PHOTO BY: PAULA MULLER.
Classical’s Gilley Kabamba was the top finisher in Tuesday’s meet against English.
By Mike Alongi
LYNN — The Lynn English and Lynn Classical cross country teams split their meet at Lynn Woods on Tuesday afternoon, with the Bulldogs taking the girls meet, 22-36, and the Rams winning the boys meet, 18-37.
The English girls (1-5) won in fairly convincing fashion, taking four of the top five spots and six of the top ten spots.
“The girls ran great today, I’m really proud of them,” said English coach John Walsh. “They chipped away at it today, they ran really smart, and you can’t ask for anything more than that.”
English’s Jackie Ramirez was the overall winner on the girls side, running the three-mile course in a time of 24:32. Classical’s Laurie Rodriguez finished in second place (25:26) and English took the next three spots with Dakota Shatto (26:02), Daria Fabrizio (26:41) and Tammy Siphon (27:07).
Classical (0-7) had the next three finishers with Katie Barrios in sixth place (27:08), Michelle Scuzzarella in seventh place (27:33) and Sam Anthony in eighth place (28:09). English’s Mia Pasuy (30:24) and Miranda Vieirn (31:30) rounded out the Top 10.
“I think they did well today and they tried their best,” said Classical girls coach Allison Gibbs. “We had one girl who didn’t finish because of an asthma attack, but the girls who did finish ran their hardest and did well.”
On the boys side, it was Classical’s Gilley Kabamba who won the race, running a time of 17:45 despite dealing with a significant cramp for much of the race. Classical’s Kevin Durant finished in second place with a time of 18:32, and the Rams (3-4) took five of the top six spots overall in the race.
“The guys ran very well today, we had a lot of guys working hard out there,” said Classical boys coach Kevin Fidrych. “We’ve got NEC’s coming up in a couple of weeks, so it’s good to see us running well now.”
English’s Abrar Jalal finished in third place overall (18:36), followed by Classical’s Junior Mejia (19:32) and Eli Bakas (19:37) to round out the top five. Classical’s Eric Macorri finished in sixth place (19:44) before English (1-5) had four straight finishers round out the top 10. Those finishers were Andy Nguyen (20:30), Connor Gallant (20:35), Liam McHale (20:41) and Michael Falasca (20:47), respectively.
“It was a tough one out there, we knew that Classical had some great runners,” said Walsh. “You just do what you can with what you have and hope for the best.”
Both teams will now begin to prepare for the Northeastern Conference meet, which will take place Saturday, Oct. 29, at Bradley Palmer State Park in Topsfield.
“This was our second win in a row, so it’s definitely good to get some momentum going into NEC’s,” said Fidrych. “We’ve got the full team back as well after dealing with a couple of injuries this year, so we’re all feeling really good right now.”