McAuliffe Charter School's Cross-Country Team Undefeated at 15-0

In its inaugural season, the Christa McAuliffe Charter School’s co-ed cross-country team is undefeated at 15-0, in the regular season.

The team defeated KIPP Academy and EXCEL Academy, narrowly on a rainy course last Thursday to enter today’s championship, as the favorite.

The team will compete in the charter school league championship at Winnikinni Park in Haverhill at 10;30 a.m. today, Nov. 1.

Grade 8 runner Ben Burgess of Framingham, defended his winning streak, last Thursday, and is the favorite to win the championship individually, said McAuliffe Head Coach Ed Crowley. He has won every race this season for the McAuliffe Charter School, which is based in Framingham.

Crowley said one of the reasons the team is having success, in its first season, is due to its size.

“We have a big team,” said Crowley. ”I was so happy for this team to happen this year, and even happier with how hard they have worked,” said Crowley.

Another reason for the undefeated season Crowley said, was that the ”team has members that are willing to pace others in order to keep us as a tighter pack when finishing.”

Crowley singled out sixth grader runners Max Lyman and Lelain Bennett in this endeavor.

Other reasons for the team’s first year success is that the ”team has been working hard and willing to trust in their fitness abilities,” and they are having fun,” said Crowley.

“The biggest strength of our team is that they are equally caring about their team and individual efforts in both races and practice,” said Crowley.

Cross-country runners run on open courses between 2.5 and 3.5-miles.

Runners cross the finish line and earn points for their team. Typically, the top five runners who finish a race determine how a team will score for a meet.

Points are awarded to the individual runners when they cross the finish line. For example, first place gets one point, second place runners gets 2 points, etc.

The points for these runners are they added together, and the low score wins. Ties are typically broken by the position of each team’s sixth-place runner.

While an individual can win the race, a team only wins when its best runners finish higher, than the runners of any given team they are running against.