AC XC Continues Winning Streak

– Allison Goldsberry

The Arlington Catholic Girls Cross Country team continued its winning ways on a quest for a second consecutive Central Catholic League Championship by trouncing league rival Cardinal Spellman by a score of 21 to 39 at Arlington’s Menotomy Rocks Park on Monday.

Two course records were set that day, with defending and undefeated league champion Katie Powers of Cardinal Spellman breaking the record previously set by Cougar freshman sensation Kaitlin McCauley of Watertown. Powers won the race with a time of 19 minutes and 29 seconds.

McCauley, who placed second in the race, smashed her own course record by twenty-three seconds with a time of 20:18 for the 3.1 mile course. It’s the third time this season the AC freshman has broken the school course record.

The rest of the Cougar pack includes sophomore Janelle Solviletti (Billerica) in third place, junior captain Brigid Kirkpatrick of Medford in fourth, senior captain Lauren Reiss (Arlington) in fifth, junior Becca Gonsalves-Lamontagne (Woburn) in seventh, freshman Jessica Higgins (Peabody) in eighth, freshman Olivia Liberti (Medford) in ninth, and junior Jessica Kent (Arlington) in thirteenth place.

The girls are currently undefeated in the league with a 5-0 record.

The Cougar boys came through by winning a close one (26-29) to improve their record to 4-1. Once again the AC team was led by senior captain Joe Donlon (Stonehan), who won the race with a time of 17 minutes and 40 seconds. Sophomore Kevin Connors of Belmont placed third, junior Kyle Liberti (Medford) fifth, junior Chris Laffey (Billerica) seventh, junior Nolan Hart (Medford) tenth, senior Andrew Cohen (Waltham) eleventh, sophomore Matt Woods (Arlington) thirteenth, and junior Stu Luddeke (Arlington) in fourteenth.

The Cougars’ next races include a freshman/sophomore meet on Thursday, a meet against Lowell Catholic on Tuesday, and a trip to Franklin Park to run in the annual Catholic Memorial invitational next weekend.