By Lillian Piz
Boston- Lincoln Sudbury High School Cross Country team emerged victorious at the 2013 Dual County League Cross Country Championship Meet held yesterday in Franklin Park, Boston. Lincoln Sudbury Girl’s and Boys’ Varsity teams claimed first place in both individual and team scores.
First place finisher Senior Joshua Kerber completed his varsity race with a time of 16:06. “I was really happy,” said Kerber. “We were happy that it was at Franklin Park, that’s like a classic race venue. We worked hard all year and we had high expectations for the season. We had a good regular season and we wanted to end it with a big win at DCL championships.”
The team worked hard throughout the entire season and their accomplishment was well deserved. “We step up the training every year,” Kerber explained. “We bumped up the summer milage, we bumped up the milage during the season, and we bumped up the workouts too so everything just built together for this meet.” Thinking ahead about his future in running, Kerber added that he has been working on a training program with his own distance track coach in order to “build up for college.”
Sam Bedford from Bedford was second place in the Boys’ Varsity race and finished with a time of 16:19. The third place finisher, also from Lincoln Sudbury, was Ben MacDonald who completed his race in 16:35.
The Lincoln Sudbury Boys’ Cross Country coach Pat McMahon was extremely pleased with the team’s performance and proud of the obvious enthusiasm and commitment they’ve upheld throughout the whole season in order to get where they are today. “We did very well,” said McMahon. “We dominated the league this year. We didn’t think we’d have any competition. We’re just having a great season so far and we’re looking forward to the states. They’ve trained real hard over the summer. Really dedicated.” McMahon, a Hall of Fame champion cross country runner himself, has shown great devotion to the sport as the Boys’ coach for the past 40 years. “I wanted to give back something to the sport that got me a scholarship and got me a job, that got me a lot of places,” McMahon added.
The final team scores for DCL Boys’ Varsity were Lincoln-Sudbury in first with 36 points, Acton Boxborough in second with 72, and Concord Carlisle in third with 81.
For the Girls’ Varsity race, Sydney Clary from Lincoln-Sudbury finished in first place with a time of 19:07. In second was Erin Dietz from Bedford finishing with a 19:15. Third place went to Sarah Tully from Wayland who finished with a time of 19:20.
In terms of team scores for DCL’s Girls’ Varsity, Lincoln-Sudbury dominated the competition finishing with 33 points. Weston came in second with 90 and New South in third with 95.
All twelve of Lincoln Sudbury’s Girls’ Varsity runners completed their race under 21 minutes. Henry Phelan, Lincoln Sudbury’s Girls’ Cross Country coach emphasized the importance of the girls’ teamwork as a factor that was not only crucial to their championship win, but also also key to their success throughout the season.
“It was a team race today. A lot of it is just each girl on the team helping each other out, encouraging each other and pushing each other to get better. That’s what we worked on today and we worked on it all season, running together as a team and making each other better.” Phelan added, “I’ve been involved in the sport for a long time. It’s nice to be able to pass on my interests and my enthusiasm for the sport to the kids I coach.”
In addition to winning yesterday’s DCL championship, the Lincoln Sudbury Boys’ Cross Country team was awarded the regular season title. On the Girls’ side, the regular season title was given in a three-way tie between Lincoln Sudbury, Weston, and Newton South.