It's Sunday, and you know what that means. It's time for the Sports Watch, the fastest three minutes in Weston Sports coming your way right now:
Well, could this season as easy as 1-2-3 for the Weston girls' cross-country team? According to a preview at MileSplitMass, that may very well be the case. The site calls Weston runners Olivia Brackett, Charlotte Walmsley and Abigail Pohl "just about as good a top three as there is in the state."
And that trio lived up to the hype recently, breaking a meet record at the Clipper Relays in Newburyport.
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Brackett, a Weston two-mile record holder, handed over the baton just behind the top ranked girl in the state Catarina Rocha from Peabody. Walmsley, a Mass Division 4 two-mile champion, soon passed the Peabody runner and built up a commanding minute lead during the second leg.
Anchoring for Weston was Pohl, who brought the team home in a new course record time of 35:18. This was 22 seconds faster than the old record set by Haverhill in 2008 of 35:40.
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The Weston B team of Zoe Snow, Edom Wessenyeleh and Lina Makino also ran well, finishing 17th out of 145 teams.
"It was an excellent opening meet for us," Weston head coach John Monz said. "And a a special congratulations to the girls' team of Olivia, Charlotte, and Abigail for their second consecutive win at this event and their meet record performance. Olivia, Charlotte, and Abigail now have two of the three fastest times in the 11 years of this event."
Meanwhile, in boys cross country, Weston's David Freeman, Eli Curme, and Matt Herzig set the school's record in the 3 X 2 mile, finishing in a time of 32:36 at the Newburyport Clipper relays. The trio took a strong 19th place out of 201 relay teams. Monz said the squad was led by Herzig's "fantastic 10:06 split, which is the fastest split ever" by a Weston runner on the boys team.
Others who performed well for Weston included, for the boys' team, freshman Gavin McEwen, who ran a sensational 11:01 split in his first high school race, and sophomore Brett Efron, who improved his time from last year by a remarkable 3 minutes, 25 seconds; and, for the girls team, Read Allen, who finished with a solid 13:40 split in her first race, and Zoe Snow, who closed in a strong 12:45.
"All in all, it was a neat way to begin our competitive season," Monz said. "It was an excellent opening meet for us."
We go to the links, and with more questions than answers before the tryout session, the defending state champion Weston High golf team wasn't sure how things would play out in terms of its final roster this fall. The Wildcats graduated seven players last June, and four of them were members of the sectional and state title teams, including the individual champions at each event.
"It appeared that the team would need to rebuild this fall," Weston head coach Mary O'Brien said. "There are no guaranteed spots."
Of course, to some degree, Weston had to rebuild, but all nine of the underclassmen who were on last year's squad made it through the tryouts, including seniors Tim Grant, Joey Pasquale, and Greg Sanda; juniors Matt Cowgill, Joe Wagner, and Geoffrey Ziobro; and sophomores Jake Evans, Marwan Kallal, and Ben Warner. Pasquale and Grant were recently named co-captains.
"Twenty players including niine who were on the 2010 team teed off and played well despite a downpour late in the first round," O'Brien said. "Seven of the players had scores in the 70's."
The coach said the play in round two was also "impressive with six players scoring in the 70's. O'Brien said at the conclusion of the four rounds the individual totals ranged from 294 to 342.
The Wildcats will also get a boost from seven strong newcomers, including junior Jack Dennehy; sophomores Steven Agre, Andrew Connolly, Jason Foote, Lina Kim, and Graham Strong; and freshman Will Bertleson.
To the gridiron we go, and Weston football star quarterback Jarrett Rowe ran for two long touchdowns, passed for another, and kicked two extra points, as the host Wildcats defeated Bishop Fenwick, 20-0, for their first win of the campaign. Weston improved to 1-1, while Bishop Fenwick fell to 0-2.
Rowe rushed for 39 yards on his first tally and followed that with a 49-yard scamper into the end zone to give the 'Cats a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. In the final frame, he connected with standout receiver Richard Webb for a 43-yard TD.
Bob Walmsley contributed to this report.
