Sports
Reading's Micayla Oniskey Breaks School Record
Reading cross country runner shatters course record, Reading boys and girls fall to Lexington and defeat Melrose in tri-meet.
Reading's Micayla Oniskey shattered a school record Tuesday at the tri-meet hosted by Reading when she ran the 3.1 mile course with a time of 17:28, beating the original record by a staggering 30 seconds.
"(The record) has not been touched in five years, and she beat it by 30 seconds," said Reading boys and girls coach Michael Connelly.
Despite Oniskey's strong performance, Lexington came in first place, defeating both Reading teams and both Melrose teams.
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The Rockets did defeat Melrose, nonetheless, with scores of 18-43 (girls) and 15-50 (boys).
The girls lost by just one point to Lexington, 28-29. Since the score was tied after taking the top five runners into account, the victor was determined by comparing both teams' sixth runners.
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It turned out Reading's sixth runner, Elyssa Bond, was defeated by Lexington's sixth runner, Emma Vaughan by mere seconds.
"The Reading and Lexington girls' meet was the closest it could possibly be in a cross country meet," said Connolly. "They don't come any closer than they did today."
Reading's Victoria Perez also had a strong showing, coming in second with a time of 18:10 to influenced the close nature of the meet.
The boys did not have such a close match againt Lexington and were defeated 17-45. Despite the one-sided score, Reading's Captain Brad Porter ran well, coming in fourth with a time of 15:31.
Also running well for the Rockets was Peter Traugot, who came in eighth with a time of 16:18.
The Lexington boys took the top three spots with Nathaniel Adams coming in first with a time of 15:13, followed by captains Ammanual Abute (15:30), and Samuel Jones (15:30).
"We've been improving as a team every meet, and today proved it with the one, two, three finish against a very good Reading team who ran well today," said Lexington boys coach Bill Babcock. "Everyone just keeps improving and it's amazing,"
The Melrose team seemed to be outmatched against powerhouse teams like Reading and Lexington, but certain runners held their own.
Melrose's Anna Whalen came in eight place in the girls meet with a time of 19:20. The Melrose boys unfortunately could not break into the top fifteen.
The Rockets will have some time to rest up before they take on Stoneham on Oct. 16 away at 3:30 p.m.
