By: Anna DiBona- September 11, 2017

On Tuesday, September 12, 2017 the Middleboro High School varsity cross country team hosted their second meet of the season with a two and a half to three mile course. Middleboro was going against Randolph in Randolph’s first meet of the season.

The boys were to race first with a total of fourteen players for Middleboro and seven players for Randolph. The whistle blows and they are off! Middleboro claims the first four spots, Captain Michael O’Shaughnessy gets first, Paul Giovanoni with a close second both with a close to sixteen minute time. Noah Miles with third, and Jayden Carveiro in fourth both with close to an eighteen minute time. The rest of the boys team races in, Milo Olivia has a race to the finish just beating a Randolph player by a hair.

Next the girls cross country team is up with a total of seven girls for Middleboro, and fourteen girls racing for Randolph. Middleboro claims first and second place, first place going to Captain Abby Wager and second place going to Shaelyn Gallagher with times close to eighteen minutes. A Randolph player claims the next spot followed by Catrina Bingham Maas claiming 4th place with a time of twenty one minutes.Then a pack of girls come in for Middleboro, Lidia Masse in 6th, Anna DiBona in 7th, and Caitlin Peck in 8th place. The rest of the girls race in with a great, hard fought finish. Throughout the meet, Middleboro was cheering for Randolph boys and girls, Randolph was cheering for Middleboro girls and boys. As soon as a runner reached the finish line they would turn around to face the finish line and cheer in everyone else as the came in no matter how much they wanted a water break.

Middleboro Boys beat Randolph with no competition. In cross country if you claim the first three places then you automatically win, because the way they score is by the average score/place of every player per team. Middleboro girls also bring in a great win with first and second place along with fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth place. At the end of the meet each coach holds a meeting to allow the athletes to stretch and talk about the race. Middleboro coaches Sean Kinney and Jacqui May-Beaton tell their kids how awesome the race was and to ice, sleep, and eat before Thursday’s meet against East Bridgewater.

Kinney and May-Beaton’s technique to getting their athletes into top shape is to, run, run, and run some more. Practices are two hours a day five to six days a week at the Middleboro High School. The team starts with two laps around the track which is equal to half a mile. Next the Captains lead the team in dynamic stretching across the straight away of the track. The coaches then decide what the workout for the day will be in order to get their players fit and ready for meets. Whenever Injuries arise, the player(s) is sent to Mary the athletic trainer that deals with recovery. When asked how to describe their players Coach Sean Kinney and Jacqui May-Beaton both agree that there players are “dedicated, to the sport and give it their 100% all of the time.” There are also traditions that the cross country team carries out.

The girls team has a butterfly chant that they state before every race, the team holds a pasta night at one of the  player’s house every season, coach Kinney brings his team on a DQ run and buys them all Dilly Bars, and the team has special runs that are named cookie runs and graveyard runs. To explain the cookie run and graveyard run, the team goes on a run to the store and buys cookie or they go on a run to the graveyard to see unusual gravestones. The Middleboro High School varsity cross country team won their second meet of the season, and are practicing in order to get ready for there meet on Thursday September 14, 2017 against East Bridgewater.