LEXINGTON — The Wakefield High girls’ cross country team kicked off their season on Tuesday at Lincoln Park in Lexington with a non-league matchup against the Minutemen.
Often considered a tuneup meet for the rest of the season, which will now only include dual meets against the five other Freedom Division teams, this first race is about getting stamina back and working on improving.
The Warriors came up short to Lexington but had plenty of impressive performances.
“It’s an extremely difficult course,” said head coach Karen Barrett of Lincoln Park. “We had several girls improve on their time from this course last year which is very encouraging.”
Senior captain Liza Bangtson improved by more than 2 minutes from last year’s race in Lexington finishing in a time of 21:37 to take 5th overall.
“Liza had a great race and showed a lot of grit competing against a really tough Lexington team,” said Barrett.
Freshman Lillian McLean was Wakefield’s 2nd finisher in a time of 22:22.
“It was a great start to her cross country career,” said Barrett.
Senior captain Abby Richardson improved by 1:41 from last year, finishing in 23:00.
“It was great to see her improve so much,” said Barrett.
Finishing fourth for the Warriors was junior Peyton Knowles in 23:23.
“She looked really strong and earned herself a spot on the varsity squad,” said Barrett. “I was really happy with the way she handled the course.”
Juniors Riley Mitchell (23:51) and Lisa Letchford (24:36) closed out the varsity scoring.
“The rest of the girls also improved on their scores from last year and as a coach, that’s all I can ask for,” said Barrett.
The Warriors were missing a few key runners in this race including senior Abby Hartigan and junior Quin Wilcox, who they hope will be able to return for the regular season opener this Tuesday, 4 p.m. at Burlington High.