by Gloria Li
Wednesday, girls’ cross country ran its first home tri-meet this season against both Needham and Walpole.
The Tigers suffered a loss to Needham 38-21. Yet, they were able to claim a 31-26 victory over Walpole.
Sophomore Evie Heffernan took the lead with a time of 19:52 in first place, outrunning her personal record by nearly a minute.
Sixth overall and second for the Tigers was senior Becca Trayner with 21:16. This was a home course personal record for her.
Freshman Isabella Reilly took third on the team and 13th overall with 22:13.
Sophomore Kaylee Spitaels came in 15th overall and fourth on the team with 22:31, and junior Julia Schlossman came in close behind her placing fifth on the team and 16th overall with 22:36.
“We didn’t do as well as we had hoped that we would be able to do, and our two key missing members played a huge role in that,” coach Brandon Mogazel said.
Mogayzel said that senior Allie Phillips, a captain with seniors Becca Trayner, Rosie Sokolov and Melissa Weikart, and junior Julia Schiantarelli were the missing members.
According to Mogayzel, they typically score exceptionally high points for the team, but due to back and hip injuries, neither could run that day.
“We came in very close considering the lack of a full squad,” he said.
Needham never used to be as strong as they were at this meet, but Walpole seems to be a team that “goes up and down at an intermediate level. Their varsity members are young right now, which only means that, looking ahead, they’ll have a more competitive edge in the next few years,” Mogayzel said.
Phillips said, “Numerous members improved their times and personal records during this meet, and we lost to both teams at Walpole last year, so this was a fairly good outcome.”
The effort put in by the runners and the high degree of competition were aspects of this meet that Phillips especially recognized, she said.