It was mid June the last time that Jack Graffeo competed in a high school race. Since his second-place finish in the two mile and his leg on his team’s fifth-place finish in DMR at the New Balance Nationals on June 16, the Westford Academy senior has been incognito.
Not anymore.
Graffeo made his official debut to the cross-country season on Sunday night.
And the recent Colorado commit did it in style.
Just like he did last year, Graffeo shredded a talented field in the Large School race of the Bob Glennon Twilight Invitational by sizzling through the five-kilometer layout at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds in a triumphant and PR of 14 minutes, 56.10 seconds! The Ghosts’ gifted harrier was more than a football-field’s length ahead of Brookline’s Altamo Aschkena, who was timed in 15:16.21 for second.
Thirteen runners broke 16 minutes, the fastest collectively of all three races at the two-day meet. Brookline, which had three of those sub-16 guys at Sunday’s meet, easily took the team title. The state’s No. 3 ranked squad compiled 80 points to bring home the hardware. Shrewsbury was second with 168 points, while Cambridge Rindge & Latin was third with 203 points. Behind Aschkenasy were senior Lysander Duffield (fifth, 15:36.78), junior Theodore Butty (12th, 15:45.16)|, senior Theo Kessler (29th, 16:21.63) and senior Sam Haber (35th, 16:29.34).
In an equally-impressive performance, Needham’s Greta Hammer put the hammer down in the girls’ varsity race where she beat Division 1 rival Aoife Shovlin by 11 seconds with an all-time best of 17:40.1. Shovlin, a winner last month at the Frank Kelley Invitational, finished in 17:51.13. Wellesley’s Charlotte Tuxbury was third at 18:02.67.
In a tight competition for the team title where nine points was the difference between the top three schools, Weymouth survived the battle, defeating second-place Needham, 121-124. North Kingstown, a legit State Meet contender from Rhode Island, was third with 130 points. Weymouth had a 30-second gap between its No.1 and No. 4 runners with the senior quartet of Isabella Galusha (12th, 18:40.14), Emma Daley (16th, 18:48.80), Gracie Richard (24th, 19:08.62) and Kate Carnes (27th, 19:19.18). Sophomore Natalie McInnis was 65th with a solid 20:14 clocking.
Bay State Running will add to this story.
