The Galvin boys and girls cross country teams recently faced off in two great battles against the Melrose squads at the Beasley Oval course.  Nearly 100 runners  participated in the meet.  They ran on the 1.7 mile course; a portion of the Wakefield High School cross country team course.  

The girls’  race featured a strong performance by Galvin 8^th grader Maeve Conway.  Conway had company throughout the race with Galvin runners Olivia Lucey and Allee Purcell and Melrose runner Alva Ronn.  It was Conway who finished on top with a strong last 500 meters, starting with a surge downhill onto the track and opening up enough of a gap coming around the final turn to seize the victory in 11:25.  Olivia Lucey also held off Melrose’s Ronn for second with a time of 11:31, while Purcell grabbed fourth with a time of 11:35.   Galvin’s Gina Barbera 6^th(12:23), amd Monica Almeda 8^th(12:45)  finished the scoring to help Galvin get the team victory.  Galvin runners continued with strong performances by Mean Foley(13:04), Meghan Foley(13:05), Retta Carroll(13:20), Amanda Westlake(13:38), Abby Mondello(13:52), Ashley LeBlanc(14:10), Isabella Keogh(14:20), Jillian Fiore(14:25), Annabella Greco(14:30), Kelly O’Connell(15:17), Julianne D’Ambrosio(15:25), Natalie Freight(15:43), Grace O’Connell(16:01), Rachel McNall(16:02), Natalie Hopkins(16:02),Taylor Hubbard(16:35), Francesca Frate(16:58).

On the boys’ side a courageous Matthew Greatorex put on an exciting performance for the crowd at the Beasley Oval, taking the lead from three Melrose boys coming down the hill onto the track.  However Sean Conlan of Melrose had something to say about it and threw in a furious kick with 200 meters to go and finish in 10:00 for the win.  Greatorex continued to hang tough getting edged at the line for second, but finished in an eye-popping 10:09 for the 7^th grader.  Sixth grader Colin Jaena and James Casale had great races for the Galvin harriers, finishing in 5^th in 11:06 and 6^th in 11:13.    Other great performances for the Galvin runners were 8^th for Dominic Conte(11:36), 11^th for Peter Crump(11:45), Tommy Lucey(11:48), 13^th for James Crump(11:51), Jake Healey(11:53), Patrick Almeida(11:55), James Sciarappa(12:07), Tyler Veerman(12:10),  John Benoit(12:34), Sam Morey(12:44), Riley Brackett(12:46), Matt Roberto(12:51), Ryan Ritchie(12:56), Colby Emerson(13:00), Davit Root(13:03), Trevor Noble(13:11), Tucker Hanson(13:25), Chris Brown(13:26), Tyler Moore(13:53), Luke Hendricks(13:55), Aidan Armstrong(14:07), William Hendriks(14:28), Nick Major(14:32), Dalton Spilane(14:34), Jack Matuszewski(14:43), Tim Mailhoit(14:43), Scott Elwell(14:58), Sean Joudrie(15:28), Cal Sylvia(15:29), Cameron Farrow(16:20), Sam Simpson(17:32).   The boys did not come away with the win, but showed a lot of talent and depth that could benefit the high school team in years to come.