For the first time since 2011, the boys XC team secured a spot at the Nike Cross Nationals meet on Dec. 2 after placing second place in the Northeast Regional meet. The Blue Devils competed against 33 of the toughest teams in the northeast region and beat their opponents by 54 points.
The Blue Devils accumulated 69 points in the meet, trailing Christian Brother’s Academy by just 10 points. Senior captain Avery Keith placed fourth overall with a time of 15:54.
To follow, senior captain Tage Mehta, senior captain Jimmy Gildea and junior Ryan Daly all finished within two seconds of each other, capturing 19th, 20th and 23rd place in the meet.
“I went back and I watched the video and Daly was our fourth guy. When he crossed, he knew Mehta and Gildea were right in front of him,” said head coach Chris Tafelski. “Ryan crossed the finish line. He turned around and looked for Alex… Alex was right there.”
As Tafelski mimicked Daly’s body expressions, he threw his arms in pure excitement. At that moment, Daly knew the Blue Devils would be boarding the plane to Oregon the next weekend. “That was really exciting,” said Tafelski.
Mehta said, “I think we did really well. I think the whole season has been solid. That’s what a coach says. Everyone had a very good race where we did the same things we’ve been doing every race because we have the advantage of having like seven seven guys who are legit runners and who can place really well.”
As assistant coach, Tafelski traveled alongside the boys to the Nike Cross national meet in 2011, however, as head coach, this is his first time at the meet.
“It’s been 12 years. It’s not common for a public school to go back multiple times,” said Tafelski. “You compare kids from different states and they rarely face each other. They never run on the same courses, so there is just a lot of speculation, but you never get the chance to legit compare different teams and I think that’s kind of the hard part when you face teams from far away. You don’t really know until you’re in it.”
As excited as Tafelski is for the upcoming meet, the boys are too. Mehta said, “We’re all super excited because we’ve been dreaming about this for two years, at least, maybe more.”
Although the boys dreamt of qualifying for this meet, their dreams are not fully complete. Being one of the best public school teams in the country, they have high expectations for their performance in Oregon.
“I think top 10 is a good goal. Just going out there trying to stay calm and just putting out a solid base like we’ve been doing. I think it is going to work really well for us and we’ll just see how that goes,” said Mehta.
This meet will put a close to one of the best Blue Devil seasons in WHS history and public school history.
