GARDNER - Lincoln-Sudbury girls' cross country coach Chris Tarello suggested his team's defeat last Saturday to Newton South in the EMass championships was the best thing for his team, because he wanted to see how they would respond to adversity.
It turns out the Warriors didn't enjoy losing, and took it out on the competition at the Gardner Municipal Golf Course yesterday. The Warriors sharpened their concentration during the week of rest, got healthy and were ready for a second bout with their rival.
With top five runner Ellie Hylton, back in action after missing last week's meet with an injury, the Warriors proved their championship mettle in easily cruising past Newton South, 48-103, to win the MIAA state championship. Lincoln-Sudbury failed to have its top runners stay together as a cohesive unit last week, but this week was a different story.
There were four Warriors among the top 16 individual finishers. Freshman Andrea Keklak led the way in 17 minutes 27 seconds to place seventh, while Dana Jamieson (17:39) and Claire Arthur (17:44) finished 11th and 12th, respectively. Hylton's return had a huge impact, as she came in 16th at 17:47 to secure the rout and Tarello's first state championship as a head coach.
"Last week everything that could've gone wrong, went wrong," Tarello said. "I'm proud of the way these girls showed their character in coming out and winning this. Sometimes athletes get down and stay down but this team stepped up after a disappointing loss last week."
Kirsten Kasper of North Andover had the top individual time among Division 1 girls with a 16:54. Finishing out the top three were Natick's Rebecca White (17:07) and Masconomet's Abbey D'Agostino (17:10).
There was some redemption in Division 2 as well. A few weeks ago at the Brown Invitational, Bromfield's Emily Jones was second behind Triton rival Keely Maguire in a tight finish.
In an effort to defend the individual and team state championship she won a year ago, Jones got off to a blazing start and never looked back to finish well ahead of the pack with a 16:06.
Not only did Jones win the race and top Maguire (16:21), she paced Bromfield's third consecutive state title (fourth since 2002) as the Tigers topped Oliver Ames, 67-76.
"Emily broke away at the beginning and really set the tone for the other girls," Bromfield coach Henry Phelan said. "She did a great job of defending her title."
Finishing behind Jones for Bromfield were Liz Lee at 10th (17:32), Emily Reedich (18:09) and Bo Dunn (18:21), who finished 25th and 31st respectively.
"We've worked very hard for this," Phelan said. "I knew there would be a lot of pressure on us because we won the past two, but we came through when it mattered and ran our best race of the year."
