Westford junior Paul Bergeron was the fastest Massachusetts runner at the Ocean State Invitational in Warwick, R.I last month. After he finished second with a scorching 15:10 time, Bergeron posted about it on social media — but not your traditional platform.
Bergeron went to his Strava account, noting that he actually fell during the race and that the course had “crazy hard terrain.” He received 99 “kudos” (Strava’s version of a “like”) and several comments from friends and rivals.
“You can tell however you feel, what your time was, your place,” he said. “And you can feel it — you’ll get a lot of supportive comments, and it’s nice,” he said.
‘I kind of look at it as a social media for runners.’
Westford senior Austin Desisto, on the popularity of Strava social media platform among the running community
Strava is a website and app with over 100 million users. It has ballooned in running circles across the globe and helped connect some of the state’s best with each other, fostering a competitive camaraderie that transcends school lines.
“I kind of look at it as a social media for runners,” Westford senior Austin Desisto said.
The platform starts as a training log. Users can connect Strava to their smart watch, and through a Garmin or other tracking account, Strava can automatically upload their mileage, map their course and monitor factors such as heart rate, elevation change, and even the shoes worn — one of Desisto’s favorite features.
“I think it’s kept me injury-free, to be able to really know how many miles are on my shoes, and it’s also cool to just kind of track back,” he said.
Runners can then post every workout, long run and race to their own profile, along with photos and captions, and tag their running mates. Bergeron and Desisto have each posted over 500 runs; some local standouts have logged over 1,800.
But the social component has really changed the nature of competitive cross-country. Bergeron, Desisto and a few Westford teammates helped organize a summer long run that began with an invitation on Strava. It ended up including close to 30 participants, including stars like Nathan Lopez (St. John’s Prep), David Manfredi (Weymouth) and Ryan Connolly (North Andover), and continued for multiple weeks.
“That was cool. That was a nice sense of community,” Bergeron said.
Strava can peel back the curtain on how top runners, like those on the No. 1 Westford boys’ team, have been training throughout the year. It fosters healthy competition, but Bergeron also said his friendship with Lopez can be traced back to an interaction on the app.
Westford coach Scott Hafferkamp says the app highlights what’s special about being a serious runner..
“I think that’s something you definitely see in the running community. Even though we’re all trying to do our best and compete, at the end of the day, everyone is sort of on the same team being a runner,” he said.
Strava has captivated the cross-country community in the present. Two Dover-Sherborn runners hope their app, Coach’s Clipboard, can support teams in the future.
Junior Margaret Bowles and senior Alexandra Martinovich received an exam project in their AP Computer Science class last spring that required them to code a program they would use in their everyday lives. When they thought of their spring track season — and the memories of teams huddled around each other, scribbling scores on envelopes and fumbling over inaccuracies — they had their vision.
Bowles and Martinovich have developed a set of apps to calculate and score cross-country, indoor and outdoor track meets. Over the summer, they expanded Coach’s Clipboard from a school project to a full product with customizable themes for buyers.
“We thought that would be a sort of simple application that would help coaches be more consistent and efficient about calculating scores,” Bowles said.
The two developers spent most of the summer fine-tuning Coach’s Clipboard, which runs through Code.org and uses elements of JavaScript. When Martinovich went to Croatia with her family, she would call Bowles at 11 p.m. to check in on the progress.
“We were basically just sending each other long sections of code back and forth all summer to try to get our apps to work,” Martinovich said.
Each app costs $15 and includes personalization to match school colors and team photos. Bowles said that schools from the Tri-Valley League and Merrimack Valley Conference have already signaled interest in the first week of public launch.
All proceeds go towards the Science Club for Girls, an organization that provides free STEM classes and experiences for girls in Boston. The cause was particularly important to the two Raiders; according to a US Census Bureau report in 2019, women make up just 27 percent of the STEM workforce.
“Underserved students get less access to opportunities, and underserved students from marginalized backgrounds get even less. So the Science Club for Girls tries to fill that gap,” Bowles said. “It’s getting a lot better, obviously, but women, both in sports and in STEM, are underrepresented, so that’s how we came to the Science Club for Girls.”
Martinovich hopes that by spring, at least 50 percent of MSTCA coaches will be using the app to score their meets.
“It really is a game-changer in scoring a cross country meet, and I think some coaches are skeptical because it’s such a change from the traditional method of pencil and paper, but it saves a lot of time and it’s much more accurate,” she said.
Setting the pace
▪ The Bay State Invitational, scheduled for Saturday at Fort Devens, should serve as a quality preview of November’s All-State meet. This will be the only invitational race run on the 5K course this fall, and several of the top teams are showing up to get a lay of the land. The meet includes three high school varsity A, B and C races on both the boys and girls’ sides.
Top-ranked Holliston will send its girls’ roster to an invitational for the first time this season and should be among the favorites. Second-ranked Brookline will also look to keep up momentum after a dominant Frank Kelley performance.
Seven of the top eight Globe Top 20 boys’ teams will make the trip, headlined by No. 1 Westford. Central Mass. star Aidan Ross of Uxbridge is also on the entry list after clocking the fastest time (14:47) in Wrentham course history at All-States last season.
▪ St. John’s Prep’s Nathan Lopez announced his college commitment to Michigan this past week. Lopez is a three-time Globe All-Scholastic in cross-country and was a spring track Athlete of the Year last season.
Meets to watch
Tuesday, No. 2 St. John’s Prep at No. 12 BC High boys, 4 p.m. — The top two teams in the Catholic Conference are both unbeaten entering the showdown.
Tuesday, No. 12 Newton South vs. No. 17 Weston at Lincoln-Sudbury girls, 4 p.m — This Dual County League tri-meet features a deep Lions team and a Division 3 title contender in the Wildcats.
Wednesday, No. 11 Acton-Boxborough boys at No. 16 Cambridge boys, 4:30 p.m. — The Dual County League has a crowded second tier of teams, with the Revolution and Falcons squarely in the mix.
Wednesday, No. 2 Brookline vs. No. 6 Wellesley at Walpole girls, 4 p.m. — The Warriors and Raiders are the top two ranked teams from a strong Bay State Conference.
Wednesday, No. 14 Hopkinton at Medfield girls, 3:30 p.m. — The Warriors are a rising team in the Tri-Valley League, but will have to get past a conference stalwart in the Hillers.
Wednesday, No. 1 Westford at No. 13 Concord-Carlisle boys, 4 p.m. — There are few easy weeks in the Dual County League, with the top-ranked Ghosts getting another test against the Patriots.
Ethan Fuller can be reached at ethan.fuller@globe.com.