The wide-open fields of the Wrentham Developmental Center are open for business this weekend.
The popular cross-country venue, site of numerous league and statewide competitions—including the Division 1 Championships—will host its fall opener on Saturday: the MSTCA Frank Kelley Invitational.
This meet highlights each individual class, with separate Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior three-kilometer races. It’s also divided by school size, with Large Schools (Division 1) competing in the morning session and Medium/Small Schools (Divisions 2 and 3) racing in the afternoon.
Will this weekend’s meet give us a glimpse of what to expect once championship season rolls around?
Well, sort of.
Because of the timing and shorter distance of the races, several schools will opt out of sending their “A” teams to Wrentham. There will still be some top talent on hand, but it will be limited. On the flipside, Saturday’s invite should offer a sampling of some of the rising stars, primarily in the Freshmen and Sophomore races.
We’ll do our best to project how the individual titles may shake out based on the entries.
Here, we focus on the Large School races.
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GIRLS
Freshmen Race – 9:20 a.m.
The freshmen races, especially early in the season, are always difficult to predict. Unless they’ve competed at the high school level as eighth-graders, we don’t have too much information about the youngest harriers on the course. From the information we dug up, it appears the top two runners in this field are Mansfield’s Rose Norcross and Arlington’s Loize Gaffray. If this duo is indeed the runners with the two fastest times in the field, this one could be a close one. According to stats on athletic.net, Norcross has only competed in one race this fall, a sixth-place finish in a league meet on Sept. 9. Norcross was timed in 22:44.0 for the 5K distance. That computes to about 13 minutes, maybe 13:30 for the 3K. Like her rival this weekend, Gaffray also went sub-23 for the 5K in the only race she toed the line this season, She was seventh overall in a meet against Arlington with a 22:58 clocking.
Sophomore Race – 10 a.m.
Billerica placed fourth in the Division 1 race at last year’s Meet of Champions. Of its seven varsity runners, five were underclassmen — three of whom will be on the starting line this weekend.
That trio figures to be front and center with Anna Rossini and twin sisters Caitlyn and Kylie Donahue all scheduled to race. Each broke 20 minutes for 5K last fall, highlighted at the Bob Glennon Twilight Invitational, where Caitlyn clocked 19:01.2, Kylie 19:09.1, and Rossini 19:31.9. Based on those performances, the Donahues project in the 12:30–12:45 range — maybe faster — for the shorter 3K course, with Rossini also a strong candidate to dip under 13 minutes.
Among the competition, Newton South freshman Margot An has already run 13:46, just ahead of teammate Lilah Dempsey at 13:47. Bishop Feehan’s Bailey D’Alessio (14:03) could also be in the mix for a top-five spot.
Junior Race – 10:40 a.m.
Saturday’s race sets up an intriguing matchup at the front, with Billerica’s Madelynn LaRosa entering as the early favorite.. She clocked a 5K best of 19:28.6 at the Twilight Invitational last year and also dipped under 20 minutes at the Meet of Champions, placing 39th overall in 19:57.8.
She’ll have some familiar company with teammate Emma Ausillo also on the line. Ausillo actually got the best of LaRosa at the Division 1C Championships, running a PR of 20:10.5 on the challenging Northfield Mountain course. She has a 3K best of 12:30.9 from the 2023-24 season when she was third in Frosh 3K at the Catholic Memorial Invitational. Going back further, Ausillo first tested herself at the Kelley Invite as an eighth-grader three years ago, finishing 22nd in the Freshmen-Sophomore race in 12:44.7.
Newton South should also be in the mix, led by a trio of returners: Jasmine Mozaffarian (12:38 for 3K), Ellie Drzewiecki (12:49.0), and Leah Grenier (12:59.0 for 3K; 22:03.8 for 5K).
Senior Race – 11:20 a.m.
Judging by the entries, the runner to watch in this race is Central Catholic’s Lila Christy. She captured last year’s junior race here in 11:54.7 and later clocked a personal best of 19:26.6 for 5K on the same Wrentham course at the Frank Mooney Invitational. Arlington should also be competitive, led by Chloe Reinelt, who placed fifth against Lexington on Tuesday with a PR of 20:33. Teammates Caroline Herr (20:50) and Vivien Lyman (21:05) weren’t far behind, finishing seventh and eighth.
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BOYS
Freshmen Race- 9 a.m.
Our pre-race picks to win it all are Braintree’s Kyle Koca and Plymouth South’s Joseph DiMartinis.
Koca clocked a 5K best of 18:47.0 in a league meet with Wellesley and Natick last Wednesday. He was also the fifth freshman to finish at the recent MARSHVegas Classic, running 19:10.9 on a course that included hay bales and a water barrier.
DiMartinis placed fifth in the freshmen 3K at the Vineyard Invitational with a PR of 10:45.8. He also claimed victory in the Junior Varsity race at MARSHVegas, covering the 2.3-mile course in 13:08.4.
St. John’s Prep should also be well represented up front. Lincoln Bures (11:09), Cade Byron (11:16.0), and Griffin Lindsay (11:20.0) all set their PRs in a Sept. 9 meet against Saint John’s and could push the leaders here.
Sophomore Race – 9:40 a.m.
This race features two of last year’s standout freshmen — Billerica’s Mason Niles and Concord-Carlisle’s Cameron Smack. Niles stunned the field in 2024 by winning the Division 1C title in a personal-best 16:19.4. He backed that up at the Meet of Champions, clocking 16:25.1 in the Division 1 race. Smack’s top effort came at last year’s Kelley Invitational, where he placed 49th in the Championship race with a 16:42.7 clocking.
Another sub-17 performer in the field is Mansfield’s Nikita Cherapukha. Just last week, he placed fifth in a league meet with Oliver Ames in 16:50. He followed that effort with a runner-up finish against North Attleboro on Wednesday, running 17:19.
Junior Race – 10:20 a.m.
This race could still feature a strong lead pack late, with the potential for a winning time in the low 16-minute range, or possibly even faster. This projection is primarily based on last year’s results.
Concord-Carlisle teammates Sawyer Bout and Braeden Quayle both ran their 5K personal bests at this race in 2024. Bout finished 22nd overall in the Championship race with a time of 16:09.88, while Quayle was close behind in 23rd at 16:11.47. Look for them to work together again at Wrentham, aiming to lower their times and earn a high placement on Saturday.
Billerica’s Sahil Gandhi enters with a best of 16:08.6 from the Twilight Invitational. Other top contenders include Algonquin Regional’s Stephen Green, who ran 16:32.6 at Twilight, and Attleboro’s Owen Lacaillade, who posted a season-best 16:43 in a league meet last week.
St. John’s Prep will rely on a strong group of four runners to chase fast times and high placements. The quartet consists of Mateo DeOrio (17:25.0), Leo Seltenrich (17:28.0), Liam Callahan (17:38.0), and Hunter Opal (17:40.0).
Senior Race – 11 a.m.
We’re expecting a fast race here. It features three runners that broke 16 minutes last year and a few more in that low 16-minute range. Our sub-16 guys includes Shepherd Hill’s Nathaniel Grant (15:53.9), St. John’s Prep’s Liam Mahoney (15:55.4) and Beverly’s Jason Provost (15:49.9). Grant ran his best in Wrentham with a victory in the Small School Junior-Senior race at the Frank Mooney Invitational. Mahoney also earned his PR at Mooney, placing fifth in the Large School Senior Boys’ competition.
A few others not to ignore at Plymouth North’s Anthony Lyons (16:10.4), Concord-Carlisle’s Luke Crouse (16:13.5), Beverly’s CHarles Bossler (16:18.5) and Mansfield’s Joseph Federline. Federline recently ran his all-time best of 16:10.
