Harwood cross country traveled to the Essex Tree Farm on Saturday, September 2, for the first meet of the season. Most other teams start the season with light scrimmages against local opponents, not true of Harwood XC. “We jumped immediately into competition with the toughest competitors in the state of Vermont,” said coach John Kerrigan. CVU girls are ranked the top team in Vermont and one of the top teams in the Northeast. Essex, BFA, South Burlington and MMU are much larger Division 1 schools. “I am proud of our runners, they more than held their own against the best teams in the state. For some of our runners the Essex race was their very first cross-country race,”said Kerrigan.
Harwood girls tied for third with Division 1, Essex. However, ties are broken by the sixth runner for each team. Essex’s sixth runner finished just a few seconds ahead of Harwood’s sixth runner Rowan Clough, to bump Harwood to fourth place. “Despite being bumped one place off the podium, it was a spectacular day for our girls,” said Kerrigan.
Harwood girls were led by Celia Wing (16), Julia Thurston (24) Heidi Haraldsen (25), Hazel Lillis (28), Pippa Diller (44) and Rowan Clough (59). It was questionable whether Celia Wing and Lillis were going to be able to run today, both are recovering from early season injuries, said Kerrigan
Harwood boys finished 11th in the 23-school field. “Just having a full scoring team today was a great accomplishment. Last year we had only three boys eligible to participate.” said Kerrigan.
Harwood boys were led by Indy Metcalf (40), Chris Cummiskey (58), Quinn Smith (67), Chapin Rivers (74), Cooper Hansel (77) and Tyler Gaidys (78)
Freshmen Brody Hackett (37) boys and Julia Cisz (23) girls – led the Harwood JV runners.
Harwood cross-country teams jump back into it next weekend at the Burlington Invitational. All of these teams and several strong out-of-state teams will be competing at Hard’ack Field in St. Albans. Races begin at 2 p.m.
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