Sports

XC: Girls' Defuse the Rockets Behind Brams' Wire-to-Wire Win

Boys' Lewis Silletto breaks up Reading run to secure fourth in race.

Belmont High School Cross Country home opening race for Head Coach Brian Dunn Girls' team had a familiar theme like that of last year: now-sophomore Leah Brams runs away from the field and wins by more than a minute coming close to her course record

But unlike last year, this season Brams – who finished in 7th place in the state championships as a freshman last November and ran away with the win Tuesday in 19 minutes and 40 seconds – has company when the low points are distributed at the end of race.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, along Clay Pit Pond and the Belmont High athletic fields, Brams didn't led a long line of opponents across the finish line; this meet Belmont sophomore sensation was followed by a pair of Marauders: senior Julia Lenef (20:58) in second and sophomore Sophia Klima-Smith in fourth (21:25). 

Those three plus freshman Elizabeth Silletto's first-ever competitive run around the pond in a credible 10th (22:13) and senior Lia Aftandilian's 11th (22:21) produced Belmont's first win over a Reading team in, well, a long time, by the narrowest of margins: one point, 28-29. 

This meet and an earlier season win over host Stoneham has Belmont at 2-0 and sharing the lead in the Middlesex League's Liberty Division with Lexington. 

Over on the boys side of the ledger, senior Lewis Silletto kept up with some of the most powerful boy harriers in the league until the final lap to finish in fourth place., The was followed by Tim Siracusa, Colin Stievater, David Green and Peter Staub as the Rockets took the meet, 20-39, leaving Belmont at 1-1 this season.


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