Wagner Wins McDonough Invite: Jags Finish 2nd
On Saturday morning, the SJA cross country team traveled to Forest Hills Park for the McDonough Invite. With all of the varsity members finishing within the top fifty runners of the race and Maggie Wagner ‘17 taking home first place overall, the team proved that strong season starts don’t necessarily mean that they can’t continue to do well and improve.
Despite facing a potentially difficult course, one that Assistant Coach Kelly Gallagher describes as being “not very fast as there is a large hill halfway through the race” the cross country team--varsity, junior varsity, and open race members--performed well. The varsity, as a team, won second place at the meet, as did the junior varsity. The open race team took first.
The varsity pulled great race times, none of them falling too far behind Maggie Wagner’s winning time of 19:57. Sophomore Emily Conway finished in 12th place (21:48), with seniors Monica Hahn (22:51), Bridget McGuire (22:57), and Corrine Baker (22:59) on her heels in 24th, 25th, and 26th places, respectively. Rounding out the varsity team’s race, Emma Stalder ‘16 (24:05) concluded her race in 41st place.
When asked about runners that stood out to her, Coach Gallagher stated that because the team “had many strong performances this weekend with a lot of people running with their teammates and pushing each other” there were multiple runners showed strong race performances. Varsity runners Emma Stalder and Monica Hahn, as well as junior Grace Kanary, and freshman Megan Lane were among the racers that caught Gallagher’s attention during the meet. In addition to being one of Coach Gallagher’s notable runners, Narupa Dabydeen ‘17 was nominated as Runner of the Meet by her teammates.
In line with Head Coach Kieser’s view of the season’s prospects, Coach Gallagher recognized the team’s challenge as a result of the loss of some key runners to injury, but was positive that since many of the team’s uninjured runners were successfully stepping up to fill in the gap, the team would continue to have a good season.
