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.