Franklin Park

On Saturday, Franklin Park in Boston plays host to the McIntyre-Bay State Invitational, the largest High School XC invitational in Massachusetts. Held at the approximate midpoint of the season, the BSI is a great chance to run on the same course where the EMass Championships will be held in November. There are races for varsity, JV, and freshmen boys and girls. Altogether, about 2000 athletes compete.

It's hard to imagine any place other than Franklin Park for this meet. Franklin Park has a long and colorful history as host to local, national, and international meets. I ran at Franklin Park when I was in high school in the 1970's. The great Alberto Salazar ran at Franklin Park, but never won a State Title there. In 1984, the day after Doug Flutie threw his "Hail Mary" pass to Gerald Phelan in Miami, Franklin Park hosted the U.S. National XC Championships. In March 1992, Franklin Park hosted the World Championships. It snowed the night before the meet, and a number of runners from the Kenyan and Ethiopian teams ran barefoot through the late spring snow.

Varsity High school runners compete on the 5K course at Franklin Park. The 5K course starts at the far end of Playstead field and consists of three loops. In the first loop, runners cross the field at a gallop, take a hard right turn down a slight incline that takes them behind White Stadium and eventually back behind the Starting line and around the field past the Finish line. About 100m after passing the finish line, runners pass the 1M mark and start around White Stadium a second time. ON the secon loop, however, instead of turning back toward the Start area, runners detour up and over the one significant hill on the course -- Bear Cage Hill -- named for the area that used to be part of the Franklin Park Zoo. The top of Bear Cage Hill is approximately the halfway mark. From there, runners fly down the hill, and bear left behind the Start area, right behind the backstop, and past the Finish line a second time. The third and final loop is called the Wilderness loop and presents runners with almost a mile of twisting trails and modest rolling terrain. Runners leave the Wilderness with about 600m to go, circle the entire field one last time before finishing.



Freshmen get to run a 3K version of the course that cuts out the Wilderness loop.

Every year, the most talented runners vie to make the list of the Top 100 HS times ever recorded at the Franklin Park course. (In case you're wondering, Newton North alumnus Chris Barnicle is #8 on the Varsity Boys list and #3 on the Freshman Boys list. Newton North has five girls on the Top 100 list, with 2004 grad Liz Gleason leading the way at #48 and Jess Barton currently sitting at #69, a placing that could change on Saturday.)

While the boys team is passing up the BSI this year to focus on next Wednesday's showdown with Wellesley, the girls hope to make a splash with a strong freshman team in the Div I Freshman race (1:45 p.m.) and n the Div I Varsity race (2:20 p.m.).

If you have never been to Franklin Park for a meet, don't wait until the end of the year. This is the weekend to go. Here are my favorite directions from Newton Center.

Hope to see you there!

Early Release

Early release today at Newton North, so time for some random thoughts...

Are certain injuries contagious? It always seems that there's one injury every year that makes the rounds, even among runners who are doing different training. One year it was shin splint, this year it's achilles tendonitis.

It's good to see the freshman class (girls) and sophomore class (boys) doing so well. The future looks bright for the ongoing success of the program.

The great thing about cross-country is that every single runner, from the fastest to the slowest, can expect to see significant improvement over the course of the season. Some of that improvement is plain fitness, and some of it is learning how to push. I never get tired of seeing someone wake up to what an XC race is all about and suddenly cut a minute or more off their best time.

The Bay State Invitational at Franklin Park (Oct 1) is a great event. Too bad the boys aren't going, but the girls are running a varsity and freshman team (and maybe JV?). The freshman race is at 1:45, the varsity race at 2:20. Go support the team!

The NN-Wellesley meet (Oct 5) is the first real dual meet test for North. It's going to be fun.

Dave Polgar is doing a great job as captain of the boys team.

I don't want to jinx us, but I've never made it through an XC season without at least one meet being postponed because of weather. Halfway through the season, we've been very fortunate.

I don't understand why all the hockey players in Norwood come out for the cross-country team. I thought football was the sport for keeping these kids off the street.

So much of running success is habit. Running during the summer is habit. Running every day during the season is habit. Warming up and cooling down are habits. Eating well, getting enough sleep, and taking care of yourself are habits. Running hard in track workouts is habit. If you have the right habits, you almost can't help being successful.

Around the BSC

Congratulations to the North squads on their lopsided wins against Norwood yesterday.

At the midpoint of the BSC XC schedule, the strong teams have come emerged, and most of the really interesting head-to-head matchups remain.

Girls
The three top girls teams in the league are Newton North, Wellesley, and Weymouth. NN and Weymouth are undefeated at 5-0. Wellesley lost its dual meet against Weymouth while missing its top two runners. On Oct. 5th, North takes on Wellesley at Walpole. On Oct. 18th, North runs against Weymouth at Cold Springs Park, a race that will feature a marquee individual matchup between Jess Barton and Becca MacDonald.

Current BSC girls standings:

Newton North 5-0
Weymouth 5-0
Wellesley 4-1
Needham 3-2
Natick 3-1

Boys
Five boys teams have separated themselves from the pack. They are Brookline, Needham, Newton North, Wellesley, and Weymouth. Despite their 2-3 record, Needham has been the most improved team in the league, running well in losses to Brookline and Newton, and coming within one second (ouch!) of tying Weymouth yesterday. Brookline looks very deep, with six runners at 17:30 or better for 5K. Wellesley is similar, with perhaps the deepest team in the league. Wellesley easily handled Weymouth, although the race was held at Elm Bank Park, which is very short and very flat. Weymouth might be better on a longer and hillier course. Newton North improves every day, with three of the league's best in Polgar, Brecher, and Jampol, and two future stars in Seb Putzeys and Ben Chebot. For other teams in the league who were hoping to take advantage of North's "rebuilding" year, don't start celebrating your victory yet. It will be a wild October for North, with three of their toughest meets coming on Oct 5 (Wellesley, at Walpole), Oct 18 (Weymouth, at home), and Oct. 25 (Brookline, at Larz Anderson Park).

Current BSC boys standings:

Brookline 5-0
Newton North 5-0
Wellesley 5-0
Weymouth 4-1
Natick 3-2
Needham 2-3

Looking Past Norwood

There's a truism in sports: never look past your current opponent, no matter how much the odds favor you. The underdog can always come up with a few big plays, hang around, and then pull off the big upset.

Sorry, not today. Both the boys and girls teams are looking past Norwood. They can't help it. There are bigger meets on the horizon. For the girls, the McIntyre Bay State Invitations is on Saturday and it promises to be an exciting debut for North's "fab five" -- a phalanx of talented ninth-graders who hope to strut their stuff in the freshmen 3K. For the boys, its the prospect of a big meet against Wellesley (and Walpole) October 5th.

There are reasons to look past a meet with a weak opponent. One reason is that it allows you to get more training in. Runners don't like resting too much unless they need to produce a top performance. A meet against Norwood doesn't require a top performance, so most runners would rather devote the day (and the day before) to hard training.

Some might say that this is a sign of disrespect to the other team. I would disagree. Neither team harbors the illusion that a bunch of Norwood kids who have never broken 19 minutes for 5K will suddenly and without warning cut two minutes off their times. It's not like football, where with the right combination of breaks, a weaker opponent can hold on against a stronger one. In running, there is very little luck. So you can run your best (and it is honorable to do so), but you aren't going to beat a much better team unless their top five runners go off-course and get disqualified. (Actually, three years ago at Norwood, the top five runners from Newton North went off course and were disqualified. Even without their top five, North easily beat the Mustangs.)

It might sound like I think the meet is a waste of time. Not at all! For one thing, the disparity in ability only applies to the top ten runners or so. For all the others, boys and girls, the race is a great opportunity to compare times from previous weeks and note progress. There will be some great racing in the middle of the pack, and that's always worth seeing.

And one of these years Norwood will get a couple of good runners, and they'll catch the running bug. They'll talk a few of their friends into running. And then a couple of soccer players will make the switch to cross-country. And then they'll figure out that the key to XC success is to train through the summer, and all of a sudden Norwood will be very good, very dangerous, and the no one will be looking past Norwood, but rather circling the date of the meet on their calendars. Now THAT's a realistic scenario. But Newton North losing today is not.

Where were YOU Saturday?

Saturday morning practices can be tough.

They are tough on the kids, who have to wake up about three hours earlier than they would like to, and then run when their Circadian clocks are telling them they should be sound asleep at the back of their English class.

No wonder that absenteeism on Saturdays can reach alarming levels after a few weeks of school. Actually, this year's team has been very good about dragging themselves to Saturday practices, and that extra day of training is helping to promote performance improvements among both varsity and JV runners.

All of which made it difficult for me to miss last Saturday's practice. But I had an excuse.

Along with seven other runners from the Cambridge Sports Union running club, I participated in the Fred Brown/Lake Winnipausaukee Relay -- a 65-mile race around Lake Winnipausaukee in New Hampshire, through some of the hilliest terrain in New England. The race is divided into eight separate legs of varying distances from 4 to 11 miles. I ran the 10.8-mile 5th leg for my team. That leg starts in Wolfeboro and winds through country roads along the East side of the lake. It is very rugged and very scenic. I ran it in 1:02:22, just over 5:45 per mile for nearly 11 miles.

The excitement of the race is hard to describe, but unforgettable to experience. For one thing, the race itself takes over six hours for even the fastest teams. For another thing, when you are carrying the baton for your team, everyone else is supporting you -- a wonderful feeling, with a lot of pressure! If your team is near the front of the race, the gaps between teams are very wide. It is possible to run an entire leg without ever seeing another runner. When one team passes another, it is a moment of high drama.

In the case of our team, we were in 4th place for over 20 miles approaching the finish line, but our 8th runner was passed with only about a quarter mile to go, and we finished 5th. It is remarkable to see a 65-mile race decided in the final 400 meters.

So when the kids ask me today, "Where were YOU on Saturday?" I'll tell them where I was, and I'll say that if they work hard and keep running, someday they, too, will get to run up and down hills around Lake Winnipausaukee on a Saturday morning.

Or maybe I'll tell them I overslept.

More NNHS Alumni Results

Saturday saw many former Newton North runners in action at cross-country meets all over the region.

The last time he was at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx, Chris Barnicle ('05) won the Footlocker Northeast Regional championship. On Saturday he returned to VCP to run with Arkansas at the Iona Meet of Champions. Chris placed 4th overall (3rd for Arkansas) in 24:45 for the 8K course -- an outstanding time. You can read more on the Arkansas Athletics web site.


Chris Barnicle (272) runs comfortably in the second pack, along with 2004 Footlocker champion and fellow Arkansas freshman Ken Cormier (270). Trailing is LaSalle junior and former Mass. standout Sean Quigley (427).

Wesleyan University competed at the Tufts Jumbo XC Invitational in Grafton (site of the 2001 Mass. HS State Championships). In her first collegiate race, Anna Schindler ('05) finished 49th, recording a time of 24:21 for 6K. Teammate Brittany Morse ('04) placed 78th in 25:28.

At the same meet, in the men's 8K Tufts University junior Ciaran O'Donovan ('03) placed 98th in 29:44 for 8K.

Liz Gleason ('04), a sophomore at Williams College, raced in the Purple Valley Classic on Saturday, finishing in sixth place overall with a time fo 19:10 for 5K. NNHS-XC contributing editor Joni Waldron notes that Liz finished 7 seconds ahead of Alexandra Krieg, last year's Mass. Div 2 State XC champion, now a freshman at Middlebury.


Liz Gleason (third from left) charges up a hill at the Purple Valley Classic


Seeing action for the first time this season, Brandeis freshman Clayton Lloyd ('05) ran the 8K race at the Harrier Classic (formerly the "Codfish Bowl") held at Franklin Park in Boston. Clayton reports that he isn't in shape yet, but still managed to run 28:36 to place 47th overall in a race that combined college teams and open runners.

Friday Night Lights

Tonight the Newton North Tigers Football team hosts the Norwood Mustangs at Dickinson Stadium under the lights. It should be a great match-up, with the Tigers working hard to control Norwood's Mike Young (who rushed for 245 yards and 5 touchdowns last week). Go Tigers!

But I have a problem. I have a problem that seems trivial, petty, not worth mentioning... but it bothers me all the same.

Yesterday, the rental company delivered the lights for the game. Each set of four lights is mounted on its own generator. There are eight sets of lights, and each set (generator & lights) sits on the track taking up nearly three lanes. So while the football team practiced on the field, the boys and girls cross-country teams were impeded by the truck that delivered the lights and, of course, by the lights themselves. It's not a big deal on days when our workout is to go run 8 miles on the roads, but yesterday was scheduled to be a track workout. Because of the lights, the workout had to go around the lights into the third lane.

Not a big deal, right? Probably not, but when I asked whether the Head coaches had been informed that the lights would be delivered and set up, they said "no," they had not been informed. And that bothers me.

Having a space for planning and conducting a workout or practice is awfully important to a team. And, when facilities are limited and must be shared, it's awfully important to communicate about their use. It would have been no trouble to plan around the lights, but then, it would have been no trouble to let the XC coaching staff know that the lights were going to be delivered on Thursday. It's the little gesture that goes along way to show that each team is deserving of equal respect.

Apples and Oranges

It is always risky to compare cross-country times from different races. Every course has its own features and hazards, making it faster or slower than other courses. And these features do not affect every runner in exactly the same way. For example, a runner might thrive on Brookline's relentlessly hills at Larz Anderson Park, but not perform nearly as well (relative to other runners) on a flat, fast course like Elm Bank Park. One runner might do very well running on a hard, packed surface or on roads, but struggle badly in mud, thick grass, or snow. Indeed, that's one of the things that makes cross-country fun: it isn't like track, where theoretically every "course" is the same.

But shouldn't it be possible to compare times run on the same course, even if they are not run on the same day? It should be possible, but it is still an inexact science. Of course there are factors like the weather to take into account (heat, cold, precipitation), and whether or not the runners were going all out. But even taking these things into account, the same course is not always the same course. Think of Cold Springs Park. Is the short loop on the upper field at the start of the race always exactly the same distance? How much different might that make -- a second, a few seconds?

All these questions come to mind as we try to figure out what to make of the times posted by Weymouth and Wellesley at their dual meet last week at Elm Bank Park. Both Wellesley and Natick run their home meets at Elm Bank. Up until this year, the start/finish line was located on one side of the soccer fields, roughly halfway between the lower parking lot (near the woods and the river) and the upper parking area (Lot A , if you pay attention to the signs). The course started straight across the grass, turned left behind the soccer goal, and made its way out to the road by Parking Lot A. When finishing, runners reversed this loop. This year that first part of that loop is off-limits because those parts of the field are being reseeded. The course that we ran on Tuesday started and finished at the lower parking area and never crossed the soccer fields a all. So it was the same course but different from the one the teams ran two years ago.

But was it the same course that Wellesley and Weymouth ran during the first week of the season? There's no way to know exactly where the Wellesley coaches placed the start and finish line, so there's no way to compare times from the two meets with any degree of confidence. What we do know is that in the Weymouth-Wellesley girls race Weymouth's Becca Macdonald ran 14:44 to win. That's more than ten seconds faster than Jess Barton ran against Natick. We also know that Wellesley's Charlie Meade ran 13:02 at Elm Bank Park. David Polgar ran 13:21 against Natick. Same course? Different course? That we don't know.

And we probably won't know for sure who is faster until October 5th, when Jess and Becca, Charlie and David, run on the same course on the same day.

Tactics

In both of yesterday's races, Natick's runners seemed determined to win the meet in the first quarter-mile, sprinting ahead of the somewhat startled Newton North runners. This could have been a case of nerves -- nervous runners awash in adrenaline tend to run too hard at the beginning of a race to burn off some of that nervous energy -- or it could have been tactics.

If Natick's tactical plan was to establish an early lead and then defend it en masse against the Tigers, it didn't work. In the girls race, it looked like it might work for a while, as Natick was in a position to win halfway through the race, and the meet was still close with half a mile to go. But in that last half mile, Newton got stronger and Natick faded. In the boys race, Natick's early lead evaporated much more quickly, and the race outcome was never in doubt. Unanswered is the question of whether Natick's tactics resulted in a better performance than if their runners had shown better pace judgement and run more consistently.

If tactics in long distance running weren't important at all, then the fitter runner would always win any race. But there is a huge psychological component involved in getting the most out of your body on a given day. Anything that affects a runner's motivation -- for good or ill -- can sway the outcome of a race. For example, runners typically run better (faster) if they think they are having a good race than if they think they are running a poor race. Thus, anything that creates a positive feedback loop could be part of good tactics. On the oppositie end of the spectrum, anything that makes the outcome feel inevitably against you -- feeling that your opponent is simply too good -- is likely to lead to poorer performance, regardless of how your opponent runs.

The most important part of tactics is knowing when and how to spend your dwindling reserves of stamina to encourage yourself and discourage your opponent. A well-timed move at the right moment in the race can convince your opponent that they can't win, and, because such thoughts are self-fulfilling, to give up the battle right then and there. In a cross-country race, it is unusual to have that moment come at the very start. Unusual, but not unheard of. A runner with superior stamina but no finishing kick might choose to run hard from the very start in the hope of building a seemingly insurmountable lead. But this example reveals something else about tactics: sound tactical plans are based on knowing one's own strengths and weaknesses, and those of your opponent.

So maybe Natick's girls hoped to instill panic in the Newton North ranks; maybe Natick's boys hoped to intimidate the defending BSC champions; or maybe each team simply wanted to boost their own courage through aggressive front-running. Whatever the reasons, the tactics of front-running fell victim to the tactics of the opposing side -- I mean the tactics of being patient and confident, knowing that superior fitness plays itself out at the end of a race, not at the beginning.

Weather report

Today we'll be watching the weather reports for Natick, hoping that the predicted thunderstorms don't materialize. If they do, we're probably looking at a postponement of the meet.

I finally got my laptop working last night, and was able to post stories and pictures from last week's meets. In doing so, I realized how few good pictures I have of the girls team. I will try to do a better job at our next meet. In the mean time, if anyone else has digital photos of either team that you would like to share, please send them to me and I will make sure they are posted.

On this day in 2001: North boys and girls swept a dual meet against Needham and Framingham. The meet had originally been scheduled for 9/11/2001 but was postponed after the Twin Tower attacks in New York. In the boys race, freshman Chris Barnicle won his second race of the season at Framingham's 3.0 mile home course in 16:34 despite taking a nasty fall with about 600m to go. The girls won easily, taking the first four places. Controversy ensued when three Needham runners missed a turn and ended up cutting the course by 400m.

"Four Minutes"

On Oct. 6th, ESPN will be airing "Four Minutes," a made-for-TV movie that celebrates Roger Bannister's attempt to become the first man to run one mile in under four minutes. As a fan of track and field, why am I not thrilled?

Certainly the story is worth telling. In fact, I think every educated person should be familiar with Roger Bannister and with the mid-20th century fascination with testing the limits of human capability. The four-minute mile (four laps of a standard track in under four laps) was the running equivalent of scaling Mt. Everest. Both were terribly, terribly important to Great Britain's sense of pride. Now, fifty years later, it's almost comical to read the dire pronouncements from medical and other self-appointed experts on human physiology predicting that a man would never run a four-minute mile, and if he did, he would expire immediately after crossing the finish line. For over a dozen years, runners around the world came close, and the numerous close calls added to the mystique of being the first one to do the deed.

Then, finally, on a stormy day at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, 24-year-old medical student Roger Bannister, aided considerably by the pacing of his two friends and training partners Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, ran 3:59.4 and became part of history.

Bannister's feat became worldwide news, and Bannister himself a sensation.
Now ESPN, the network of Sports Update and Baseball Tonight has commissioned respected sportswriter Frank Deford to write a screenplay, and we are to see the results on Oct. 6th. I hope I am wrong, but I expect the movie to be pretty bad.

I expect the movie to focus almost exclusively on Bannister himself, as a Hamlet-like figure who can't decide whether to commit himself to running or focus on his medical career. I expect the movie to twist most of the facts to suit this view of the young medical student with the great talent, ignoring the parts of the story that I find most interesting. For example, in the movie, Bannister is coached by Archie Mason, a former world-class runner now confined to a wheelchair. That adds a nice touch, don't you think? In reality Bannister was mostly self-coached, carrying out extensive experiments to understand how to train the body to tolerate high-speed for four minutes. He did begin working with Austrian coach Franz Stampfl several months prior to running 3:59, and many people credit Stampfl with getting Bannister past the mental barrier that the four-minute mile represented. So why eliminate the fascinating character of Stampfl in favor of the fictional Archie Mason?

And too, I expect the movie to minimize any mention of the other runners who were also knocking on the door of four minutes. If true, this will be a shame, because I think the reason it was such a big deal seems to be that runners around the world were coming so close for so long. We'll see how the movie treats John Landy, the Australian who ran five races between 4:01 and 4:03 before Bannister ran his 3:59. If John Landy isn't in the movie, then I don't want to see it.

For a wonderful account of the events leading up to, of, and following Bannister's race at Oxford, I strongly recommend Neal Bascomb's book "The Perfect Mile." I didn't expect much from that book either, but I loved it. Not only did it give a wealth of historical detail, it provided terrific insights into the characters of three men -- Bannister, Landy, and American Wes Santee -- who were all capable of being the first to run four laps in four minutes.

Well, none of this has much to do with high school cross-country. Tomorrow I'll try to be back on topic.

More Alumni Results

Around the collegiate XC world:

Chris Barnicle ('05) ran his first collegiate race for the University of Arkansas, running 24:31 for
6th-place overall at the 8K Southern Missouri Stampede.

Liz Gleason ('04), now attending Williams College, ran 15:24 for 4K, finishing 16th out of 102 finishers (third n her team) at the McGill University Open.


Liz Gleason


Ciaran O'Donovan ('03), now attending Tufts University, ran 30:34 for 8K at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational.

Dan Chebot ('05), now attending the University of Rochester, ran 27:52 for 8K to finish 15th overall (fourth on his team) at the Penn State Behrend Invitational (article).

Know of an alumnus or alumna making news? Post a comment or send me email to let me know.

Before you judge a person, run a mile in their shoes

I've posted results on the NNHS web site for the Milton meet, although there's no link to them on the front page. I'm hoping to catch up with downloading pictures, updating the front page, and posting stories for the first two meets this weekend.

There was little doubt about the eventual result of the meet. Both the girls and boys teams won easily, using their top runners to pace other runners to better times. Thus, the winning times were slower than Tuesday, but the middle and back of the pack times were generally much faster.

The girls team continues to look good, with Haleigh Smith running a fine 21:13 to take second behind Jess Barton. The freshmen continue to impress, and coach Peter Martin looks forward to the Bay State Invitational, where he will be able to run five strong runners (Carolyn Ranti, Adina Henley-Bronstein, Nora Barnicle, Liz Altieri, and Franca Gadenzi) together in the fresman race.



The boys team, meanwhile, got the performance of the day from sophomore Ben Chebot, who took 38 seconds off his Cold Springs Park PR to finish 5th overall in 18:42. Ben was sporting racing flats for the first time, and seemed to have wings under his feet.

How important are racing flats or spikes? Well, they won't find you 38 seconds if you didn't have it already in your legs and lungs, but they will improve your time by 3-4 seconds per mile based simply on reducing the weight you must lug around. Actually, the most important factor when calculating the effect of racing shoes might be psychological: racing shoes just make you feel fast, and feel like you want to go fast.

As a coach, I'm often asked the question "Should I buy spikes?" and I usually answer by saying that the time to buy spikes is when you start caring about 3-4 seconds per mile. Me, I would mortgage my house to get another 3-4 seconds per mile, but not every kid feels that way.

Once you have raced in fast shoes, it's hard to go back. It feels vaguely disrespectful to where heavy training shoes when you know that there are faster shoes sitting at home in your closet, dying to be let out to do their thing. Also, you become attached to your racing shoes -- they bring back powerful memories of times you battled competitors and your own weakness to record some triumph.

In the novel "Once a Runner," the character of Bruce Denton lends Quentin Cassidy a pair of Nike spikes that "have never lost." I like the idea of shoes having their own personality, their own track record, so to speak. Well, Ben Chebot's shoes have a fast career in front of them.

Results from Wellesley-Weymouth

On Dyestat, Weymouth partisan mcrun33 reports results from the Wellesley-Weymouth dual meet held at Wellesley today.

Wellesley boys win 25-33 (see my earlier prediction: Wellesley 23 - Weymouth 34).

But the shocker is that the Weymouth girls beat the defending Div 2 State Champion Raiders 23-33, taking places 1-3-4-7-8. According to the report, Wellesley's #1 runner Brielle Chabot did not run.

Streaks...

Friday, Sept. 16 - I've finally posted results for the Sept. 13th meet, but my laptop has ceased to function, and I don't know when I'll be able to retrieve the story I wrote Tuesday night. Maybe over the weekend I'll be able to solve the problem and start posting pictures and results from today's meet in a more timely manner.

But you can't help wonder whether we'll even get a meet in this afternoon. The forecast is for a few showers starting around 1 p.m., and then showers throughout the afternoon. It's not the threat of rain that bothers most of us, it's the uncertainty.

We can hardly complain. We had a streak of something like four weeks where every day seemed stamped out of the template, sunny and cloudless. Lawns and gardens were parched, water levels in lakes and ponds dropped, and XC courses became hard as concrete. That streak of sunny days was bound to end sometime.

At least for NNHS, the meet itself holds no special significance. Milton is not a strong team and both the Boys and Girls should win easily, if they get a chance to run. I feel sorry for the teams from Wellesley and Weymouth who have to prepare for a big meet and might very well be forced to postpone it.

Oh , wait, I forgot that at today's meet, the NNHS Boys team is hoping to celeberate their 100th straight victory (going back five years in XC, indoor, and outdoor track). Impressive as it is, I'm having a hard time getting excited about the milestone. First of all, I'm a little suspicious about streaks and their importance. Taking care of a streak tends to divert one's focus away from other things, for example, for preparing for the EMass and State-level post-season. It's all a matter of priorities, I guess, and I wouldn't like to see this streak become the top priority for the Boys' program.

I remember 2001, my first year as an assistant coach, and how exciting it was to beat Natick 28-30 in a meet that few people thought we could win. The win against Natick on October 2 made the team 4-0, and was (by my reckoning) the 6th straight win for the program (The team won the final two meets of 2000). The Boys finished 11-0 in 2001, 12-0 in 2002, 11-0 in 2003, and 11-0 in 2004 = 2 + 45 = 47 straight wins in XC. With the season opening sweep of Needham and Framingham, the streak is now 49.

But it seems that this year the streak is likely to come to an end. One of the three strongest teams in the league -- Weymouth, Wellesley, and Brookline -- seems sure to break the stranglehold the boys have had on the BSC. I, for one, am glad to have the excitement of such a challenge. Ever since that Natick meet in 2001, I have been looking forward to another nail-biter and a chance to upset the predicted outcome.

So the rain settles in... the streak of dry weather has finally ended. It's not only farmers that will tell you that rain is a good thing now and then.

How good is Wellesley?

In their opening meet yesterday, the Wellesley Girls and Boys XC teams recorded double sweeps (15-50) over Norwood and Milton. The Wellesley girls are defending BSC, EMass Div III, and State Div II champions. Although they graduated their 1st and 3rd finishers, theye are considered a strong candidate to repeat. The Wellesley Boys return 6 of 7 runners from a team that went 10-1 last year in dual meets (losing only to State Champion Newton North), finished 2nd in the BSC, but faltered badly in the EMass meet and finished 6th, one spot away from qualifying for the state meet.

How good are the Wellesley teams? Yesterday's meet at Elm Bank Park gives us our first evidence that both Wellesley teams are as deep as (or in the case of the boys much deeper than) last year's teams. Although it's dangerous to predict too much from one meet on a short, flat course, it would appear that the Wellesley boys are the favorite to win the BSC and EMass meets.

Thanks to the Middlesex Daily News, we have the top five finishers from the Boys race:

1. Meade 13:06
2. Reinhard 13:28
3. Sutcliffe 13:29
4. Carroll 13:30
5. Volkman 13:33

We don't know who Wellesley's 6th and 7th runners were, but conspicuously absent from the list are senior Dan Block (23rd in the BSC meet last year) and junior Tom Mayell (7th in the BSC meet last year). In other words, a BSC all-star and a guy who finished in the top 25 didn't even make Wellesley's top five yesterday.

How do the times compare to times posted previous years? Well, Chris Barnicle owns the course record at 12:46. When Newton North last ran here in 2003, Pat Pierce was North's top finisher, winning the race in 13:02. Dan Chebot finished 2nd in 13:24. Given that yesterday was Wellesley's first meet, and the temperature was close to 90, it looks like they have at least five guys who are as good as Dan was two years ago. Dan ran 16:53 at Franklin Park that year.

Wellesley is scheduled to run against Weymouth on Friday at Elm Bank in a clash of the titans. Both teams have designs on an undefeated BSC record and league supremacy. If the meet is not postponed by inclement weather, I think the Wellesley boys are going to roll over Weymouth tomorrow (predicted score: 23-34).

The paper did not have the girls' times, so it's hard to make any predictions right now, but I'd give the edge to Wellesley. Weymouth is good, but Wellesley is better.

Meet recap and partial results

I had the best of intentions to have results from the first meet and a story up last night, but I had a technical problem with the girls results (making the digital form unreadable), and then a second problem accessing the NNHS web site. I hope to have full results up tonight (9/14). In the mean time, here are partial results from the Girls race:

1. Jess Barton            NN 22:15
2. Jessie Cochrane        NN 22:16
3. Carolyn Ranti          NN 22:28
5. Haleigh Smith          NN 22:35
7. Nora Barnicle          NN 22:45
10. Adina Henly-Bronstein NN 22:50
11. Szeman Lam            NN 23:02
13. Jackie Fanueil        NN 23:03
17. Elizabeth Altieri     NN ??;??

NN 16  Needham 45
NN 18 Framingham 43

Note: Four freshmen (Ranti, Barnicle, Henley-Bronstein, Altieri) placed in the top nine for NN.



And the Boys race:

1. David Polgar           NN 16:49
2. Doug Brecher           NN 16:54
4. Noah Jampol            NN 17:50
7. Seb Putzys             NN 18:39
9. Peter Sun              NN 18:50

NN 22 Needham 33
NN 16 Framingham 43

In the Boys JV race, Daniel Hamilton won by plenty in 19:37, and the NN Boys won both meets.

Around the league:


Brookline Boys swept Natick and Braintree at Natick. In a mild surprise, Braintree's Chris O'Day (13:25) beat Brookline's Matias Carrasco to win the race. Brookline's pack was formidable, with six runners in under 13:50.

Weymouth Boys swept Walpole and Dedham at Weymouth, taking the top four places. Walpole's first runner, and 5th overall ran 16:27 at the 2.85M course.

No results yet available from Norwood, Milton, Wellesley.

First meet of the season today

For NNHS cross-country, the 2005 season begins today with a tri-meet against Framingham and Needham at Cold Springs Park. The weather forecast is for temperatures in the mid-high 80s, with above average humidity.

In the girls varsity race, Needham might provide some competition for the Tigers. Needham won their first meet v. Brookline 21-38, and rumor has it that they have several good runners who joined the team as sophomores (perhaps they played soccer freshman year?). Nevertheless, North is probably too strong up front and too deep to be seriously challenged. The Tigers have defending Div I State Champion Jess Barton and BSC all-star Haleigh Smith leading the way, with varsity returnees Szeman Lam and Jessie Cochran. Most intriguing is Newton's freshman class, which is rumored to be very, very good. Framingham had a large, young team last year, and finished 4th in the league meet, exceeding all expectations. It could be a good battle between Framingham and Needham, but it would be very surprising, indeed, if either one could scare North.

The boys varsity race is likely to be much closer. On Friday, Needham suffered a narrow loss to Brookline (25-32), taking places 3rd-5th. Leading the Rockets is Charles Beard, who ran 17:19 to finish 3rd in the Brookline meet. Newton figures to take the top two places with Dave Polgar and Doug Brecher by far the strongest runners in the race. After that, the intrigue begins. Coach Jim Blackburn feels that Noah Jampol is capable of taking 3rd, which would clinch the meet for the Tigers, but if Beard takes 3rd, it will fall to North's untested underclassmen to step it up and fill in the gaps in the top five. Best bets for placing the top five for Newton are sophomores Seb Putzys and Ben Chebot, and juniors Peter Sun and Alex Polizzotti. Unless something dramatic happened over the summer, Framingham doesn't figure to be a factor in the race.

There has been a poll on the NNHS-XC yahoo group about how many Togers will break 19 minutes in the first race. It's an intersting question. Here's how many runners have accomplished that feat in the first home meet in each of the last four years:

2001 - 7
2002 - 5
2003 - 8
2004 - 13 (meet held Oct 13)

The first home meet was very late in 2004, due to postponements. As a result, an unprecedented 13 runners were under 19 minutes. More typical was 2002, when the first home meet was held on a very hot day. On that day Barnicle, Pierce, O'Donovan, Kaufman, and Polgar managed to go under 19.

My prediction for tomorrow is that Polgar, Brecher, Jampol, and Putzys will definitely go under 19:00. After that, the best bets are Chebot and Polizzotti.

Anyone coming to the meet, remember that Farmer's Market will create traffic and parking problems.

Chaos at Cold Spring Park?

In 2005, NN has four home meets scheduled. Unless bad weather intervenes to force postponement, each one of those meets will be held on a Tuesday, putting high school XC in conflict with the Newton Farmer's Market.

The Farmer's Market is a lovely event, but it comes close to overwhelming the limited parking and traffic control of the park. Having the Framer's Market makes it more difficult for visiting teams to get their buses in and out of the park. More importantly, the event results in greater foot traffic on the narrow paths of the park, where runners are trying to negotiate sharp turns and tricky footing.

It is really too bad that Newton North's program has to compromise the safety of kids and park-goers in this way. Holding meets at the same time as the Market increases the possibility for a runner-pedestrian collision. Understandably, the residents come to resent the runners.

Even when meets are not scheduled on Tuesdays, Cold Spring Park is not an ideal course by any means. Erosion on the path has left many rock and roots exposed, and already this season we have had runners go down with twisted ankles. A couple of years ago, a tree went down on the path during a storm, and the City didn't remove it for several weeks, forcing the XC coaches to re-route the course around it. It seems that there is no communication or cooperation between the school teams and the City regarding the course.

On the other hand, Cold Springs Park is a very nice place to gather for a meet. The open fields provide a nice place for the start and finish, as well as for team activities. Running the entire race on trails is much better than running it all or mostly on roads (as courses in Norwood and Framingham do).

It would not take much to make Cold Springs a better venue for cross-country. Avoiding the conflict with the Farmer's Market would be a start. A further step would be to provide signage to alert the residents of race dates and times. Barring that, NN teams should have monitors on the course to advise residents that a race is coming their way. A third step would be to mark rocks and roots on the course with orange or white paint.

If all else, fails, we could do what Newton South did and re-locate to a different venue.

NNHS Alumni in action this weekend

This weekend was the first weekend of racing for many college XC teams, and it was exciting to see the names of NNHS alumni in the results.

Dan Chebot '05 (Univ. of Rochester) ran 27:49 for 8K to finish 8th in a tri-meet against RIT and SUNY-Fredonia in upstate NY action. results

Evan Morse '05 (Wheaton College) ran 30:05 for 8K at the Wheaton Invitational for 31st overall and 3rd best for his team. results

Joni Waldron '02 (Earlham College) ran 21:38 for 5K at the GLCA Championship meet at Albion, MI. results

Ciaran O'Donovan '03 (Tufts Univ.) ran 29:35 for 8K at the Connecticut College Cross Country Invitational. results


Still to see action: Liz Gleason '06 (Williams), Brittany Morse '04 and Anna Schindler '05 (Wesleyan), Clayton Lloyd '05 (Brandeis), Chris Barnicle '05 (Arkansas). We're also trying to track down Pat Pierce '04 (Bowdoin) and Tim Killilea '03 (NE College) whose teams ran on Saturday. We hope they're ok and not injured.

A new season begins...

It has been one week and one day since the beginning of XC pre-season, and already there builds an anticipation of the first meet. Everyone wants to know who's going to be running well in the races, and how well. A few things seem certain for the NNHS boys: Polgar and Brecher will be the top two, far ahead of the rest of the pack. But who will be in that pack?

It's too early to tell, which is to say that no one has emerged as a threat to bridge the gap. Instead the pack of potential varsity runners seems to swell every day. There's Noah Jampol and Seb Putzys, who seem certain to secure sports in the top five, and then (in no particular order), Ben Chebot, Charles (sorry don't have the last name yet), Jean Merlet, Alex Polizzotti, Peter Sun, James Shapiro, and Ian Gallogly. This morning, Tim Abbott joined the team and looked good on a 6.5 miler. We're just going to wait for that first race and see what happens.

The first week has been almost ideal weather, and this morning was as close to perfect running weather as one can imagine. It's hard to believe that in a few weeks we'll be showing up to practice in heavy sweatshirts, and in another few weeks, we'll have dipped close to freezing. Track sometimes seems to exist in an ideal world of perfect ovals, where even the wind is measured, but cross-country... cross-country is the sport of change. It is fitting that we start the season in the heat of summer and end it battling the mud, rain, and cold of November.