On a hot Friday afternoon, while the girls cross-country team is on their marks, nerves are through the roof. This is the first varsity race for five of the eight runners. But the second the gun is shot, it is an instant reminder that this is just another race. The Blue Devils sprint off the line with junior Anna Youssef leading the team towards a top-five finish.
On Sept. 19, at Stockton University, Westfield competed at the Osprey XC Invite, their first 5k race of the season. Running against 33 teams, the Blue Devils came out in fourth with a total score of 165 points, just under Toms River North HS, which scored 139 points, taking third, Egg Harbor Township HS in second, and Freehold Township HS in first.
This performance by Westfield is beyond impressive, considering the line-up is missing two senior scorers due to injuries. Thus, leaving half of the line-up to sophomores who were running in their first ever varsity meet. Head Coach Joseph Berardi said it was “a big race, against some pretty good teams,” and due to injuries and graduated seniors, Westfield was running with a “relatively young team.”
Sophomore Oriana Soloway placed second for Westfield and 31st out of 249 girls, overall. Additionally, this is Soloway’s first varsity race ever. Soloway said, “I was pretty nervous going into it, I’ve never run a varsity race [especially] this big, but honestly I kept the same mindset of, it’s just another race, you’re going to do fine.”
Youseff, a prominent returner, placed first for Westfield and 14th overall with a blazing time of 19:50, followed by Soloway (20:57), returning juniors Violet Hughes (21:19) and Jessica Zhou (21:20) in 42nd and 43rd, and debut sophomore Evangeline Van Brunt (21:26) in 48th to round out the top five scorers.
Considering a variety of conditions, the team performed with strength. Youseff said, “Because the weather’s kind of hot, I think everyone had an overall good performance, [and] because it’s everyone’s first 5K too, I feel like it went really well.”
Looking forward, it is obvious this race is just the beginning. The Blue Devils have a lot to take away from this experience. Berardi said, “I think there’s a lot of stuff to learn from the race, talking to them, they’re all excited for the next race and I think everybody realized they had a lot left and probably could have run 30 seconds to a minute faster.”
What stood out the most from the meet was an incredibly promising performance from the JV team. They placed first overall with an outstanding score of 19 and a standout performance by junior Kayla Yip, who has a varsity spot in her line of sight.
The Blue Devils hope to use this race as fuel and motivation when they look to compete next at the annual Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park on Oct 4.
