Mind the Gap

It was steamy at Cold Springs park yesterday. With temperatures in the 80's and high humidity, a lot of runners struggled, and times were generally slower than at Needham a week ago.

Characteristically, Natick's runners attacked the 5K course aggressively, going out fast and trying to establish a pack at the front of each race. The strategy didn't pan out, as Natick's early lead in both races wilted. In the boys race, Dan Hamilton ran a career best 17:54 for 5K, abroke 18:00 for the first time at Cold Springs to win his first varsity race. Behind Hanilton, Charlie Krasnow, Ben Chebot, and Peter Sun did a great job of pack running to take places 3-5 and seal the victory.

In the girls race, Jess Barton absolutely dominated the race, going out fast and building a 30-second lead halfway into the contest against Natick's two stars Becca White and Anya Price. Barton's halfway time put her on pace to run low 18:00's, but a side stitch slowed her in the second half, and she finished in 19:02. After the two natick runners, Newton's pack executed the race plan perfectly (well - except for Haleigh Smith's fall, which was not in the plan), moving up through the tiring Natick pack to take places 4-7.

Natick's problem going into the race was the gap. Every XC coach pays attention to the gap (the time separation among the top seven runners) because in big meets, having a small gap is better than having the fastest runner. Natick had two very fast runners, but a two-minute gap to their third and another 38 seconds to their 5th, and that was fatal for them. Newton, by contrast, had a gap of 1:27 seconds from second runner Haleigh Smith to 5th runner Franca Godenzi. You can be sure that Coach Peter Martin is already scheming ways to bring that gap down further.

Although I'm probably repeating myself, I'll say again that the Newton boys are much better than I expected them to be at this point. Even without their best runner, they completely overwhelmed Natick. And as for the gap, the separation from Hamilton to fifth runner Alex Ribner was under a minute, I believe. If that entire pack improves over the course of the season and keeps the gap small, they will do very well against the league's elite teams Wellesley and Weymouth. (Brookline is at another level right now because they are very fast AND they have a small gap -- a winning combination for sure).