The Villager Newspaper Online Your Community News – Cleveland's Westshore
The Westlake High Girls Cross Country Team posted its best team 5K (top five runners) time in school history (by almost five minutes) to win the Southwestern Conference Championship for the first time since 1998.
The 2017 title came at the Lorain County Community College last weekend.
Junior Erica Francesconi, sophomore Teagan Walsh, and freshman Emma Jaros packed together at the front of the race, setting the pace for the field as they each ran out to fantastic starts.
Eventually breaking away to a commanding lead, Erica ran the second fastest LCCC time in team history en route to becoming only the third girl in team history to be crowned as the individual champion of the SWC. In doing so, not only did Erica earn SWC MVP honors, but she also earned 1st Team All-SWC as well.
Teagan and Emma, close behind, ran fantastic races as they traded off spots in the top five before finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. As a result, Teagan repeated her 2016 1st Team All-SWC status while Emma earned her first 1st Team recognition.
Running the races of their career, freshman Ashley Boyd and senior captain Ellie Templeton ran with some of the top runners in the SWC the entire race, pushing themselves and working together while weaving in and out of the top 15 and top 20 the entire competition. Showing enormous heart and determination, both girls finished strong, Ashley finishing 15th to earn 2nd Team All-SWC and Ellie finishing in the top 20 to secure the team’s first SWC title in almost two decades. In doing so, both girls ran not only LCCC PR’s, but career 5K PR’s as well.
Filling in for injuries to Varsity runners Olivia Irwin and Meredith Hansen, freshman Lila Sucher and Alexandra Fernandez competed extremely well in their first ever SWC meet with both girls earning new course PR’s.
-By Travis Haselswerdt
(Thanks to Mr and Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Templeton for the above pictures! For full results, please check out the following link: Varsity & JV Results) at westlakeathletics.org).
