From: D. Peter Vigue

The Adams Girls Cross Country team finished another successful season going undefeated for the 8th consecutive year.  On top of their success in the dual meet season, they also won the Div 1 Central MA Invitational and the 7th Grade Division of the Ocean State Invitational, where the 6th grade girls were 3rd.  To cap the season, the team came oh-so-close again to Lexington in the Div 1 State Championships, losing by a scant 5 points after going 1-2-3 in the Championship race to come in 2nd, 45-50. 

There were many highlights, but perhaps the greatest team race was the Central MA meet where the girls went 1-4 and 7 to earn an extraordinary low total of 17 points (low score wins, lowest possible is 15). The 5 were Carmen Luisi, Maggie Kuchman, Annabelle Lynch, Paige Kuchman and 6th grader Emma Fitzpatrick.   All the girls ran particularly well in earning our 3rd straight trophy at the meet.  The success in the state meet wasn’t far behind, as the girls ran a remarkable 1-2-3 in the most difficult meet of the year.  6 of the 7 girls who ran in the race medaled, paced by Carmen, Maggie, Paige, Sarah Kuchman, Annabelle and Emma.  Olivia Pace rounded out the team to give us 2nd place. 

Individually, Carmen Luisi distinguished herself as one of the most accomplished runners in MA MS history.   She shattered her own Holliston course record becoming just the 3rd person (first girl) to go under 8:00, she won the CMA meet for the 2nd year in a row and the Ocean State meet where she broke the course record.  She also won the State meet for the 2nd year in a row, breaking the race record and just missing the course record (held by the girl who won the Scholastic Footlocker Nationals last year) by 1 second. In addition, she won the NE Junior Olympic Championships last weekend in RI and is headed to NY for the regionals this weekend.  She holds the 2nd and 3rd fastest times on the state meet course (with Maggie holding down # 7!)

Annabelle and Emma also qualified for the JO regionals in NY as well, as we had 5 athletes run this year, our highest total ever. 

The boys had another solid season: their 2nd winning season in a row, led by 3-year runner Rowan O’Brien and Alex Suhajda.   The team was competitive in every meet, just losing 2 close ones to Natick, Kennedy, and Hopkinton.  They had a good day at the Central MA meet where the competition was much tougher than in years past.  Probably their most rewarding meet was the state meet where they ran in the Championship race for only the 2nd time in school history, moving up 2 spots and beating last year’s team by almost 100 points! 

The boys are on their way.  The team was led by Alex Suhajda, our #1 overall all year, who had a season to brag about for years. He was 18th in the Ocean State 8th grade race, our highest finish in years…that will be repeated frequently.  He had the fastest time on our course for a Holliston boy in 5 years, medaled for 4th place in the Central MA Div 1 meet, and 19th in the Div 1 State Meet–also our highest finish ever in that meet.  He set the tone for the other boys to follow.

The 7th grade boys who will take the reins next year were 3rd in the Ocean State meet with an incredible performance by Jack McElligott to lead the way, followed by Danny Baribeau, Mikey McGovern, Ben Bulmer and Taryn Craze.   The highest finisher of the day at Ocean State was by Luke Burgett–4th in the 6th grade race. Also medaling in that race was Kia Miller in 30th.  So prospects look bright for the boys for the future!

We hope more success is ahead for both teams in 2020!