It was a beautiful day for running and, other than a little mud on the field, the course was in great shape. I was at the course early enough to run the 5K loop a couple of times before the first race of the day. It is a tough course that begins with a fast, flat loop around the field (about 1200 meters) before entering the woods and climbing "Freshman hill." The course then crosses a bridge over a highway at about the 1.2 mile mark and enters the back hills portion of the course. From the bridge, there are three sharp hills before the runners finally reach the high point of the course at about 3K. The next 1000 meters has two very steep descents, with fairly sharp turns. After a brief flat section, the runners cross the bridge again at about 2.4 miles and run down another steep hill to get back to the field. Once they hit the field, it is about 600-700 meters to the finish.
Very few people run 5K PRs on the Van Cortland Park course, but Jess Barton has done it twice. On Saturday, she ran 18:40.3 to set a two-second PR and finish 21st overall, the second-fastest girl from Massachusetts. She started fast, but still found herself in about 25th place going into the back hills. She managed to hold her position and actually move up three spots through the toughest part of the course. She thenoutkicked Triton's Keely Maguire in the home stretch. Although I'm sure Jess would have liked to be closer to the top ten (and a qualifying spot for the finals in San Diego), she ran a fine race -- probably her best effort of the year, and capped off a tremendous high school XC career.
Before the start of the race, I had a few moments to talk to Weymouth's Nicole Pearce and her dad. Nicole has had a great season, but entirely satisfied with her race at the All-State meet in Northfield. She was hoping to run better at the Footlocker meet. I didn't see her after the race, but from her finishing time, I'm sure it wasn't the race she wanted. As I mentioned earlier, it is a tough course, and the
fact that the race goes out so fast makes it very difficult to avoid difficulties in the back hills. Quite a few MA runners ran slower here than they did at Northfield. That should give you an idea of how tough it is to PR on this course -- especially if you have never run it before.
The best performance of the day from a MA girl was from DII All-State champion Emily Jones, who ran an outstanding time of 18:03 to place 9th and qualify for the National finals. As mentioned earlier, Keeley Maguire ran 18:40.9 to finish just behind Jess. Eliza Ives, Jones' teammate at Bromfield High, ran 18:51. Jenny Davidner, a freshman from Oliver Ames WON the freshman race in 18:53. Very impressive!
Here is a list of all the Mass. finishers from the seeded race:
9 Jones, Emily 10 Harvard MA 18:03.9
21 Barton, Jessica 12 NEWTON MA 18:40.3
22 Maguire, Keely 11 GEORGETOWN MA 18:40.9
34 Ivs, Eliza 12 HARVARD MA 18:51.6
45 Lanois, Emily 10 HAMILTON MA 19:03.2
68 MacKay, Rebekah 12 WHITINSVILLE MA 19:21.2
84 Jamieson, Dana 11 BOSTON MA 19:36.5
85 Downing, Jennifer 11 Stow MA 19:36.9
92 Thomas, Keara 12 HAVERHILL MA 19:43.5
122 Stocker, Lauren 12 WESTFIELD MA 20:12.8
127 Kerr, Grace 12 SOUTH HAMILTON MA 20:15.8
139 Moniz, Kellyann 12 SOUTH HAMILTON MA 20:40.6
146 Ferrarini, Maura 11 Springfield MA 20:46.4
151 Lewis, Brett 10 Scituate MA 20:52.0
152 Pearce, Nicole 12 SOUTH WEYMOUTH MA 20:55.2
156 Horgan, Erin 11 Southboro MA 21:02.6
158 Wadlow, Lauryn 12 CARVER MA 21:21.3
163 Kasala Hallinan, Caitlin 12 WORCESTER MA 21:49.2
173 Doyle, Sarah 12 WORCESTER MA 23:01.5
There were also quite a few runners who ran in the other "class" races. For full results, see the following link:
Complete Footlocker Northeast Results
In the boys seeded race, Ryan Collins did it again. Somehow he managed to stay under control through the first mile (it helped that the race was tactical, with the leaders running only 4:56), move himself into the top 15 on the uphills, and then move all the way to 8th coming onto to the field. He lost two places in the last 600 meters, but his time of 15:33 was good enough for tenth place and the coveted ticket to San Diego. He also ran a 5K PR by two seconds!
I almost forgot Cushing Academy's Sintayehu Taye, who finished 2nd for the second year in a row.
Xaverian's Mark Amirault, the EMass Div I champ, ran 15:47 and finished 15th, no doubt hampered by his lack of training due to a knee injury suffered earlier in the year. Emass Div I and All-State runner-up Kevin Gill ran 16:05 to place 36th. Twenty-nine boys broke 16 minutes, making it one of the deepest HS races ever at VCP.
Here are the MA finishers from the boys seeded race:
2 Taye, Sintayehu 11 Ashburnham MA 15:18.5
10 Collins, Ryan 12 Mansfield MA 15:33.2
15 Amirault, Mark 12 WALPOLE MA 15:47.0
36 Gill, Kevin 12 BROCKTON MA 16:05.7
45 Pacione, Gabe 11 WENHAM MA 16:13.7
63 Hausherr, David 11 TOWNSEND MA 16:27.0
67 Johnson, Kevin 12 Ludlow MA 16:29.1
81 Galebach, Phil 10 MEDFORD MA 16:36.0
100 McDonald, Eric 11 Groveland MA 16:45.3
102 Gordon, Zach 12 Pittsfield MA 16:47.1
112 Wang, Daniel 12 Haverhill MA 16:53.2
116 Duncan, Sean 12 Gardner MA 16:55.0
118 Sylvestre, Zachary 11 GARDNER MA 16:55.9
130 Fuller, Brian 12 Ludlow MA 17:02.5
135 Johnson, David 12 Ludlow MA 17:03.9
143 Deascentis, John 12 FALL RIVER MA 17:09.2
152 Funch, Christopher 12 GROTON MA 17:11.4
157 Brunell, Matthew 11 OAKHAM MA 17:12.8
162 Vomero, Peter 12 Ludlow MA 17:14.6
173 Spano, Matthew 12 GARDNER MA 17:22.1
174 Fogel, Nicholas 11 WILLIAMSTOWN MA 17:22.7
181 Dubeau Iii, James 11 BROCKTON MA 17:28.5
183 Lee, Colin 11 SOUTH HADLEY MA 17:29.8
188 Ferro, Steven 12 Cheshire MA 17:32.7
189 Hegarty, Matthew 12 Springfield MA 17:34.0
193 Ogilvie, Colin 11 HOPEDALE MA 17:38.7
202 Jermain, Colin 12 ESSEX MA 17:44.9
211 Howards, Casey 11 Sharon MA 17:52.6
218 Shoemaker, Jacob 11 Sudbury MA 17:59.3
219 Rice, Joshua 11 SOUTH HAMILTON MA 18:01.6
233 Haidu, Matt 12 HANOVER MA 18:30.0
241 Lajoie, Stephen 11 GARDNER MA 18:48.9
253 Avitabile, John 11 HANOVER MA 20:22.8
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