By RYAN WALKER
The Norwell girls’ cross country team won the sectional at Bellmont High School Saturday morning with a team score of 47.
The Bluffton Tigers did not have a team score, as they ran with just four runners.
The Knights’ dominant performance was another day at the office, coming in keeping it simple.
“They killed it, they showed up to race, and they were not afraid to just run and run their race, and they did,” head coach Vanessa Macias Hannie said. “They worked together as a team and pushed each other forward, which is exactly what we were trying to do today.”
The sectional trophy will fill the case along with the other races they’ve won this season at the New Haven Classic, Flashrock Invite, the Bi-County meet, and the Knights’ own Norwell Invite.
Norwell came into the week keeping it one meet at a time according to Macias Hannie. The team has had success doing that all year but understands that the competition will get more challenging each week, and this late in the year, each team is running its hardest.
“We’ve been continuing to talk about everybody wants it,” she said. “So, how bad do you want it, and how bad are you going to work this week?”
“They’re working hard. They’re tough,” she added,
The final places and times for the sectional meet for the Knights were led by fifth-place Brooklyn Meyer at 20:14.2, seventh Ashley Waldman at 20:26.4, eighth Addison Meyer at 20:27.2, 11th Makenzee Kahn at 20:35.3, 16th Haleigh Reinhard at 20:50.2, 21st Elizabeth Norris at 21:21.5, and 42nd Emerson Meredith at 23:05.6.
Despite not qualifying with enough runners for a team score, the Bluffton girls’ team had personal records for all but just one.
Head coach Michael Vanderkolk set a goal in the second meet of the year, where his team raced at Bellmont, the hosting school for the sectional. Each of the four improved their time by nearly a minute from the first checkpoint.
“That’s the huge thing about coming back here,” Vanderkolk said. “Each one of those girls has improved so much. Something that we mentioned going into this meet is finishing the year with pride.”
“We as coaches have been thrilled with the growth that they’ve had on the course. Just personally, they’ve become stronger individuals It’s just a testament to them pushing through every step of the way,” he said.
The official places and times for the Lady Tigers were 44th Dakota Lee at 23:13.7, 60th Amarah Robles at 24:35.6, 61st Alydia Bertsch at 24:36.5, and 68th Annika Linderwell at 25:09.7.
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