Martlets Scrimmage at Choate

In their inaugural race of the season, the Choate Cross Country Invitational, the Westminster girls’ team had a strong showing. For many first-time members of the team, the race was also their first high school race ever. As such, our intentions as a squad were to get a feel for what it’s like to run in a high school race and to practice pack running throughout the course. The girls did just that. The day featured three races overall, a “veteran” boys’ race, a veteran girls’ race, and a combined girls’ and boys’ novice race. In the girls’ veteran race, three Westminster runners toed the line (a product of illness, injury, and an abundance of new runners)––Catie McGuigan ‘23, Hayden Schneider ‘25, and Saskia Mattiko ‘23. In an excellent practice of teammateship, the girls opted to run the race together, finishing within seconds of one another down the home straightaway. In the novice race, returning runner Carolyn Cheng ‘24 was the first finisher for Westminster, besting her time from last year’s race by over two minutes! She was followed by Grace Tyler ‘24, Captain Simone Routledge ‘23, and first-time XC runner Ava O’Connell ‘26. The team looks forward to traveling to Canterbury next week with the top seven runners to compete in the Canterbury Invitational.