At the State Coaches Meet

A heavy fog blanketed Newton Saturday morning, as two buses carrying the boys and girls XC teams set out from Hull St. bound for Wrentham. Wrentham? Yes, overcrowding and a deteriorating relationship with community groups forced MSTCA officials to relocate the State Coaches meet from its traditional home at Franklin Park to the Wrentham Development center, not far from Foxboro Stadium.

While the course itself got mixed reviewes, the organization of the meet was excellent, and the weather cooperated to provide a great day of racing. Shortly before the first race of the day, the fog lifted completely, revealing wide expanses of field and farm. If anything, temperature were probably a bit warm, but in spite of that, a large number of Newton runners set 5K PRs on the mostly flat course.

The downside was that the course was pretty much a bust for spectators, who were able to watch the start and the finish but nothing else. It is not known whether the MSTCA will consider the site for future meets of this size. We are all hoping that Franklin Park remains available to HS teams for big meets.

On to the runners: let's start with the NNHS freshmen girls, who ran to both an individual and team title in the Div I freshmen race. Carolyn Ranti made it two for two in state-level races, following up her Bay State Invite win with the MSTCA crown. Despite some stomach problems, Carolyn's time of 12:47.9 for 3K was nearly five seconds faster than runner-up Alix Gregory of Marshfield. Behind the leaders, Newton's pack ran brilliantly, placing three more runners in the top twenty. Nora Barnicle (12th, 13:47) finished second for the Tigers in a breakout race, while Adina Henley-Bronstein (16th, 14:00), and Maalika Banerjee (19th, 14:06) were right behind. Capping the Tiger's scoring was Sophie Dover (38th, 14:30).

In the boys freshmen race, Daniel Hamilton was the Tiger's top finisher, placing 23rd in 11:48. Adam Hollenberg (13:52) ran his best race of the season to place 2nd for the Tiger frosh, while Jason Luttmer (14:35), Jon Lee (14:46), and Dan Ackerman (15:37) also ran well.

In the boys sophomore race, North had its greatest depth, and rode that depth to a 9th place team finish (out of 21 teams). Seb Putzeys garnered 10th place in a personal best time of 17:40 for 5K. Tim Abbott (53rd, 18:38) was 2nd finisher for the Tigers, just missing out on a medal (given to the top 50). An ailing Ben Chebot still managed to run 19:20 to help the team's cause, but his quad injury obviously slowed him from his usual 18-minute pace. Charlie Krasnow (83rd, 19:25) finished 4th for the Tigers, and Mike Dorfman recorded a PR 19:56 to break 20 minutes for the first time and finish fifth on the team. A number of other sophomore boys recorded PRs or seasonal bests, including Isaac Bleicher (21:05), Chao He (21:10), Tommy Moriarty (21:53), and Ben Reedy (22:26).

In the boys junior/senior race, Doug Brecher opened with a 4:53 mile and continued to lead through two miles before being caught by Mansfield's Ryan Collins. Unwilling to yield another place, Brecher held off a late charge by another Mansfield runner, Dan Cerqueira, and finished 2nd overall in a gutsy PR of 16:25. Behind Brecher, Noah Jampol finished 23rd (17:27) to earn a medal. Rounding out the top five were Jean Merlet (PR 19:16), David Goldenberg (PR 19:20), and Dan Swartz (PR 19:39). After the top five, the PRs kepts coming, with Stephen Bandini (20:17), Chen Chen (20:29), and Gabe Gladstone (20:37) running well in their final meet of the year.

Now it's on to the EMass championship meet, but only for the top seven runners (and alternates) for the boys and girls team. To the JV runners who are now done, congratulations on a great season marked by tremendous improvements and new personal bests. I'm already looking forward to next Fall.