Martlets Capture Fourth Place at New England D2 Championships

At the team banquet on Nov. 9, the captains, in their team summary, remarked how surprised and happy they were that this season had equaled, and in instances surpassed, the "storybook" season of 2017. Certainly, the commitment of the athletes to training last summer and during the fall put the team in a position to compete with any other. After the heavy rains of the preceding week, the Governor's Academy course was in decent shape when Westminster toured it. At the mile mark, Emmett de Kanter '19 flew by in a time of 5:11 along with the other top three runners, including the champions from the last two New England championship races as well as his friend and rival from Suffield Academy. Rounding the corner onto the track, it was just the 2016 NE champion from Tabor followed by de Kanter. De Kanter was closing in the last 100m but ran out of room to run him down, taking second place and earning All New-England honors for the fourth consecutive year. In this fast field of 112 runners, Westminster then took 21st (Kieran Haug '21), 23rd (Justin Schuster '19), 24th (Daniel Pinckney '20) and 42nd (Elliott Kennard '19). The displacers were Will Rizzo '21 (45th) and Alex Ellis '20 (81st). The team showed perseverance and commitment to each other in this effort, and taking the fourth place plaque put Westminster again amongst the top programs in the league. The JV race happened later and was run on a slightly shorter course due to the conditions after the recent rains. Showing the speed that coaches had known all along that he possessed, Dylan Holley '20 came through the mile in a blistering 5:45 and then spent the next two miles moving up on the field, ultimately running a six-minute pace 5K and finishing sixth in the JV race. The next seven finishers all ran season best times, including Brendan Greene '20 and David DeFronzo '19, who basically crossed the line together; Nate Chaves '19, Spencer Kwan '22, and Raymond Liu ‘22, all who broke the seven-minute pace for a 5K for the first time; and James Beit '22 and Grant Pietri '22. Kellen Seeley '22 deserves recognition for his grit; he got sick several times during the race but would not quit. Sean Gregg '22 also ran a season best time. Second Boys’ Cross-Country finished 10th out of 17 schools, just a few points away from Williston who had beaten them solidly earlier in the season. The coaches would like to acknowledge the fantastic leadership of the Sixth Formers (DeFronzo, Chaves, Will Carlisle and co-captains Kennard, Schuster and de Kanter) as well as thank the parents for all of their support over the course of the season. It was a great journey, and we could not be prouder of these athletes. Full results here.