By Kai-Lou Yue
Staff Writer

Dillon McGee, a junior at Westford Academy, was one of the two people and the only boy who went to States this year for cross country. He placed 133rd out of about 180 people. States for this year were held in Northfield on November 17th.

The race was 5 kilometers – about 3 miles long, and McGee’s time was 17:50. According to McGee, the conditions for the race were good: 45-50 degrees and sunny.

“I felt like I did alright, but I could’ve done better…I felt good at the beginning of the race, bad during the middle and I finished strong. The end of the race was not the hardest part, there was a point after the first mile where it got really tiring an there was a big hill, but after that it was easier,” said McGee.

According to one of McGee’s teammates, freshman Shyam Bhagat, McGee is one of the fastest people on the WA team.

As usual for most runners before a big race, McGee was a little nervous, but he said he felt that he was well prepared, even though it was his first time going to States for cross country. However, he also said that he had never run a race so far into the postseason before, but had run in races with more people before, so he was interested to see how the race turned out.

Running requires a large amount of training and work. However, McGee did many speed workouts to train earlier in the cross country season. But now, since he has been going to more races, he does not have much time to train as much as he did in between races as he did before. Even though he is such an experienced runner and cross country practice was held six days a week, McGee said that running did not affect his grades and schoolwork greatly.

“I look up to him, he is serious about the sport and his times reflect it,” said Bhagat.

McGee has been running for track since 6th grade at Blanchard Middle School, and started cross country during his freshman year at WA.

A dedicated member of the Westford Academy Cross Country team, McGee went to every meet throughout the season to cheer his teammates on.

“I would like to run in college if I can. After that, I hope to still run, but I don’t know if I will continue racing,” said McGee.