The Lexington High School women’s track and field team won its second straight Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 1 indoor championship last week, more than doubling the score of second-place Central Catholic, and will send 26 athletes to the New Balance National Indoor Meet in Boston running tomorrow through Sunday.
The women tore through the Middlesex League regular season undefeated at 5-0, then carried that momentum into the championship meet with five athletes placing first in individual and relay events.
But as the winter season comes to a close, the Minutemen’s women turn their attention to the upcoming national meet, where Lexington’s standout seniors and emerging young athletes are preparing to compete against the best high schoolers in the nation.
“We are in a unique period of time with this group of athletes, where almost everyone on the team is incredibly talented,” said Lexington track and field head coach Rebecca Trachsel. “The combination of their strength as athletes and their mental strength is like nothing I’ve ever experienced to date.”
Of the 26 women preparing to represent Lexington over the next four days, none stand out more than senior thrower Ainsley Cuthbertson, who is ranked No. 1 in the country in the 20-pound weight throw and holds the Massachusetts state record in shot put.
The senior captain’s dominance in throwing events belies her reserved demeanor. Often emitting no more than a small grunt as she propels projectiles farther than any high school woman in the country, Cuthbertson’s multiple school, state and national records speak to her dedication to the sport.
“She came in freshman year, very driven, excited to learn and said to [Lexington throwing coach] Coach [James] Hall, ‘I will do anything it takes to be the best in the country,’” said Trachsel. “She works throughout the summer. She works in the fall. It’s because of that … she has gotten to the point that she’s at now.”
The senior’s work ethic has propelled her from not qualifying for nationals as a freshman to her final indoor season, where she hopes to win the national championship.
“This year has been a pretty huge year for me on the national scale, which has been really cool,” Cuthbertson said. “My goal is to win the weight throw at both national meets.”
On the track, members of the Lexington team are transitioning from the team-first mentality of the regular season to a more individual mentality as they prepare for nationals.
“The bigger meets we thought about more as a team, but this is more individual, picturing your own race,” said sophomore long-distance runner Jane Conrad. “Trying to do it for yourself and trying to prove to yourself what you can do.”
For Conrad, proving herself means taking on the nation’s best in the 5,000-meter event, a race she has only run once during the indoor season. She finished fourth overall and broke the school record at the USA Track & Field New England Indoor Track & Field Championship on Feb. 22.
“I just want to work on racing a bunch of people at the national level,” she said. “I’ve only run it once on the track, and I just want to work on racing with a bunch of people around me.”
For fellow sophomore Amelia Whorton, the upcoming meet is another chance to succeed in multiple events, a role she has quickly earned in her two years at Lexington. Whorton won first place in the 1,000-meter, 1-mile, and 4×800 relay events at the division championship and already holds school records in the 600-meter, 800-meter, 1,000-meter, and one-mile events.
“She will step up to any opportunity, both individually and on a relay, if it gives her an opportunity to display what she’s capable of,” Trachsel said. “I think there’s a part of her that loves the challenge of seeing what she’s capable of every time she does it.”
Whether it’s Cuthbertson in the throwing circle or Conrad and Whorton on the track, Lexington’s women aspire to ride the team’s momentum and make a mark on the biggest stage of the season.
This story was written by a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Lexington Observer and other news organizations in the Boston area.