Cross country teams edge Mystic, remain undefeated

The Chelsea High boys and girls cross country teams both won their meets last Thursday, defeating Mystic Valley on the loop at Admiral’s Hill. Coach Don Fay’s girls are now 5-0 and the boys are 4-0.

Ugo Cvjetan led the way for the Chelsea boys to remain personally undefeated this season, running a time of 18:06. Joseph Arroyo finished third for Chelsea in a time of 18:46. The next Red Devils across the line was Francisco Colindres, who ran 19:18 and was seventh overall.

Santos Hernandez was behind Colindres in eighth place. Edgar Ocana was ninth overall in 19:48 to complete the CHS score sheet with 28 points.

However, just as in last week’s close win against Greater Lowell, Hector Mendoza was the crucial runner in the meet that proved to be the difference for the Red Devils. Hector outkicked Mystic Valley’s fifth runner to displace him from ninth place to 10th, a crucial difference that also gave Mystic Valley 28 points.

However, Chelsea won the meet on the tiebreaker because Mendoza, Chelsea’s sixth runner, finished ahead of Mystic Valley’s fifth runner.

“This is the first time that I have been involved in a meet that ended in a tie score,” said Fay. “I’ve been involved in numerous one point meets but this was a first. Some of the boys initially didn’t understand how we won when the score was tied, but now they understand why it is important for every runner to finish in as high a position as possible.”

With the win over Mystic Valley, which is in the same small school division of the Commonwealth Athletic Conference as Chelsea, the Red Devils now need only beat Minuteman Regional next week to clinch their first league title since 1998.

On the girls’ side, the Lady Red Devils continued their quest for their first ever league title by beating Mystic Valley 22-33.

“We only had five girls running, which is the bare minimum for a cross country race,” noted Fay. “But all five had personal bests and ran their best meet so far this year.”

Suzanne Mikalixen suffered her first loss of the year, finishing second, but broke the old course record with a time of 22:25. Running her first race this year, freshman Duska Cvjetan was third running 23:39. Senior Jesenia Contreras was fourth overall, running 23:57. Finishing in sixth and seventh were sophomores Patricia Guardado and Tatyana Almedia in 24:44 and 25:43 respectively.

The girls and boys face Minuteman on Tuesday and Whittier Tech on Friday. After that they go to Billerica to face Shawsheen Tech, which also is undefeated for both the boys and the girls.

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