On the last Saturday of October, 12 teams were at the starting line of the Greystone Cross Country Course, waiting to compete in the NJSIAA Group IV Sectional Championship. It was completely silent, only broken once the starter fired their gun in the air. Westfield girls cross country was able to get out fast and stayed competitive for the entire race. The Blue Devils scored 64 points, which was good enough for a commanding 2nd place finish in a race that consisted of 12 teams. Ridge, who won the meet, scored 16 points, but Westfield was ahead of Philipsburg, who scored 99 points.
The Blue Devils were led by junior Oriana Soloway, who finished in a time of 19:40. She was shortly followed by junior Evangeline Van Brunt and senior Anna Youssef, who ran 19:54 and 19:55, respectively.
“I’m new here, and we have a whole new philosophy that the girls have been doing a really, really good job adapting to. We are looking good, but I always tell them you never know on the day,” said head coach Nicholas McFarland. “Given everything that happened, I thought the race went really well. We had a good day, and that’s a positive thing to look forward to.”
Senior co-captain Evelyn Charles said, “Today, on our first mile, we were all kind of together, so I think running together and building off of each other and pushing each other to go harder is definitely an important skill.”
A fast performance by the Blue Devils resulted in a 20:00 average time over the 5-kilometer course. McFarland remarked, “We have four people who are under 20, and two others who are under 21 consistently. Having that at the core means a lot to us right now.”
“I told myself I had to keep pushing. Whenever I get to the third mile, I always slow down, so when I get there, I tell myself I just need to keep going faster and try to stick with all the girls in front of me and run with my teammates the whole time,” said senior co-captain Violet Hughes. Hughes finished out Westfield with a 19th-place finish in 20:31.
A second-place finish in sectionals punched the Blue Devils’ ticket to the Group IV State Championship Meet at the storied Holmdel Park on Nov. 7. There, Westfield will try to qualify for the Meet of Champions the following week. McFarland said, “The season isn’t over yet.”
