The girls cross country team raced their way past their Central Mass rivals and into States this fall.

When the season began, Coach Brian Kellett said that he knew the team would be competitive, but also knew that the competition in the district was tough.

“We learned a lot from the tough competition,” Kellett said.

Kellett noted that the competition helped the team form an identity early on and ultimately helped them at the end of the season.

The team fought through adversity as they went on to race past highly ranked Nashoba at Districts,  a team that had beaten Algonquin earlier in the year. At Districts, the Tomahawks became one of three teams to advance to States, shocking coaches and those following the sport alike.

“For the team to qualify for the State meet was a huge accomplishment because usually only one or two people qualify. However, every single member of the top seven ran fast enough to get us third place in the district,” said senior captain Maddie Partridge.

Leading the Tomahawks were two runners who Kellett proclaimed a ‘dynamic duo’:  senior Kyra Shreeve and junior Megan Walsh who fought to raise the bar for the Tomahawk runners.

“It meant a lot to me when the team qualified for States because I knew that everyone had worked hard all year, and it was great to see all of the hard work pay off.  It was definitely a great way to finish off my last season of cross country,” Shreeve said.

Some runners on the team started training for the season over the summer and ran about six days a week on their own. During the season they had practice five days a week and usually ran at least once over the weekend too.

Shreeve broke the Algonquin course record and bested her fastest 5K time by a whopping 59 seconds this fall.

“It felt so amazing [to break the course record]. It had been my goal for four years and finally completing it made all of the hard work worthwhile,” Shreeve said.

Walsh shone as the top Tomahawk runner in the league, district, and state meets. Joining Walsh as a top junior runner was Kendyl Finelli. Finelli finished second on the team at districts and Kellet awarded her the title of “most improved.”

“I specifically remember the feeling I had right before the race started. My stomach was twisting and turning waiting for the gun to go off,” Finelli said.

“Coming through the finish line was physically relieving. It was the hardest race I’ve ever run. The course was exhausting and I was drained by the end. I also was really proud that I accomplished finishing the race, and the season. Once I caught my breath, however, I was a little upset because the season was over. The varsity team had gotten really close over the three extra weeks we had in the season, so it was tough knowing that that was over,” Walsh said.

The last time the girls cross country team made States was four years ago, but this type of success is not uncommon.

“It seems like every few years we’ve had a team that makes it to states, and when it happens it is notable,” Kellett said.

Kellett’s proudest moment as the coach was seeing the team go to States.

“It was more rewarding since it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that we were going to win,” Kellet said.