Saturday Sept. 24 Blue Cross Country brought home a team title when they placed first overall in the 2016 Bowdoin Cross Country Invitational.The Blue finished the six kilometer race with five runners in the top ten. Senior Mary Kreidel (Boerne, TX) led the team finishing in second place with a final score of 22:36.0. Kreidel was 05.3 seconds behind the individual winner. Following closely, senior teammates Sonja Cwik (La Canada, CA), Edie Sharon (Winchester, MA) and Sara Vannah (Amherst, MA) placed fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. First year Eva Paradiso (Burlington, VT), who is off to an impressive freshman campaign, was the final member of the Blue to finish in the top ten with a time of 23:47.1, granting her tenth place. This is the second team title the Blue have won this season beating out six other teams this past weekend. The Blue will be in action again Oct. 8 when they head to Franklin Park in Boston to compete in the NEICAAA All-New England Championships.
In other news, the Wellesley field hockey team had another victorious weekend as they hosted NEWMAC rival the Lyons of Mount Holyoke College. The match-up between these teams has been tightly contested over the past few years. Of the past eight games between the Blue and the Lyons, every game was decided by one goal and six of the past seven match-ups have gone into overtime. The Blue put on an impressive performance this past Saturday when they were able to score 5:23 into the first overtime period to win the game 1-0 and improve to a record of 5-2 overall. First year Hannah Maisano (Gambrills, MD) put in the sole goal of the game, off of a tip from senior Nikki Sharkin (Summit, N.J.). The impressive effort by the Blue’s offense was matched equally by the defense, specifically sophomore goalkeeper Maggie Connelly (Duxbury, MA) who, in her first career start at home, had 14 saves. Connelly was recognized by the NEWMAC for her outstanding play being honored with the Field Hockey Defensive Athlete of the Week award. The explosive effort Saturday came off an equally impressive performance Tuesday Sept. 20th when the Blue fell to No. 7 ranked Tufts University 1-0. Connelly posted 12 saves in the match against Tufts, bringing her to a total of 26 saves last week and finishing with a .963 save percentage. The No.14 ranked Blue take to the field again when they take on No.1 ranked Bowdoin College Wednesday Sept. 27 in Brunswick, Maine.
