The loneliness of the long distance runner isn’t as lonely as it once was, if you’re wearing a New Westminster Secondary jersey.
The school’s cross-country program is enjoying a minor boom of interest as it heads into the second meet of the season.
Thanks to a strong crop of junior runners, plus a few more at the senior level, New West posted solid team results at a Burnaby/New West/Tri-Cities meet last week.
“We have a pretty good group and we were expecting them to do well,” said coach Bryan MacMaster. “We hope that this can continue and we can make a good showing at provincials.”
The New West junior boys posted the second-best team result, while the senior boys finished first among the Burnaby/New West district.
Senior Ben Jansen-Budzik finished 29th overall, with a time of 19:41 minutes, while Alex Hewlett-Bowbrick was right behind at 30th at 19:50.
The top Hyack junior boy was Evan Beckers, placing 12th overall, with a time of 13:30, while Ben Kramer stood 17th.
On the girls side, Lara Borgford and Ava Lee were in step in placing 16th and 17th, respectively, in 22:41 and 22:45. On the junior side, Sophie Crowther came fourth overall with a time of 15.05.
“She’s coming off an injury, so we were kind of hoping she’d take it easy,” said MacMaster. “She doesn’t understand those words.”
A year ago, NewWest only had one senior boy in cross country, but has five competing this season.
