing wins over Kent, Worcester, and NMH.

Girls’ team co-captain Maddy Scott ’16 says, “Our team is so upbeat and fun to run with. The girls work so hard, along with the coaches. We are very lucky with our depth this year. We are having one of [our] best seasons in years.”

On November 11th, both teams will be back on the Westminster course for New England’s, the final meet of the year.

Correction: In a previous version of this article, Henry Poehlein’s name was spelled it incorrectly.