Belmont's Brams Second to One; Heads to State Championships

Belmont's Leah Brams continues to secure her place as one of the top freshmen harriers in Massachusetts by placing second to Falmouth sophomore Lauren O'Neil at the Eastern Mass Division III Cross Country Championships held in Wrentham on Saturday, Nov. 10. 

Brams will now take her talents to the All-State meet being held next Saturday, Nov. 17, at Northfield Mountain in western Massachusetts.

The Marauders' 9th grader ran the five kilometer course (3.1 miles) in 19 minutes and 5.5 second to take a clear second place behind O'Neil, who won with a 18:42, and in front of Natick's sophomore Sarah Lagan who finished nearly 100 meters behind the Belmont runner. 

Running a sub-6:05 per mile pace, Brams finished nearly 36 seconds faster then the next frosh, Dracut's Rachel Flores, who finished 16th. 

Brams' performance was one of the top by a freshman in the six division races run Saturday, although the times in all of the races are colored by the pace of the leaders and the tactics used. Only Division II champion Margie Cullen (18:53.4) and Division I runner-up Rebecca Grusby (a very swift 18:18.1) were quicker. 

Brams' second place highlighted Belmont's strong 13th place finish with 328 points. Juniors Lia Aftandilian finished in 54th (21:14) and Julia Lenef in 62nd (21:25) to round out the top three Marauders with junior Alexis Kaihlanen (22:34), senior Madeleine Snyder (22:41), junior Cindy Yu (22:58) and freshman Sophia Klimasmith (23:14) running with the pack. 

Led by two top 50 finishers, Belmont's Boys' placed 18th on Saturday, lead by Lewis Siilletto in 38th (17:20) and Tim Siracusa, 49th (17:33). Seth Altman (18:35), Ryan Touzjian (18:45), Peter Staub (19:23) and Riley Grant (19:44) had good days in southern Massachusetts.