Ah, but the boys meet against Brookline will more interesting.
It might seem that Brookline has already won the psychological battle. As the Newton North boys were handling Weymouth with relative ease, Brookline was humiliating a very good Wellesley team at Larz Anderson Park. Brookline had the first five finishers against Wellesley, and seven of the top ten. Charlie Meade, who was only five seconds behind David Polgar at Walpole, was humbled by the hills at Larz Anderson.
Much has been made of Brookline's home-course advantage. As evidence, all you need to do is consider the dramatic turnaround from last year to this between the two teams. In 2004, Brookline ran at Wellesley's 2.5 mile flat course. Both teams had basically the same personnel, and Wellesley put six runners in front of Brookline's second (Matias Carrasco went off-course while in the lead, so technically Wellesley took the top six places). A year later at Brookline's 2.65 mile hilly course, Brookline placed five in front of Wellesley's first (Brookline's 5th runner missed a turn and was disqualified for cutting the course, although he certainly would have beaten Meade).
A home-course advantage consists of knowing a course and how to run it, as well as being prepared physically for its rigors. Few runners actually practice running downhill, and if Brookline has an advantage in preparation, it is that they have had a lot of practice running downhill. Opponents try to run the uphills at Larz Anderson Park hard, but the Brookline kids know that one has to run the uphills easy, and then accelerate across the top of the hill. Running downhill is a matter of technique and confidence, and the Warriors believe they can make up any deficit they might have incurred on the uphill by running a better downhill.
But before we join Doug Brecher in throwing in the towel on behalf of the Tigers, let's pause to remember that two years ago North beat Brookline on its home course, by running a batter tactical race than the host team. On that day Chris Barnicle, Pat Pierce, and Dan Chebot held back early, resisted the temptation to charge up the hills in a rush of fear and adrenaline, and cooly destroyed the Brookline pack on the downhill sections of the course. That was also the day that Clayton Lloyd gave the first indication that he would be something special, as he came from 9th to 6th in the final 1000 meters of the race. It can be done.
NNHS v. Brookline 10/21/2003
1. Barnicle NN 15:56
2. Pierce NN 16:00
3. Chebot, D. NN 16:02
4. Carrasco B 16:16
5. Housman B 16:25
6. Lloyd NN 16:27
7. Okrochkov B 16:31
8. Kaye B 16:34
9. Rowe B 16:36
10. Polgar NN 16:57
11. Kaufman NN 17:01
12. Ewenstein B 17:30
13. Hessney B 17:34
14. McLoughlin NN 17:52
15. Smith NN 18:02
16. Jampol NN 18:06
17. Merlet, R. NN 18:13
18. Chebot, J. NN 18:24
19. Prakash NN 19:24
Sure, Brookline is good, maybe they are the best. But they still have to run the race, and Newton North will give them a better fight than Wellesley did.
1 comment:
So, it's a 2.65 Mile course? The record's 15:26(Gibson) I believe which is roughly a 5:50 mile pace, now that is slooow, and Brookline makes its living on the downhills, in that case I see the genius of doing that up+down heartbreak hill workout, good post thanks for the info
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