Red-hot girls cross country nabs 3rd straight win

The CHS girls cross country team turned in another stellar performance in last week’s dual meet against North Attleboro, beating the Rocketeers 20-41 at Pequitside Farm to improve to 3-0 on the season.

Sophomore Lauren Raffetto was the first to cross the finish line, extending her perfect career record in dual meets with an eighth consecutive win. Although she was challenged early in the race by North Attleboro’s Molly Galgoczy, Raffetto quickly broke away and cruised to a win in just over 20 minutes.

Also stepping up for the Bulldogs was junior first-year runner Lexi Piazza, who continued her dominant rookie campaign with a third-place finish in 22:21 — the second fastest time by a CHS girls runner at Pequitside. Piazza was followed by Natalie Hales (23:33) and Elena Silva (23:55), with captain Klara Redquest (24:38) and Addy Azar (25 minutes) rounding out the top six for Canton.

In the JV race, freshmen Calla Johnson and Grace Vieira showed promise and appear poised to enter the varsity lineup very soon. “We have been working hard all season at surging up the hills,” noted senior captain Nishka Baduamanda. “The hill workouts, mile repeats, and speed workouts we’ve done have definitely helped us feel at home at Pequitside.”

The boys team also had a strong showing against the Rocketeers and came within a whisker of their first team win in an eventual 30-29 defeat.

Minh Hong led the way for Canton with a fourth-place finish (19:57), and he was followed in succession by six of his Bulldog teammates: Shawn Smith-Manzi, Bharat Ramanathan, Lucas Scully, Max Mateo, Tristan Grant, Christian Hanlon, and Andrew Kurchak.

“Today was a great showing for us,” said head coach Brian Gotsell, “and we hope to build off that for our next home meet against Oliver Ames.”

While it will be a tough test for both squads against two OA teams boasting a combined record of 8-0, Gotsell noted that the CHS girls could clinch their first league title in nearly 50 years if they are able to knock off the Tigers.

Following Tuesday’s meet against OA, both Canton teams will head to Mansfield for their final dual meet of the season on Monday, October 8.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Oct 6 2024. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.