The Chelsea High boys and girls cross country teams both have started the season in fine fashion, as Coach Don Fay’s squads opened with strong wins against Commonwealth Conference rival Northeast Regional.
The boys triumphed by a runaway score of 17-46. Red Devil senior co-captain Ugo Cvjetan was first across the line with a time of 19:03 over the 2.9 mile home course at Admiral’s Hill. Fellow senior co-captain Santos Hernandez was next in 19:29 and Joseph Arroyo captured third in 19:36.
Francisco Hernandez was fifth overall with a time of 20:12 and junior Edgar Ocana rounded out the CHS scoring with a sixth place finish in 20:45.
Norbert Simon came through with a strong effort, good for seventh place, in 20:58 and senior Hector Mendoza finished in eighth overall with a time of 21:13.
On the girls side, senior co-captain Suzanne Mikalixen ran a personal best of 23:03 to win by over two minutes to pace her Lady Red Devil squad to a 19-39 triumph. Sophomore Arandeni Ramos finished third overall in her first cross country race, running a 26:28. Wendy Chung, also in her first race, was fourth overall with a time of 26:35. Sophomore Patricia Guardado finished in fifth place and Tatiana Almedia was just a second behind her teammate in sixth place to complete the scoring for the girls.
On Saturday the cross country teams traveled to Billerica to compete in the second annual Shawsheen Tech relay race. The relay teams consisted of a four person team running 1.5 miles each. In the girls race, Chelsea was down at one point by over two minutes. However in the final two legs, senior co-captain Jesenia Contreras (12:02) and senior co-captain Suzanne Mikalixen (11:18) ran the two fastest legs of the day to win the race by 39 seconds. Also competing for the Lady Red Devils quartet were Patricia Guardado and Paola Claros. Sophomore Tatiana Almedia won the girls individual time trial with a time of 12:51.
On the boys side, the foursome of Edgar Ocana (10:20), Francisco Colindres (9:47), Joseph Arroyo (9:32), and Santos Hernandez (9:33) finished third overall with a time of 39:12. In the boys individual time trial, Calvin Hernandez was the overall winner, running 10:40, while Jamie Aguilar was second overall in a time of 10:52.
Fay and his charges traveled to Greater Lowell this past Monday and will host Essex Aggie today (Thursday) at Admiral’s Hill with a race start time of 3:15.