It didn’t take freshman Maggie Ashley long to acclimate to cross country at Verona High School.
On Tuesday, in her first high school competition, she was the first Verona girl to cross the finish line at Branch Brook Park, and came in fifth overall in a field of 56. Ashley was followed closely by teammate Amanda Flores, while Emily Petermann, Gabi Horton, Ava Anderson, Tycjana Konopka and Maddie Burke rounded out the VHS varsity team.
Ryan Ramsthaler was the first VHS boy to finish, coming in eighth out of 66 in the race with with a time of 18:07.
Seniors Chris Feury and Brad Smith, junior Dino Calandra and freshman Mark Walsh rounded out the top five finishers for Verona, followed by Jake Parent, Sean Burke and Brendan Carroll.
VHS’s cross country teams are going to have to be up for challenge in the races ahead. While Verona is one of the smaller schools in Essex County, we will compete in the larger SEC American Division the next two years. That means we’ll be going up against schools such as Montclair, West Orange, Millburn, Nutley, Newark Academy and Livingston. The teams’ next race is next Tuesday, September 16, in again Branch Brook Park.
Photos copyright Treesh Ramsthaler. Used by permission.
