From right to left, Bombers’ Mary Philpott, Shyanne Jones, and Julie Guarente participate in a high school girls’ cross country meet at Stanley Park. (Photo courtesy of Kate McCabe)
LONGMEADOW – The Westfield High School girls’ cross country team traveled to Longmeadow on Tuesday for the final regular season tune-up, and a prelude to the postseason. It was a productive outing as the Bombers outpaced the Lancers 18-38 to close out the season at 5-2.
The final score was determined by just the first 12 runners to emerge from a field of 69. Despite the lopsided score, fans enjoyed an exciting race between two relatively well-matched teams.
Westfield’s Sophie Gronbeck won the race with a personal best time of 20:47.
The next three finishers – Carley Censabella (personal best 21:13), Mia McDonald (21:33), and Madison Eline (personal best 21:35) – clinched the Westfield victory. The Lancers claimed spots 5-7. Clara Hinck (22:24) and Libby Irwin (22:53) also claimed critical points for the Bombers.
Westfield had several other noteworthy performances, including some multi-season personal best times. Senior Paige Neylon (25:08) ran her last high school dual meet, side by side with junior Allie Davis (25:08) along with junior Ally Dinopolous (26:12), each delivering a best time as well.
Other standout performances included: season bests by veteran runners Julie Guarente, returning from illness (25:08), Casey Becker (25:19), and Shannon Sullivan (25:26), along with rookie season bests from first-year runners Clara Hinck (22:24), Shyanne Jones (24:17), Eva Boxsem (27:42), Ashley Sigal (28:17) and Hallie Grady (29:19).
“The Bomber girls hope to ride this wave into a peak performance at the conference championship meet on their home course,” Westfield girls’ cross country head coach Mike Rowbotham said.
All of the area’s high school cross country teams will come together this Saturday to compete for the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference Championships at Stanley Park. The girls’ junior varsity squads will race at 1 p.m., followed by the boys’ JV teams at 2. The girls’ varsity race will begin at 3, and the boys’ varsity will kick off around 3:30.
BOYS’ CROSS COUNTRY – Southwick 18, St. Mary 41; GIRLS’ CROSS COUNTRY – Southwick 15, St. Mary 48
St. Mary freshman Joseph Walz finished third with a personal best time of 19:26 Oct. 27 at Stanley Park, an improvement of more than one minute over his race last week. Seventh grader Colin Reed and sophomore Charlie Bonatakis (21:39) also cracked the top 10.
Senior captain Madison Bruno competed in her final regular season meet, ending in ninth place in 27:39. It was a personal best for Bruno on a 3.1-mile course by four seconds.
JV BOYS’ SOCCER
Southwick 8, Monson 0
Jameson Secovich scored a hat trick-plus one in Southwick’s final JV contest for 2015. Kacper Kisala had a goal and two assists.
Nick Doyle (goal, 2 assists), Vincent Diaz (2 assists), Jared O’Connor (goal), Austin Davis (goal), Cade Billings (assist), Chad Birchall (assist), and Tyler Orban (assist) all contributed for the Rams (13-2).
