Best of 2007

Here are the stories (in no particular order) that made my personal "top ten list" for Mass. H.S. Track and Field/Cross-Country in 2007.


Fantastic Five: Moriarty Over Amirault in All-State 1000m

Meaning no disrespect to Rob Gibson and Ryan Collins, the 1000m at the 2007 All-State meet was THE sexy event, featuring three-time state champion Mark Amirault vs. a stellar field. Amirault ran well, but Jeff Moriarty ran brilliantly, to win as four runners went under 2:29, and the fifth, Matt Stewart, ran 2:30.00. All five were state champions in their HS careers. It must have been the deepest HS 1000 in Mass. state history.

Yes, That Good: Bridget Dahlberg Wins Indoor and Outdoor Mile Titles

Newton South's Bridget Dahlberg beat Emily Jones Indoors and Keely Maguire outdoors to win two All-State mile championships against two footlocker finalists. Indoors, her 4:51 looked easy. After she ran a 10:52 2M at Weston in May, NS fans wondered what she might do in the fall if she ran cross-country instead of playing soccer.

2007 Indoor All-State - Girls 1M (2nd Half)

Lean Muscle: Paschal Nips Wornum in 300m

Milton's Eric Wornum ran the perfect race for 299 meters. In the last meter he lost the indoor state 300m title -- by 0.01 seconds -- to Meikle Paschal. Outdoors, Wornum would dominate the 200 and win the state title, while Paschal would win the 400m title.

2007 All-State Meet 300m Video


David Smith Dominates Indoor Shot Put

The 2006 Outdoor State Champion in the Shot Put, David Smith let everyone know how good he was going to be before the 2007 indoor season... and then he backed up his words by winning the All-State and New England Titles. And he high-jumped 5-7.


Dream Girls: Jones Over Barton in 2M at Weston Twilight Meet

The race featured four great runners -- Jess Barton, Bridget Dahlberg, Emily Jones, and Colleen Wetherbee -- each one a MULTIPLE all-state champion. The race did not disappoint. After a "slow" first mile of 5:26, Jones and Barton started running insane splits. Jones ran her second mile in 5:08, Barton in 5:10. Jones' PR of 10:34.78 was the fifth fastest 2M in the country to that point in the season; Jess finished close behind, running 10:37.11, a personal best by 20 seconds. Dahlberg finished third in 10:52, a fine time and her first time under 11 minutes.


FasterThanU: With four individual titles, Darius Walker Leads an Unstoppable Lexington Team

Darius Walker was THE MAN indoors and out in 2007. Indoors, he ran 6.38 to win the 55 dash, won the long jump, and ran a leg on the winning 4x400 team. Outdoors, he won the 100m and long jump, and again contributed to a scoring relay. On a team with other individual champions (Paschal, Longo), Walker was the stud.


Tiger Fans Bid Track Adieu

I know some will question my inclusion of this as a top ten story, but considering the history associated with the Newton North track, the demolition of the crumbling oval send shock waves well beyond the streets of Newtonville.


Brookline's XC Team Wins National Acclaim

We all knew they were going to be good, but taking 1-2-9-10 at the State Meet? Winning the NTN Northeast Regional Meet? Finishing 7th in the Country? In these and many other achievements, Mike Glennon's team laid claim as one of the best XC squads in Mass. state history.


Wicked Good: Lincoln Sudbury Girls Win State XC Title, NE Regional

They might have hit a speed bump at the Div I meet, but Lincoln Sudbury was the class of Mass. for most of the season, and proved it at the All-State meet, winning the title over Dual-county rival Newton South. They then went on to nearly match the Brookline Boys by winning the NTN Northeast Regional and finishing 8th at the national meet.


Upset of the Year: Newton South Girls Win EMass D1

The dual county league had more than one great xc team this year. Although somewhat over-shadowed by L-S, The Newton South girls stepped out into the sunshine at the EMass meet, as Kelsey Karys and Madeleine Reed went 1-2 to lead the Lions to the team title with an astounding team average of 19:08. The L-S and N-S Boys weren't bad either... Could one team win both state titles in 2008?

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Honorable Mention:

Lincoln-Sudbury girls 4 x 800 run 9:11.79 at NSIC

Framingham's Jordan Maddocks wins Indoor and Outdoor HJ Titles

NN Boys Win State Title in 4x100

Brockton Boys 4 x 800 runs 7:44.54 at NON.

Jones, Maguire Make Footlocker XC Finals

Newton North Boys Win MSTCA Team Pentathlon

No team has performed better than the Newton North boys in the Team Pentathlon over the past ten years. The 2007-2008 Indoor Track team added a new chapter to that legacy by capturing the closest ever team competition, overtaking Reading in final event to win the team title by a mere six points on Saturday.

Reading jumped out to an early lead, as Ian O'Shea ran a meet record 7.92 in the 55 hurdles. Sam Arsenault won his heat to put Newton North in second. North would probably have wanted to turn to Arsenault again in the high jump, but teams must use five athletes in the five events.

[edited]
Sophomore Ben Kiley took the jumps for North, clearing 5-11.5 and making North's eventual triumph possible.

Showing great depth, North's Ivan Kostadinov won the long jump in 20-03.75, and Steve Long won the shot put in 46-0.

Going into the final event, North still trailed by 56 points. According to Jim Blackburn, "NN needed Seb Putzeys to beat Reading's Pat Condon by 4.8 seconds to win. Seb's 2:34.90 beat Condon by 5.34 seconds. Closest finish in meet's history--3691 to 3685."

Watch video of Seb's run in the 1000m

NNHS Alumni & Others at BU Mini-Meet #3

More exciting results from the final mini-meet of 2007 held, as always, at the lightning fast track at BU.

In the 3K, Newton South alum Mike Fisher ran what I believe is a PR 8:22.17 to take second to former Boston English star and Arkansas All-American Said Ahmed (8:17.23) in the seeded section. Other luminaries in that heat included former Mass. stars Eric Ashe (Whitman-Hanson) in 8:23.47, Matt Lacey (Amherst) in 8:28.48, and Matt Tieuli (St John's - Shrewsbury) in 8:42.64.

Ahmed came back in the mile and won his second race, clocking 4:08.58 to win by 80 meters. Other notables included current Whitman-Hanson star Peter Gilmore (4th in 4:21.33), former Central Catholic star Angus Macdonald (5th in 4:21.62),

Two Bay Staters - Braintree's Chris Stack and Kyle Higgins -- finished in a near dead heat at 4:40.73 and 4:40.77. Former Weymouth captain Mark Jordan ran 4:54.71.

Newton North alumni were represented by Josh Seeherman (4:44.37) and Caroline Occean, who ran an outstanding time of 5:13.77.

Dave Cahill ran 1:56.86 for 800 but had to contend with Ahmed, who ran 1:53.28 in his third race of the day for the win.

Stack (2:07.26) and Higgins (2:07.47) ran nearly identical times, but in different heats. Jordan came back to run 2:10.67.

In the 400, former Gloucester star Sean Murphy ran 50.66, while younger brother Liam ran 52.52. Triton's Keely Maguire sharpened her top-end speed by running 60.96.

And was that Haleigh Smith winning section 10 in 64.73? Reading "Haley Smith" leaves one to wonder.

If Hemingway Had Been a High Jumper

As I was plodding along Commonwealth Ave last night, I started wondering why there were no great works of literature about track and field. Oh I know, there's Alan Stilltoe's "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner," and John Updike's "Rabbit, Run." But are those really great literature? I know everyone reads John L. Parker's "Once A Runner," but with all due respect, it's not Pulitzer prize material. So where are the great novels, the epic or epigrammatic poems, the classic plays?

Of course the reason there are no great novels, poems, and plays about track and field is that the immortal authors were too busy writing to spend their time training and competing. But what if, somehow, writers could fit two passions into one mind -- follow track and field and also fill the world with timeless prose or verse? If they could, we might have works of great literature like these...

If Hemingway Had Been a High Jumper...

Weary with life and disillusioned with the endless and seemingly futile attempt to keep jumping higher and higher on his bad leg, Jake Barnes embodies the spiritual wanderings of the Lost Generation in the classic novel "The Bar Also Rises," which ends with this famous exchange between Jake and Brett:

"Oh, Jake," Brett said, "we could have set such damned good PRs together."
"Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

(Later in his career, Hemingway would chronicle his failed attempt to master the throwing events in "A Farewell to Arms.")


If Shakespeare Had Been A Sprinter...

In one of his most rolicking comedies, Shakespeare takes us to Padua, where Petruchio takes on the seemingly impossible task of coaching the talented but high-strung and tempermental Katharina in "The Timing of the Shrew."


If Norman Mailer had been a H.S. Coach...

Mailer questions authority in his powerful first novel, "The Naked and the Disqualified," in which we follow a team of ill-disciplined track athletes who constantly run afoul of the MIAA's uniform regulations.


If William Golding Had Run the Relays...

When all the sprinters on the team are left on their own to determine which four will run in the 4x100 relay, the runners revert to primitive, even violent behaviors in "The Lord of the Fly Zone."

"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise baton..."


If Robert Frost had been a distance runner...

If Frost had been a distance runner, he might have turned to this experience as he explored the timeless themes of personal struggle and redemption, of loneliness and the search for meaning in the face of an often hostile world. One can only imagine how long runs in the country would have colored "The Hilly 10-Mile Road Less Traveled," and how schoolchildren would memorize the haunting last lines of his most famous poem, "Stopping by the Track on a Snowy Evening:"

The whirlpool's lovely, warm and deep,
But I've a training log to keep
And miles to run and then repeat
And miles to run and then repeat

Watching Fast People

With winter settling in, and runners suffering from the usual blues and blahs of trying to maintain their training while the snow piles up outside, there are a few pleasures of the indoor season that help balance the ledger. One of them is watching really fast people work out.

During the rest of the year, really good runners are dispersed across the landscape, and you rarely see many of them in one place other than a meet. But these days, the talent of the region is drawn to and concentrated at a few indoor tracks. A humble Tuesday night at Reggie can turn into a fireworks display of speed and strength.

I make no apologies for my voyeurism at the track. I love to watch people run fast. of course, it's best for me to have finished my own pokey intervals first, because otherwise the experience can be a bit discouraging. But once I'm done running, I become a fan. I stretch or cool down and watch out of the corner of my eye as one group rip off sets of 60-second 400's, and another cranks out repeat 1000's in 3:00.

Workouts vary tremendously among the silky striding distance specialists, the 400/800 types, and the true sprinters. The distance runners churn out intervals with ruthless efficiency, piling up lap after lap of moderately fast mileage interrupted only now and then by an impatient recovery at a quick jog. They never seem to stop, and are likely to add several miles before and after their workout without a second thought. The sprinters are never impatient, taking hours to warm up, stretch, do drills, stretch some more, do more drills, before finally stepping onto the track for a violent explosion of effort, which is inevitably followed by a long period of what appears to be agonized soul-searching. The sprinters make everyone else on the track look slow, and secretly the distance runners feel envious, which only goads them into adding a few more intervals to an already long day.

While it's not as exciting as watching a meet, watching a good athlete workout is a better education. You see the preparation, the drills, the habits designed to help focus on the task at hand. You also absorb the structure and rhythm of a workout. You see how much or how little rest is taken, you notice whether the distance of the workbout changes. You can learn a lot this way, just hanging around the track and watching.

As runners finish their workouts, the atmosphere is often incredibly light-hearted, considering the difficulty of the task so recently accomplished. You sense when a workout has gone really well as you hear people chattering about their next race, or when it has been a struggle and a disappointment as athletes huddle with their coaches for some advice and consolation. Above all, you sense the pleasure in the camaraderie of the track workout, even for the gods of the sport.

The Age of Exhaustion

No, I don't mean my personal exhaustion, although I am a bit fatigued from Christmas shopping.

In a wide-ranging article in the London Sunday Times, the authors speculate on a time in the not-so-distant future when human beings will no longer be physiologically capable of setting world track and field records.

Stuck Records: Report claims that no world records will be set after 2060

The article discusses Florence Griffith-Joyner's 1988 WR in the 100m, and speculates on whether drug use contributed to a record that will never be broken. The article also has an interesting account of Bob Beamon's astonishing long jump in the 1968 Olympics, a jump so far beyond previous standards that officials couldn't use the mechanical measuring device on the pit and had to measure the jump twice with steel tape.

Are humans reaching their physiological limits? Those who have made such predictions in the past tend look pretty silly today, but common sense suggests that there must be a limit.

Bill Rodgers Turns 60

"If you want to win a race you have to go a little berserk."
- Bill Rodgers

The first thing you must realize about Bill Rodgers is how good he was. The second thing you have to realize is how unique was his path to being a great runner.

"Billy Rodgers did not look like a young man with ambition. He did not look like a fierce competitor,. He did not look like an athlete... He looked skinny, loose, and flaky, with a head topped by straw-colored hair--like the scarecrow in the Wizard of OZ... But his head was not stuffed with straw although he often acted as if he had no brain."

Rodgers was born in Hartford, CT, on Dec. 23, 1947. He was a talented runner in high school, winning a Connectucut State cross-country title. At Wesleyan, he was a pretty good collegiate runner, recording his lifetime track bests of 4:16 for the mile and 8:48 for two miles. But by his senior year, he was smoking and drinking and drifting away from running. After graduating from college, he applied for an received conscienious objector status to the war in Vietnam. He bought a motorcyle and spent a lot of time riding around, unemployed and with no definite ambition for anything. When he did finally get a job, it was as an orderly at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. There he wheeled patients around, and when they died, he would wheel their bodies to the morgue.

After seeing a man who had lost his larynx and part of his trachea from smoking, Rodgers decided to quit. After watching the 1971 Boston Marathon and seeing some of his old friends from college, he realized he missed running and started jogging at the YMCA. After his motorcycle was stolen, he started jogging to work.

Fired from his hospital job, Rodgers spent most of 1972 unemployed. But he was running now, and that gave him more time to train. Running 100-mile weeks and training with hid friends on the Greater Boston Track Club gave structure and meaning to his life. He became a good local runner, winning road races and finally attempting the marathon.

His first attempt at Boston in 1973, he didn't finish. The next year he finished 14th in 2:19:34. Very impressive times for a local kid. But what happened in 1975 was truly astonishing. In March, Rodgers competed in the World Cross-Country Chapionships -- arguably the hardest race in the world to win. He finished third, far ahead of Olympic gold and silver medalist Frank Shorter.

It was a shocking result, but no fluke. Rodgers had been averaging almost 130 miles a week for months prior to the cross-country race, training hard under the tutelage of Bill Squiers. Entering the 1975 Boston Marathon, he was in the best shape of his life, although relatively unknown outside the running world.

Running against a world-class field that included Great Britain's Ron Hill and Canada's Jerome Drayton, Rodgers destroyed them. Despite stopping twice to sip water, and once to tie his shoe, Bill Rodgers ran 2:09:55, the fastest time ever by an American and one of the fastest times ever run by anyone. In the next several years, he would win Boston three more times with a best of 2:09:27 in 1979, he would win New York four times, he would be ranked #1 in the world in the marathon by Track and Field News. He would set the world record for 25K on the track at 1:14:12. (Five consecutive 5Ks in 14:50).

Rodgers, along with Shorter, became the emblem of the running boom in the United States. At 60, he is still one of the most beloved figures in distance running in the U.S. And he still runs, setting various records in his 50s before injuries, including a broken leg, curtailed his training.

Happy Birthday, to the scarecrow who, it turned out, had more brains than anyone else.

Wikipedia article on Bill Rodgers

NN Boys Big Winners at Winterfest

Sam Arsenault won two events and anchored a winning relay, Seb Putzeys won the mile, and Steven Long won the shot put as Newton North made a big impact at the Winterfest meet Saturday.

Arsenault is turning out to be the BMAR (Big Man at Reggie), as he won the 55 hurdles in 8.11 (after running 8.18 in the prelims). Tony Chen ran what I believe is a PR 8.61 to take 5th in the finals. Arsenault also won the high jump by half a foot, leaping 6-4.

After clocking an impressive 4:30 on Thursday, Seb Putzeys lowered that time by two seconds to win the mile in 4:28.60. Dan Hamilton ran 10:13.70 to finish second in the two-mile and close in on a state meet qualifying time (10:08.24, in case you were wondering).

Steven Long won the shot put with a heave of 47-9, as he does his part to continue the recent tradition of great Newton shot putters (David Bell, Matt Frankel, Kevin Chan, David Smith...)

And finally, Newton North won the 4x400 relay in a good early season time of 3:34.33.

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The Newton North girls didn't have many entrants, but Emma Kornetsky ran a strong 600 to take second in 1:42.04 (slicing two seconds off her time from Thursday), and Paris Mongo ran 9.54 to finish 7th in the finals of the 55 hurdles. Bonny Guang also placed 7th in the shot put in 29-7.25.

Winterfest - Large Schools (Boys)

Winterfest - Large Schools (Girls)

NNHS Alumni at BU Mini-Meet #2

A few NNHS alumni "sightings" at BU on Saturday. The order of the day was doubling (= getting in quality work on a decent track):

Dave Cahill ran 50.52 in the "fast" heat of the 400, and finished second overall to recent H.S. standout Jeff Moreau. Cahill doubled back in the 800, and placed second there as well, running 2:00.76.

Josh Seeherman opted for the 1 mile/800 double and ran 4:45.68 and 2:06.49 (to win his heat). This after a tough workout on Thursday night (10x400m in 66 at Reggie Lewis).

Noah Jampol was looking for an agreeable alternative to pounding the pavement on Comm Ave and found it by doubling in the 3000m (9:37.82 = 5K pace?) and 1 Mile (4:41.1 = 3K pace?).

Bay State Meet Results - Dec 20, 2007

So who needs a weatherman? If there's a Bay State indoor meet on the schedule this winter, that means snow. After last Thursdays meet was snowed out, and the Winterfest - large Schools meet was postponed by a week, there were some worries that more snow would postpone the beginning of the indoor season into January, but the roads were in good shape and the meet went on as scheduled.

Both Newton North teams scored lopsided victories over Needham, as the boys won 71-15 and the girls won 64-21.

In team action, the Braintree boys pulled off a mild upset over Weymouth, 43-39, and Natick managed to tie last year's Herget champion Milton 43-43. Here are all the meet scores (courtesy of cool running):

Men
Braintree    43.00   39.00 Weymouth
Brookline    60.00   26.00 Framingham
Norwood      47.00   38.00 Dedham
Natick       43.00   43.00 Milton
Newton North 71.00   15.00 Needham
Wellesley    50.00   36.00 Walpole

For the girls, Weymouth won a hard fought meet over Braintree 49-37, Framingham surprised Brookline 44-42 (winning it on the relay), and Dedham overwhelmed Norwood 62-20.

Women
Weymouth     49.00   37.00 Braintree
Framingham   44.00   42.00 Brookline
Dedham       62.00   20.00 Norwood
Natick       53.00   33.00 Milton
Newton North 64.00   21.00 Needham
Wellesley    59.00   27.00 Walpole

Individual Results

When was the last time a Bay State girl won the mile and the 300 in the same meet? Newton North junior Carolyn Ranti accomplished the feat, running a controlled 5:18.64 (the fastest time of the day) to win the mile, and returning later to win her heat of the 300 in 44.67. That's speedy! Meanwhile, Nora Barnicle (3:17.72) won her heat of the 1000, Emma Kornetsky (1:45.26) won in the 600, Michele Kaufman won the hurdles (9.41) and dash (8.04), and Franca Godenzi (12:22.64) won the 2-Mile. Aslo, Bonny Guang PR'd in the shot put, winning with a throw of 31-3.

The boys looked like they were in mid-season form, so you know they've been taking advantage of their time in the SOA. Seb Putzeys blazed the mile in 4:30.48, fifteen seconds ahead of the second best time of the day. (Actually, that's not quite true -- Robert Gibson's second mile in the deauce was about 4:40, but I digress). After Needham's Kevin Potterton won the 1000 three seconds ahead of North's Alex Gurvitz (2:48.84), and Ryan Holmes beat Adam Bao in the 600, the meet was close. But that was about as close as it ever got. North swept the 300m (Hymlaire Lamisiere, 38.71), swept the dash (Lamisiere, Bao 6.95), took 1-2 in the hurdles (Sam Arsenault, 8.85), 1-2 in the high jump (Arsenault, 5-10) swept the shot put (Stephen Long, with a STATEMENT 48-5! for the best put of the day), and won the relay. North even swept the 2-Mile (Dan Hamilton leading the way in 10:21.21), quite a surprise given Needham's depth in the distances this year. I think the Rockets were missing some folks.

Hamilton led the 2-Mile for a while, before Brookline's All-Everything duo of Gibson and David Wilson flew by on their way to Very Fast Times.

Other highlights:

Weymouth junior Carolyn Connolly looked great, winning the 1000 in 3:07.05, a full seven seconds ahead of the second best time of the day.

Camille Murphy looked good running the mile (fourth, in 5:29), and even better in the 4x400 relay. She's got upside in the middle-distances, that's for sure.

Weymouth freshman Jill Corcoran debuted with a 5:37 mile, and junior Sam Bennett had the fastest time of the day in the 600 (1:44.37).

Braintree junior Jacky Hull had the fastest time of the day in the 300 (44.01), but Wellesley senior Najauna Muschetta looked absolutely effortless winning her heat in 44.18. I wouldn't be surprised to see her go much faster.

Framingham freshman Sarah Bowhill was third overall in the 2-Mile in 12:47.93. Did she run cross-country? That is a very good time for someone running their first indoor 2-mile.

For the boys, Dedham senior Phil Weltman moved up from his usual home in the 300 to the 600 and had the best time of the day at 1:28.14.

Milton junior Paul Connor won the 300 over Brookline's Michael Bennett in 37.34.

Brookline junior Joel Parent won the hurdles in an excellent first meet time of 8.26.

Mike Searcy of Natick won the dash in a very impressive 6.75. Wow!

Strange not to see any boys clear 6 feet in the high jump, but it's early.

How to Improve BSL Indoor Meets

Bay State League Indoor meets are already great! Why make any changes?

Well, because even great meets might benefit from improvements here and there. So let me acknowledge at the outset that Bay State meets are generally fun and exciting, and the meet management is generally efficient. Even so, here are a few suggestions that could make good meets even better:

1. Score the long jump

I hope that I am behind the times and the Bay State coaches or Athletic Directors or whoever decides these things have ALREADY decided to include the long jump as a scoring event. If not, why not? The long jump is contested and scored at the Class Meets, the State meets, the State relays... why not in the Bay State league? The argument that including it as a scoring event would lengthen the meets is weak. If every school is allowed three competitors, and every competitor is allowed two jumps, that's a total of 3x2x12 = 72 jumps per gender. At 30s a jump, that's 72 minutes total. Add a half hour of warm-up time and you can still fit boys and girls competition in under two hours.

2. Replace the JV 200 with a JV 4 x 200 relay

It is wonderful that the coaches provide JV runners with opportunities to compete. But the current JV 200s are ragged affairs. Why not replace them with JV 4 x 200 relays and move them after the 2-mile and before the varsity 4x400? They would be much more exciting (I think), and would be more fun. It would probably take a little bit longer to run them, but not a lot more time. In two minutes, you can have 24 athletes participate. furthermore, meets would end with the 4x400, which is the way all meets should end. What's not to love?

3. Limit the Field in the 2-Mile

I'm not so sure about this one, but I'll throw it out there anyway. The 2-mile is too congested in its current form, with up to 36 runners in a single race! How about adopting a policy that if there are more than 25 entrants, there will be two sections? The most obvious problem is that this has the potential to lengthen the meet. I'd be in favor of starting the two-mile while the sprints are going on (sometimes it is delayed for the sprint races).

4. Post hardcopy event results

Most leagues do this. Does the Bay State? I don't remember. It's great that the scoreboard is used, but frequently some results are skipped because of the large number of heats. Posting hard copies on the wall would be very easy, requiring one volunteer "runner" to take printed copies and post them.

5. Speaking of volunteers...

Every team should provide at least one helper who can work with meet officials, for example, a person to rake and mark at the long jump pit, a person to help at the shot put cage, someone to post results, someone to replace the HJ bar after misses, etc. I'm convinced that these little things make a big difference in how smmothly the meet runs.

Going Nowhere Fast: Runners and Treadmills

As New England experiences its snowiest, iciest December in recent memory, many runners cope by doing daily runs on treadmills -- working out in the climate-controlled comfort of their local health clubs or YMCAs, and avoiding the perils of running through the ice and snow on dark, narrow roads.

I’m sympathetic, I really am, but personally, I find it difficult to accept treadmills into my life. In the past three decades, I would estimate that I have logged fewer than a dozen runs on machines (treadmills, elliptical trainers, etc.). It never feels legitimate to me, and afterwards I always wonder whether to even bother recording the “miles” in my training log.

I don’t even like the word “treadmill.” The purpose of a mill is to grind something down into a fine meal, or cut it into small pieces. Subjecting myself to treadmill running makes me feel like I’m milling my running stride into powder.

My dislike of these machines could also be a form of stubbornness, an unwillingness to admit that moving from the great outdoors to the cozy indoors is an acceptable response to the vicissitudes of training in Boston. I think there’s something to be said for “toughening” oneself through exposure to heat, cold, wind, and rain. On the other hand, plenty of good runners – great runners, even – have no problem incorporating treadmill training into their schedules. Norway’s great marathoner Ingrid Kristiansen trained extensively on a treadmill through the long Scandinavian winters. In 1985, she held the world records in the 5000m, 10,000m, and marathon. Apparently, treadmills are not just for wimps.

But I still don’t like them.

When I climb on a treadmill, I feel that I can’t let my mind wander. I think about the machine underneath me, stare at the display in front of me, and wish I were outside. I always start out running at a snails pace, and only very gradually do I approach speeds comparable to my outdoor runs. I feel that I could go faster, but somehow lack all motivation to do so. My simple brain can’t quite get over the fact that, to put it bluntly: I’m not going anywhere – I’m just treading air. I know that not everyone feels this way. People tell me that they do hard workouts on the treadmill, that they like being able to focus on their form, without distractions.

Not being a treadmill runner myself, I struggle to understand this, and I never fully trust reports about treadmill workouts. Several years back, I was giving coaching advice to a runner who, unbeknownst to me, was doing all his runs on a treadmill. It was early fall, the most beautiful time of the year, but he just happened to prefer running indoors on the treadmill. Anyway, he kept telling me about these really great workouts he was doing: four miles in 24 minutes, six miles, with the last mile at 5:45, and so on. This was a guy who had never broken 18:30 for 5K, but with such great workouts, it seemed a cinch that he would lower his personal best by a plenty the next time he raced. Then one day it came out that all these workouts of his had been done on a treadmill. Aha, I thought, making a mental note that none of those impressive workouts had been achieved in the real world. He never did run faster than six-minute pace that fall.

This raises another set of questions: in what ways are the physics of running on a moving belt different than the physics of actual running? Do the muscles fire in the same sequence to maintain position on a moving belt as they do when they are working against the solid ground? What effect does an inclined treadmill have, and how is it different than running up a real hill? I try to think about these questions, but I don’t feel that I have the scientific background to do so. I just feel a vague suspicion that the differences will turn out to be important somehow.

(There is some information on the web about the physics of treadmill running. Here’s one analysis,

Treadmill running and natural running differences

Another obvious difference is that when running on a treadmill, an athlete doesn’t have to overcome air resistance. While this effect is fairly negligible at slow speeds, it becomes increasingly important as you approach race pace.

But in the end, I think a preference for running in the snow and slush vs. running in pace on a treadmill is based on a set of fundamental beliefs about what running is, and what it means in your own life. For me, running is and always has been about attaining a kind of freedom. Being able to go where I like and get there at my own speed has always been of paramount importance to me. (This vexed my coaches, I’m sorry to say). I don’t get that sense of freedom with a treadmill, and that’s probably why I’ll almost always sacrifice the structure, the predictability, and the comfort of the health club workout, and instead take my chances with terrestrial terrain.

Ron Hill Streaks Toward 150,000 Miles

On December 20, 1964, the Beatles "I Feel Fine" was in its third week at the top of the pop charts. Winston Churchill and T.S. Eliot were both still alive. And Ron Hill went for a run.

The Fab Four disbanded in the early 70's, and Churchill and Eliot have long since belonged to history, but Ron Hill is still running. At 69, Hill's streak of running at least a mile every day is approaching 43 years. if all goes well, he will reach the milestone on Thursday, and will run his 150,000th mile on Saturday. That's 150,000 miles in 15,705 days, or an average of 9.5 miles a day for 43 years.

It is a streak that includes a Commonwealth Games victory in the Marathon, a 7th place finish in the 1968 Olympic 10,000m, and another 7th place finish in the Munich Olympics in the marathon. It includes a week of one-mile runs following a head-on car crash that broke his sternum, runs in a foot cast after an operation to remove a bunion, runs in airports, races in 98 countries...

It includes victory at the Boston Marathon in 1970 in an icy rain that fell throughout the race.

One can certainly argue that "streaking" is at times, counter-productive to the aims of training, but one can't help admire Hill and the perseverance and positive attitude that is still there as he approaches these milestones.

Here are two articles about Hill and the 150K milestone:

Marathon Man (The Independent)

Run Hill Set for Landmark Run at Stanley

And here's a link to Ron Hill's blog. (You will notice that it hasn't been updated since August, 2007. this should tell you how hard it is to keep a blog going when Ron Hill, who hasn't missed a run in 43 years, has trouble keeping his blog up-to-date.)

Weekend Results: BU Mini-Meet #1

NNHS Alumnus Dave Cahill took another two steps towards life as a middle distance runner, running both the mile and the 800m at the first mini-meet at Boston University yesterday.

Cahill ran 4:43.21 in the 1M, and then came back later to win the 800m outright in 1:59.99! If he continues with the mile, watch for his time to drop as he gets used to the distance.

Many of the older runners at the meet took refuge in the 3000m. I want to mention on performance as especially notable: Craig Fram, 49 years old, ran 9:06.45, or the equivalent of a 9:47 2-Mile. His son, who is a H.S. sophomore (I think) ran 9:34.16.

That's an impressive family double! How soon do you think Craig Fram junior will be able to beat Craig Fram senior?

Results of BU mini-meet #1

What Was your Workout Yesterday?

It snowed 10 inches in Boston. What did you do for a run? Did you run in the snow, do a track workout indoors, run through the halls of your school sprinting up the stairs, do push-ups and sit-ups at home?

I'll start: I ran 35 minutes in the parking garage here at work, waiting for the massive traffic jams on 128 to clear. It wasn't too bad, although I got some strange looks.

So what did you do?

Ted Corbitt: 1919 - 2007

Ted Corbitt, a legendary figure in the history of American distance and ultra-distance running, died on Thursday at the age of 88.



He was one of the five original inductees into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame. The other four -- Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Joan Samuelson, and Katherine Switzer -- are all household names. But Corbitt, the one who is not a household name, might have had more of an impact than all the others put together. Most of what he accomplished, however, was behind the scenes.

Corbitt did not win any olympic medals (although he competed in the 5K, 10K, and marathon in the 1952 Olympics), but he set American records at 25 miles, the marathon, 40 miles, 50 miles and 100 miles. He set the 100 mile record (13:33:06, beating the old standard by two and a half hours) at the age of 50. He ran 134.7 miles in a 24-hour race when he was 54.

It wasn't just as a runner that he contributed to the sport. He was the first president of the Road Runners Club of America, and co-founded the New York Road Runners. Corbitt developed standards for course measurement, and published a treatise on the subject in 1964, laying the ground work for course certification and meaningful comparison among events.

Running Times called him "a shaping force" behind the masters division, and all of us who compete as masters owe him a debt of gratitude.

If you have never heard of Corbitt, he probably wanted it that way.

Ted Corbitt Obituary in NY Times

Article on Ted corbitt in Running Times

Wikipedia entry for Ted Corbitt

Snowed Out?

Heavy snow in the forecast for Thursday afternoon could postpone this afternoon's meet at Reggie Lewis. Although I haven't heard any official word yet, so far, according to WBZ radio, the following Bay State Schools have announced early dismissals:

Dedham - Closing 3 hours early
Walpole - Closing 1 hour early
Wellesley - Closing 2 and 1/2 hours early

WBZ - Public School closings

As of 8:45 a.m., there's no word on the Newton school department site about early dismissal or postponement of athletic activities.

Newton Schools Weather policy

Also no word on the Reggie Lewis site, but that's not surprising. They often close for bad weather without posting it on www.rltac.com.

Perhaps one of the coaches knows whether the meet is on?

First indoor League Meets

And so the season begins, with the first week of league dual meets at Reggie Lewis. Checking Cool running this morning, I see the results of Tri-County Meet #1, which includes Brockton, St. John's (Shrewsbury), St. John's Prep (Danvers), Catholic memorial, and others.

Tri-County Meet #1

It's early, I know, but it's irresistable to start wondering about the teams that will be a threat at the State level.

St. John's (Shrewsbury) has a lot of potential to be a state caliber team. They have a strong group of middle distance runner, led by Cam Tieuli, and while it will be difficult to score points in the 1M at the state level, it looks like they might have the makings of a very good 4x800 team:

    1  1219 Tieuli, Cameron     JR Saint John's           4:37.91
    2  1210 Perron, Ben         SO Saint John's           4:38.78
    4  1170 Clark, Brian        SR Saint John's           4:48.99
    5  1222 Turner, Kevin       JR Saint John's           4:50.08

Their best all-around athlete is Andrew Powell, who high-jumped 6-4, long-jumped 20-5, and ran the 55 Hurdles in 8.09.

They also have a sophomore running 10:15 for the 2-Mile, and always seem to be tough in the 4x400.

Brockton has an intriguing mix of athletes, with All-Scholastic XC runner Carlos Montrond a likely point-scorer at the state levl in the 2M, and two impressive long-jumpers:

1   769 Dean, Dregory       SR Brockton              21-11.00
2   787 Guerrier, Jimm      JR Brockton              20-09.50

Yowza! They also had two runners under 38 seconds for 300, so they might have the makings of a strong 4x200 or 4x400 relay team.

---

Thursday is the first Bay State League Meet, and Newton North runs against Weymouth. I know little about either team, but based on returning strength, I'd have to think the Newton North boys are a strong favorite (with Putzys, Hamilton, Bao, Chan, Arsenault accounting for a lot of points).

The girls meet should be much closer, but I'm not going to embarrass myself by making any predictions or trying to analyze the teams.

The meet starts at 4:30 at Reggie. Good luck to all the Bay State teams!

Weekend Results: Dec 8, 2007

I guess cross-country season really is over.

After watching the Footlocker finals via webcast yesterday, I opened today's Boston Globe and found the section on the Fall All-Scholastics. As expected, Brookline was well represented in the selections for cross-country honors. Congratulations to Runner-of-the-Year Robert Gibson, Coach-of-the-Year Mike Glennon, and Brookline's other All-Scholastics: David Wilson, Mike Burnstein, and Elliot Lehane. It will be a long time before Massachusetts sees another team like the 2007 Warriors.

Boston Globe All Scholastics - Cross Country

---

Yesterday marked the first weekend of indoor track meets for many colleges, and that means we have some alumni NNHS results to report.

Noah Jampol opened his indoor campaign with a 4:35.61 mile for third at the Ursinus Winter Track Invitational. That's a nice time for the early season and a less than speedy track. It's great to see "the track junkie from Johns Hopkins" back in action.

Yale freshman David Smith tossed the big ball for the first time in college competition Saturday, putting 13.02m (42' 8.5")for fifth at the Yale Invitational.

Dave Cahill blazed a 1:57.47 800m at the Harvard Open meet in Allston on Saturday. Cahill also ran a very respectable 2:36.47 1000m a week earlier at Northeastern's Husky Invitational. Is this a permanent move up in distance for the man who runs 51s 400s more often than Tom Brady throws a touchdown pass?

By the way, Newton South alumnus and Brandeis freshman Sam Donovan ran a very nice mile time - 4:31.62 -- at that same Husky Invitational.

I also missed this result from a week ago: Steph O'Brien won an early season 1000m in 3:10.21 at the Wesleyan Invitational in Middletown, CT last weekend. I'm hoping we get to see Steph run the mile once or twice this season.

Going Out Fast at Footlocker Nationals

I hadn't intended to write any more about cross country, but having just watched the webcast of the Footlocker Nationals again, I can't help commenting on the races.

Footlocker Finals - Webcasts

Specifically, the boys and girls races featured almost identical tactics from the early front-runners, Jordan Hasay in the girls race and Luke Puskedra in the boys race. Both went out fast -- no surprise there -- and both continued to push the pace, presumably in an effort to build insurmountable leads early.

Hasay came close to accomplishing her mission, as she strung out the girls pack with splits of 2:31 at 800m, 5:18 at the mile, and 11:02 at the 2M. At one point, Hasay had at least a five-second lead, but the chase pack stayed close, and Florida's Ashley Brasovan went by with about 1000m to go and won the race. Hasay ended up third.

Hasay's mile splits were approximately 5:18/5:44/5:55.

In the boys race, Puskedra took the pace out hard from the gun, running 2:10 for the first 800m, and 4:28 for the first mile. Even at that pace, he never had much more than a 1-2 second lead over the chase pack, which included Colby Lowe and German Fernandez.

By two miles, Puskedra had been joined by Mike Fouts, but Fouts did not seem in any hurry to take the lead. He waited for a minute or so, and then accelerated away at about the 10:20 mark. Meanwhile, Clint Derrick was moving up into sixth. Fouts opened up daylight on Puskedra, Lowe et al., and charged up the final hill on his way to a national title in 14:50. Derrick finished very fast to take second in 14:57. Puskedra ended up fifth in 15:15.

Puskedra's mile splits were approximately: 4:28 / 5:00 / 5:25. Fouts, on the other hand, ran a 5:00 final mile.

So what to make of this... One might conclude that going out fast isn't a great strategy, but I think it's more complex than that. After all, if the goal was to run even splits (which the textbooks tell us is the most efficient way to run), then everyone went out too fast, including the race winner. And it's possible that Derick, the guy who ran the most even race, waited too long tro establish contact with the front of the race. We can't know this for sure.

When I was watching the boys race, I recalled watching Dan Robb run the 800m at the Class A meet his senior year. Dan was feeling really good that day and went out very fast. He came through 400m in about 56, as I recall, and was leading the race by about 10m over a very talented field. He kept pushing and still held the lead at 600, but several runners passed him in the stretch. He still finished fourth, however.

I remember what Coach Blackburn said that day: he said that Dan ran the first 300m perfectly, but that he never stopped pushing. He said that if Dan had been able to relax and let his natural running form take over, he would have been able to conserve energy and defend his lead late in the race.

When I was watching the videos of the footlocker races, I had the same sense. It wasn't that the races went out fast, it was that once having taken the lead, it seemed that Hasay and Puskedra felt the need to keep pushing the pace. In any other race, they might have run away with victories, but against the very best runners in the country, their early pace was too costly, and they couldn't defend their leads late in the race.

I know, I know, it sounds simple and it really isn't. Nor is it an easy thing for the other runners in the race to hang on through those scalding early miles and challenge late in the race. But it brings home to me once again the difference between a truly championship caliber race and everything else. In a race among the best, there's no margin for error or allowance for moves that sap one's energy.

Thin Ice

I don't mind the cold...much. On days when the temperature hovers in the teens, it's a little bit more difficult to get out the door but once the first couple of miles are behind you, the run feels good. And when you get back and your body is steaming like a draft horse, you can afford to laugh at the cold.

And rain is rain. I mean, the first few minutes are the worst until everything resolves into a damp mush, and then it's just a matter of having the sense to know when to come in and shuck off those wet clothes and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking hot cocoa.

I actually like hot days, and you'll never hear me complain about hot weather unless its a matter of having to race in the heat. Summer racing is always a little dangerous, but I don't mind a heat wave for everyday running. There's always the pleasure of waiting for sunset and then running through suburban streets on a summer night.

But ice?

Ice -- especially that thin, can't decide between rain and snow, didn't shovel the sidewalk version -- is the worst. I really resent it when all my favorite outdoor running routes are blighted with these frictionless stains of frozen slop. Each day I hope that the temperature will rise enough to melt the ice patches, or drop enough that they won't keep reforming at night after the sun melt during the day.

I go for a run, and every quarter mile I'm taking some ridiculous evasive action to avoid slipping and cracking my brittle bones on the road or sidewalk. And there's nothing redemptive about this. It's not like I'm getting tougher by doing this kind of running. I just end up sore from changing my stride. And then, I'll hit a patch of bare pavement and I'll suddenly feel grateful -- grateful! -- that the city deigned to plow ithis particular stretch of Comm Ave.

It's enough to make you do your long runs inside a parking garage.

Footlocker Finals on Saturday

The 2007 Footlocker HS XC finals will be held on Saturday at Balboa Park in San Diego.

Massachusetts has two runners in the race: Bromfield's Emily Jones (2nd at the NE Regional), and Triton's Keely Maguire (5th at NE Rregionals). Jones, only a junior, also made the finals in 2006. Good luck to both!




You can find regional results, photos, predictions, and links to video at the following sites:

Official Footlocker Meet Site

DyeStat's Footlocker Finals Index Page

There is a live webcast available via DyeTV. The girls race is at 12:15 EST (9:15 local time) and the boys race is at 1:00 EST (10:00 local time).

Footlocker Finals Video from DyeStat

Robert Cade: An Appreciation

Robert Cade, the inventor of Gatorade, died a week ago at the age of 80.

Neil Amdur wrote a nice, informative appreciation of Dr. Cade in Sunday's NY Times.

Raise a Glass to the Father of Energy Drinks

It is hard to imagine a world in which hydration, electrolyte replacement, and carbo-loading were not universal concepts in athletics, but that was the way things were in 1966 when Cade started providing "Cade's Cola" to the U. of Florida football team.

Now, Americans drink 7 billions of bottles of Gatorade a year. 7 billion.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Cade was that he wasn't trying to start a revolution or found the sports drink industry, he was just trying to help athletes. His other projects involved experimenting with high-carbohydrate meals prior to exercise and designing a better football helmet.

This Day in Running History: Derek Clayton

On this day in 1967, Australian distance runner Derek Clayton set a world marathon best of 2:09:36.4 in the Fukuoka marathon, becoming the first human to run under 2:10. He would lower his own world's best again in 1969, running 2:08:33 in Antwerp. That time would stand as the world record for 12 more years, and would still be considered a world-class time today.

I remember reading about Clayton in Sports Illustrated back in the day. Clayton's training was always long and always fast. He logged 120-140 mile weeks for years until he finally sustained too many injuries to continue.

Clayton was not blessed with tremendous speed, but made up for it by developing the "Clayton shuffle," a low, economical stride that carried him along with little wasted effort. He rarely trained slower than 5:30 per mile pace.

Clayton competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, finishing 7th and 13th respectively.

NNHS 2007-2008 Indoor Schedule

Unofficial Schedule for NNHS Indoor Track
(From highschoolsports.net and other spources)

December
Thu  12/13/07   4:30    NNHS v. Weymouth       B&G    RLTAC
Sun  12/16/07   9:30a   Winter Festival        B&G    RLTAC
Thu  12/20/07   4:30    NNHS v. Needham        B&G    RLTAC
Sat  12/22/07   10:00a  MSTCA Team Pentathlon  ??     RLTAC

January
Thu  01/03/08   4:30    NNHS v. Braintree      B&G    RLTAC
Sat  01/05/08   9:30a   Auerbach Frosh/Soph    B&G    RLTAC
Wed  01/09/08   4:00    JV Meet                B&G    NNHS
Thu  01/10/08   4:30    NNHS v. Framingham     B&G    RLTAC
Fri  01/11/08   TBA     Dartmouth Relays       Girls  Hanover, NH
Sat  01/12/08   TBA     Dartmouth Relays       Girls  Hanover, NH
Wed  01/16/08   4:00    JV Meet                B&G    NNHS
Thu  01/17/08   4:30    NNHS v. Brookline      B&G    RLTAC
Sat  01/19/08   9:30a   Div I State Relays     B&G    RLTAC
Wed  01/23/08   4:00    JV Meet                B&G    NNHS
Thu  01/24/08   4:30    BSC Divisional Meet    B&G    RLTAC
Sun  01/27/08   11:00a  McIntyre Elite Relays  B&G    RLTAC
Wed  01/30/08   4:00    JV Meet                B&G    NNHS

February
Sat  02/02/08   9:30a   State Coaches Invite   B&G    RLTAC
Sun  02/03/08   TBA     State Coaches Elite    B&G    RLTAC
Wed  02/06/08   TBA     BSC Meet               B&G    RLTAC
Sun  02/17/08   TBA     Div 1 State Meet       B&G    RLTAC
Fri  02/22/08   TBA     State Finals           B&G    RLTAC
Fri  02/29/08   TBA     New Englands           B&G    RLTAC

Brookline, Wilson 7th at NTN Nationals!

A wintry 3000 miles from home and facing acres of mud, numerous hay bales, and the infamous roller coaster hills known as the "whoop-de-doo's," the Brookline XC Club ably represented Massachusetts and the Bay State League on Saturday at the Nike Team Nationals. The Warriors (if the MIAA will let me call them that) finished 7th overall (of 22 teams) with 256 points.

David Wilson, second to teammate Robert Gibson all XC season, held back slightly at the beginning, but moved up and ran with the second pack most of the race. Wilson caught and passed Gibson with about 500 meters to go and was the first Brookline runner across the line at NTN Nationals, placing 7th overall in 16:27. Gibson, running hard from the gun, faded a bit in the final stretch but hung on to place 16th in 16:36.

7.   David Wilson     16:27.0
16.  Robert Gibson    16:36.5
45.  Mike Burnstein   17:05.8
60.  Elliot Lehane    17:14.4
128. Chris Mercurio   18:00.4
140. Ryan Hardiman    18:12.7
151. Brendan Grove    18:26.1

(Don't be fooled by the times: even the race winner, Naperville's Chris Derrick, admitted "this course really eats you up.")

Congratulations to these kids and to the entire Brookline program on their State Championship, their NTN Regional championship, their performance in Portland, and a season for the ages!

Media notes: The team of announcers and athlete-commentators was generally good. Toni Reavis is, of course, the best, although he stumbled a few times -- understandable given that these were not star performers in a track race, but high school kids in a wild 5K race. Lauren Fleshman is a lively commentator. Alan Culpepper tries hard. Sadly, athlete stud Chris Solinsky was a dud as a commentator. The worst moment occurred while he was interviewing Lucas Walters, a runner who had undergone nine chemotherapy treatments in the past year. After Walters had described the cancer and its treatment, Solinsky awkwardly tried to segue back to the race, saying "Ok, well tell me how the race went today."

NTN Live WebCast info

Here is the info (copied from the Dyestat FAQ) for watching the Nike Team Nationals in real time via webcast.

Q: What is the address of the live webcast?
A: http://ntn.dyestat.com

Q: When is the live webcast?
A: Saturday, December 1 at 10:15am PST.

Q: What software will be needed to view the webcast?
A: Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player (installed by default on most Microsoft Windows based computers). To download the latest version of Media Player go here: www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/

Q: I have a Macintosh, will I be able to watch the webcast?
A: Yes, but you'll need some additional software called Flip4Mac. To download a free copy click here: http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv_download.htm

In addition, Firefox is the recommended Macintosh web browser. To download Firefox for Macintosh click here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/?from=getfirefox

Q: How fast of an Internet connection is required to watch?
A: Broadband (DSL, Cable, FIOS, etc).

Q: Are their any videos from the Regional Championships?
A: Yes, click here to see those: http://www.dyestat.com/?pg=nikentn-regional-videos

Voice of Reason

Flotrack (www.flocasts.com) has a series of terrific video interviews with Olympic medalist, exercise physiologist, and legendary distance running coach Jack Daniels.

From the Flotrack web site:

Daniels has coached 31 individual national champions, 131 All-Americans and has won 8 NCAA team titles. He earned two Olympic medals, Silver and Bronze, in the modern pentathlon. As coach, Daniels was been honored numerous times: he was named National cross country coach of the century, National coach of the year three different times and the World's best coach by Runners' World. In addition to coaching, Daniels has written five books, including Daniels' Running Formula.

In the following video, he discusses at length the question of how much training is best for young runners. Daniels argues that while there is no physiological reason why a runner will physically "burn out" with higher mileage, the real danger is that they will lose interest in the training.

Jack Daniels Interview: Questions I Get Asked

According to Daniels, the most important role of the coach is to make training rewarding, and to create an environment where each athlete can begin to realize their abilities.

Gradus ad Parnassum

There's something to be said for living in a place where you can't help training, at least if you want to eat breakfast.

Here we were at Maho Bay Camp on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was four in the afternoon, and I was sitting in the open air pavillion that sits up on the hill and overlooks the bay. It was that hour when vessels of every size and shape make their way home after a day of adventures on the water. I was thinking to myself, either this place is a dream, or that other place -- where bitter winds strip leaves from the trees and water freezes in the lakes -- that place is a dream. They can't both co-exist in the same moral universe.

You see, I never expected in my lifetime to visit the Virgin Islands. Nothing really prepared me for it. My family always believed in staying put during the winter. My dad liked to lay in the supplies and try to outlast the season. On the day I was born, a blizzard dropped two feet of snow on Amherst. With that background, I've always considered it an act of folly, if not a failure of character, to try to escape the cold by jetting off to some exotic location. So what was I doing here, in November, swimming in the aquamarine waters, relaxing in sandals and a t-shirt as cool breezes fanned my brow?

Well, I could blame it on Ann -- it was her 50th birthday that became the pretext for this unprecedented trip. Or I could point to the fact that our week away from New England coincided with having our kitchen torn apart as the first step in a wholesale renovation that will have us eating from the microwave for four weeks.

In an any case, here we were.

The camp where we're staying was actually a small city of about 150 tent structures and a few buildings built on the side of a steep hill that rises up out of the sea. Each tent structure was made with a solid wood platform that supported screened walls and a canvas roof that provided shelter from the occasional rain. (The rain, when it fell on the taut canvas in the middle of the night, sounded like fireworks crackling above our heads.)

The tents are connected by a series of boardwalks and stairs with whimsical names like Lizard Lane, Peahen Parkway, Crab Ramble Road, and Lost Donkey Highway. If there were slides, it would be like a life size version of Chutes and Ladders.

In this tent city, if we needed to go anywhere, we had to ascend or descend a great many flights of stairs. Ann and I were in Tent E28, which was near the top of the hillside. Between the beach to our tent, there were 365 stairs. I know because I counted them three separate times. The uphill version of this journey took about eight minutes. Of course, we were always carrying something, adding to the fun.

It didn't take me long to conclude that I was getting a pretty good workout just walking up and down the stairs. Of course, I was also running for about 30 minutes every morning, and those runs weren't flat either. The final 500 meters of my morning run asecended this same hill from a different side and involved climbing a grade that I estimated at 12% (yes, steeper than the hill at Gardner). The first day of doing this, and then walking up and down stairs all day, I was beat. The second day, I was looking for excuses to stay in our tent -- or, having left it, to stay away.

But by the third day a miracle occurred: I started getting used to it. By the fourth day, I was going out of my way to explore the vast network of walkways, finding new ways to navigate the hillside. That's when I started counting steps and stairs. I started taking pride in our remote and inaccessible location and looked down - literally and figuratively - on those guests whose tents were near the beach. I started imagining a running camp built on such a hill, a running camp that would turn its guests into mountain goats.

On the day before we left, I timed the final part of my run, and found out it took me 2:46 to climb the last hill. Later that day, we were returning from an excursion and were getting a ride from a truck that served as a taxi for the camp. On a whim, I started my watch when the truck began the long agonizing climb up the same hill I had run in the morning. Three minutes and twelve seconds later, I stopped my watch as the the truck crested the climb with a final groan from its lowest gear. I showed the watch proudly to Ann sitting next to me. She just rolled her eyes and shook her head, as if to say that vacations are completely wasted on some people.


Looking down from just above our tent onto Maho Bay, St. John, U.S.V.I.

Brookline Wins NTN NE Regional

On Saturday, the Brookline TC (don't get me started) won the Nike Team Nationals - Northeast Regional Qualifying meet by a single point (86-87) over the NE Region's top-ranked team, Danbury TC.

Robert Gibson won the race outright in 16:01, and Brookline's quiet man (AKA, the second-best runner in the state), David Wilson, finished 3rd overall in 16:16.

It is ironic to think that the likely EMass runner-of-the-year, Gibson, who has not lost a race this year, is not a Bay State League All-Star. The irony only grows when you consider that the likely EMass coach-of-the-year, Mike Glennon, is not the Bay State League coach of the year.

But these are inconsequential things. Of much greater importance is that the Brookline TC is headed to Portland, OR to run for the national title on December 1st. We wish them the best of luck!

Early in the 2007 season, Brookline ran in the Bowdoin Park Classic, run on the same course as the regional meet. Of the five Brookline runners who competed in both races, here's a comparison of their times from the two races:

Bowdoin Classic - 9/22/07.....NTN NE Regionals - 11/24/07

Gibson.....16:13.0............Gibson.....16:00.9
Wilson.....16:36.0............Wilson.....16:16.0
Burnstein..16:48.0............Burnstein..16:30.7
Grove......17:20.0............Grove......17:34.4
Hardiman...17:35.0............Hardiman...18:16.8

In the latter race, Brookline also had Elliot Lehane (16:42.2) and Chris Mercurio (17:44.5).

To watch a recap of the regional meets, click the following link:

NTN Regionals - Web recap

Blog On Vacation: Nov 20-27

A big thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting on this blog. I am going on vacation and will most likely be without ready Internet access for the next week. So no blog entries for a while... Sorry!

Congratulations to all on a great XC season. Good luck to Brookline at the NTN Northeast regional, and to anyone running the Footlocker regional.

NCAA Div I Results

Arkansas' Chris Barnicle finished 108th at the 2007 NCAA Div I Championships, running 31:11 for the 10K course. Chris was 24:38 at 8K, but dropped back in the final (hilly) 2K.

Wellesley grad Brielle Chabot finished 77th in the Women's 6K, running 21:24 to lead Boston College.

Two other Mass. runners of note competed in the women's race: Ari Lambie (Bromfield/Stanford) finished 9th in 20:18. Lindsay Donaldson (Lincoln-Sudbury/Yale) finished 38th in 21:02. (There might be others, but I didn't notice any in the results.)

NCAA Div I Championships - Live Webcast

Indiana State hosts the 2007 NCAA Div I XC Championships. Start of the Men's race is at 12:00 Easter Time (11:00 Central). The Women's Race Begins at 1:00 Eastern (12:00 Central).

CSTV is providing a live webcast (requires free registration). To access the webcast, use the following link.

CSTV Webcast of 2007 Div I XC Championships

MA All-States: Brookline Closes the Deal

The day was November 5, 2005. The place was the Wrentham Development Center, a new venue for the MSTCA State Coaches meet. In the Boys Sophomore race, Brookline's Robert Gibson, Mike Burnstein, and Elliot Lehane swept the first three places in 16:55, 16:56, and 17:04. It was rumored that Gibson had not run all out.

The expectations began to build for Brookline. That year, all three sophomores figured in the Warriors second-place team finish at the All-State meet, with Gibson finishing 14th overall. In 2006, Brookline appeared ready to knock off defending champs, Brockton. They had found another junior, Chris Mercurio, and relied on two seniors, Matt Stewart and Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot. But the Boxers ran their best race of the year at Northfield Mountain, and Gibson was not himself after a head injury sustained in the week before the meet. Brookline ran well, but needed to run better, and ended up third with the same number of points as St. John's Shrewsbury.

And then came 2007. Gibson, Burnstein, and Lehane were still together. Mercurio was coming back from a serious hamstring injury. And Brookline's already deep team was joined by David Wilson, a Brookline native who had attended private school for his freshman and half of his sophomore year. Wilson trained as hard as anyone in the state, and started finsihing within seconds of Gibson in a series of races. At Amherst, Gibson, Burnstein, and Wilson all ran under 16:00 minutes. The expectations went through the roof.

Cross-country is a long season, and so many things can go wrong that it's worth mentioning that nothing is certain, no matter how you are ranked or how dominant you have seemed up to that point. So it is to Brookline's great credit that on Saturday they sealed the deal -- if anything, they exceeded expectations, and they did it despite a week of adversity.

On a cold and blustery day, Gibson, who was recovering from a cold, won in 14:25. Wilson ran brilliantly and held on for second in 14:30. Burnstein (suffering from a sore ankle) and Lehane finished 9th and 10th. Sophomore Brendan Grove finished 24th. Mercurio was 34th. Ryan Hardiman, also running injured, did not finish. Brookline had left no doubt about who was the best team this century, scoring an unheard of 25 points.

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It was a tough day for other Bay State runners in the D1 Boys race. Seb Putzeys started strong and was in the top 20 at 1.5 Miles, but struggled with the severe hills in the second mile and finished 41st in 15:23. Needham's Sam Miller finished 44th, only two seconds behind Seb.

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In the Girls D1 race, Lincoln-Sudbury and Newton South met again, a week after the Lions had stunned L-S by winning the EMass meet. But that defeat seemed to galvanize the L-S team. Freed from the need to be perfect, they were simply very, very good, placing three runners in the top twelve, and six runners in the top 29. When the scores were totaled up, the Warriors of Lincoln-Sudbury had joined the Warriors from Brookline as owners of a dominating win.

Newton South ran well to take second, making it a dual-county sweep of the top two team spots.

The Bay State League had a strong showing in the D1 race. Natick's Becca White was in fourth with 1000m but used a long drive to the finish to outkick Masconomet's Abby D'Augustino and Dennis-Yarmouth's Megan Barry to take 2nd in 17:07. White's teammate Anya Price was 37th in 18:29.

Needham's Emily Lipman placed 14th in 17:46, while Framingham's Camille Murphy placed 28th in 18:11.

Weymouth had two individual runners in the race: Kristin Mahoney placed 24th in 18:04 and Carolyn Connolly placed 52nd in 18:41.

Newton North's Carolyn Ranti had an off-day and finished 69th in 19:04.

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In D2, Wellesley's Will Volkmann and Nick Carroll placed 9th and 12th to earn all-state individual honors. Wellesley finished fifth overall with 176 points, behind Hopedale, Bishop Feehan, Oliver Ames, and Winchester.

In the D2 girls race, the Wellesley girls were led by freshman Blake Dietrich, who placed 12th in 17:39. Dietrich was followed by Anna Lukes (27th), Jessica Kaliski (30th), Faith Richardson (33rd), and Ali Griswold (53rd), as the Wellesley girls placed fourth, just three points behind nemesis Bishop Feehan.

The biggest story in D2 was the take-no-prisoners victory by Bromfield's Emily Jones over Triton's Keely Maguire. On a day when times were slowed by the wind and cold, Jones ran 16:06 -- 48 seconds faster than Kristin Kasper ran to win the D1 race. Jones is in rarefied company here, as her time is only a few seconds slower than Ari Lambie's best time of 16:00, and close to the legendary 15:50 of three-time WORLD XC champion Lynn Jennings. Those three are all from hilly Bromfield. Hmmm. I wonder if there is a connection?

Anyway, Jones -- still only a junior -- was very impressive and looks like a good bet to return to the Footlocker National Championships.

NCAA Div III Nationals

Middlebury junior Alexandra Krieg finished 3rd overall at the Div III cross-country nationals hosted by St. Olaf's College in Northfield, Minnestoa. The Wellesley H.S. grad ran 21:23 on the 6K championship course. It was three years ago that Krieg won the Mass All-State Div II championship at Gardner, leading the Wellesley team that won the team title and that included Brielle Chabot (who will be running the DI Nationals for BC on Monday).

The Amherst women won the team title, and running fourth for them was former Newton South standout Caitlin McDermott-Murphy, who finished 54th in 22:32. Amherst senior and Danvers grad Heather Wilson led the Lady Jeffs with a 12th-place finish in 21:44.

Tufts senior and Oliver Ames grad Katy O'Brien finished 16th in 21:47.

Williams senior and Newton North grad Liz Gleason competed in her final collegiate cross-country race at DIII nationals, running 23:17. If you you think the chute at Franklin Park can be crowded, consider that Liz finished right in the middle of the thickest group of finishers, with 5 runners per second crossing the line and stumbling into the chutes.

Results page for DIII Nationals Men's 8K and Women's 6K

The Most Vulnerable of Athletes

Police in Lewiston, Maine continue to investigate an alleged assault by an unidentified spectator on a Lewiston High cross-country runner, senior Mohamed Noor, at the 73rd running of the New England high school cross country championships Saturday in Cumberland.

If you have not been following the story, or the discussion of it on the message boards, it started sketchy and has become increasingly ugly. Noor was struck in the face by dirt or sand thrown by a man during the race. At the time he was struck, in the second mile of the race, he was in fifth place. He finished in 124th. After the race, he was vomiting and complaining of a burning sensation in his eyes. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

According to one press account, Noor and a teammate were approached by the same manbefore the race, and he tried to give them biblical pamphlets (Noor is Muslim).

Immediately after the race, there was a lot of confusion about what had happened, IF it had happened, and why. Another story from Wednesday indicates that Noor's story has been corroborated by another runner who had been running close to Noor who was struck in the back of the head by a clump of dirt.

Cross-country runners and marathoners are among the most vulnerable of athletes. They tarvel a long route that is almost impossible to secure. Who can forget how a deranged spectator attacked the race leader, Vanderlei de Lima, in the 2004 Olympic Marathon?

In yet another story on the incident at the New Englands, Griswold (CT) Coach Gerry Chester recalls how his entire team was attacked and beaten up in a dual meet 15 years ago. It is a sick thing that the cowardly choose to attack the innocent at their most vulnerable moments.

Second runner claims sand thrown during regional track event

SI.com: Second runner claims sand thrown

Baldini triumph eclipsed by De Lima attack

Local Coverage of EMass Meets, All-State

It's always good to read what the local papers are saying about their hometown cross-country teams. Here's a smattering of coverage from around the area:

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The Daily News Tribune (Newton, Waltham) has a long article, mostly focusing on the Newton South girls upsetting Lincoln-Sudbury to win the D1 Championship, but with additional coverage of all the Newton teams.

Lions girls shock L-S to claim EMass Div. 1 championship

The article has a great quote from Newton South girls coach Steve McChesney:

`My pride in this team and my joy for them is beyond anything that I could say to them. They are the best of what I have worked for my entire life as athletes and as young people. It is privilege to work with a team like this and they are very special to me."

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The Wellesley Townsman has a great article about both Wellesley teams qualifying for the state meet.

Cross country teams third at EMass meet

Nick Carroll, who finished 8th in Div III, sums up Wellesley's season to this point as follows:

"We drastically underestimated our season even from the beginning... But as the season progressed ,everyone kept getting better and surprising themselves. Our top five improved significantly with the addition of some new runners as well as the return of veterans, so by the time the state meet rolled around, we were ready to do big things even if other people didn’t know about us."

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The Weymouth News has a brief article about the boys and girls performance at EMass. The article notes that Kristin Mahoney qualified for the state meet, but doesn't mention that Carolyn Connolly did as well.

Solid showing for Weymouth runners at Division 1 state meet

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I am sad to report that the Brookline Tab continues its sub-standard coverage of the what might be the best Boys XC team the town (and maybe the state) has ever seen. Nice pictures of Robert Gibson and David Wilson, though.

Boys run to EMass x-country championship

Why doesn't the Brookline Tab use a student-athlete from the XC team to write their articles? Anyone from Brookline want to write about the state meet for this blog?

Two Champions Describe the Gardner Course

When Mike Miller asked me to comment on the Gardner XC course, my first reaction was to decline politely since I don't feel that I have a good understanding of the course. I jogged it once, and watched the 2004 All-State meet, but that's the extent of my experience.

But I asked a few runners who competed at that 2004 meet, including two who won state championships there. This is what they had to say.

Chris Barnicle ran 14:09 at Gardner and looked supremely comfortable doing it. This is what he says about the course:

"...I would say the most important thing would be -- as in any race -- to run relaxed. There are some uphills that are very tough and that would be foolish to run too hard, and some downhills so steep that they seem vertical. One thing that I'm sure is important is to have enough energy for the last straight. It's slightly uphill, and if you still have some energy in the bank you can catch a lot of people."

Of course, Chris had the advantage of being the best runner in the race, and was able to run relaxed while still staying in the front. Still, he was quite patient, and only pulled away from Paul Morris in the final mile. Morris faded, and was caught by Josh Boone, who knew the course well, and ran the last 1K very fast.

Unlike Chris, Jess Barton went into the 2004 race as an underdog. It was only her first year of cross-country, and she had finished 2nd in the snow at the EMass meet to Meghan Curran. But at Gardner, she attacked the front of the race, seeming to gain strength as the race went on. In the last half mile Jess outran Amherst's Spring Greeney for the win.

Here's what Jess has to say:

"I remember at Gardner that the hills were not really bad, except for the one steep hill in the last mile or so, but the rest of them weren't very steep and the grass was in really good condition, so they were not too hard.

I think I just went out hard, stayed focused and ran hard the entire way and made sure that I ran fast and strong on the downhills."

So there you have it: two different approaches to running well at Gardner and winning the state championship. I find it fascinating that Jess didn't remember the hills as steep, which I think says a lot about her mental focus on that day. If I had to reconcile the two approaches, I would say that it is very important not to run the "ravine" hill too hard either down or up, but to stay in your own zone, alert and focused on the task at hand. I also agree with Chris that you have to have mental and physical energy in reserve for the last 1000 meters.

As a coach, I would always tell people to have fun and run it like any other race, confident and untroubled by the course, the competition, or the weather. It's really a privilege to compete in the All-State meet. You should enjoy it.

The Remarkable Run of Clayton Lloyd

The last time the MA All-State XC meet was held in Gardner was Nov. 20, 2004. The course at the Gardner Municipal Golf Course was in good shape, which was surprising because it had been blanketed with snow a week earlier, forcing postponement of the Central Mass Divisional Championships until Monday.

The snow had not delayed the EMass meet on Nov 13. Even though four inches fell on Franklin Park overnight and another two inches feel during the meet, the races went on. Newton North eked out a narrow win over Brockton on the strength of a 1-3 finish from Chris Barnicle and David Polgar. Brockton's pack looked awfully good, though, as they placed four runners in front of Newton North's third, Clayton Lloyd.

Lloyd had gotten off to a slow start in cross-country that year. A ruptured spleen from a fall suffered in June had kept him from running for two full months, and he didn't start any kind of training until the first week of August. In the first few meets of September, he finished seventh for the Tigers. As the season went on, he became a reliable member of Newton's top five, and he was the fifth runner for Newton at the league meet (9th overall). Never considered a top runner, Lloyd had a habit of running well when it counted most. His race at EMass was clutch, as he passed Brockton's fifth runner in the final 200 meters to take 17th and help secure Newton's 63-67 win over the Boxers.

But nothing he had done that season prepared us for his race at the State meet.

In the early going, he ran conservatively. At one point, biding his time behind a large pack, he was forced to hurdle the runner in front of him, who went down after tripping on a post that was marking a turn on the course. In the hilly middle section of the course he started moving up.

With 1K to go, he had moved into the top twenty-five, and still looked great. With Dan Chebot and Doug Brecher ahead of the Brockton pack, it looked like Newton had the meet won, but the Boxers had run conservatively, too, and now they were surging. Kevin Gill, Keon Valcourt, Geovanni Timberlake, and David Lopes were all passing people, and with Jose DePina running in fifth, the race for the state championship was on.

As Barnicle jogged across the line with his first individual state XC championship, and David Polgar battled with Brian Gagnon for 10th place, Chebot and Brecher were hanging on for dear life. Of all the Tiger runners only Clayton Lloyd was still passing people.

When he crossed the line, Clay had placed 17th, the same spot he had in the EMass meet against a thinner field. He had beaten all of the Brockton runners except DePina, including future state track champions Kevin Gill and David Lopes. He had finished one second behind the 2005 XC champion-to-be Mark Amirault. It was the finest race of his H.S. career, and if he had run a mere five seconds slower, it would have been Brockton holding the state championship trophy.

Here are the top results from that meet:

1 Barnicle, Chris 12 Newton North HS 14:09 1
2 Boone, Josh SR Gardner 14:18 2
3 Morris, Paul 12 Lexington HS 14:21
4 Ritchie, Tim SR Doherty 14:32
5 Regnier, Jesse Ludlow High School 14:35 3
6 De Pina, Jose 11 Brockton HS 14:38 4
7 Welch, Jefferson 12 Haverhill HS 14:40
8 Tieuli, Matt JR Saint John's 14:42 5
9 Miranda, Mike 12 Methuen HS 14:43 6
10 Polgar, David 11 Newton North HS 14:44 7
11 Gagnon, Brian 12 Lowell HS 14:44 8
12 Andrews, Josh 11 Chelmsford HS 14:47 9
13 Sampson, Zach 11 Haverhill HS 14:51
14 Sanca, Ruben 12 O'Bryant 14:51
15 Amirault, Mark 10 Xaverian 14:53
16 Burmeister, Taylor 12 Concord-Carlisle HS 14:54 10
17 Lloyd, Clayton 12 Newton North HS 14:54 11
18 Gill, Kevin 10 Brockton HS 14:57 12
19 Fullerton, Patrick 10 Haverhill HS 14:57
20 Forbes, Chris 11 Methuen HS 14:58 13
21 Valcourt, Keon 12 Brockton HS 14:59 14
22 Carpenito, Joe 12 Concord-Carlisle HS 15:01 15
23 Phillippo, Matt 12 Concord-Carlisle HS 15:03 16
24 Kalinoski, Jon 12 Chelmsford HS 15:04 17
25 Timberlake, Geovani 10 Brockton HS 15:05 18
26 Lopes, David 12 Brockton HS 15:06 19
27 Sargent, Jon SR Oakmont 15:06
28 Burke, Ryan 12 Revere HS 15:08
29 Sullivan, Mike Westfield High S 15:09 20
30 Czupryna, Steve Chicopee Compreh 15:09
31 Chebot, Dan 12 Newton North HS 15:09 21
32 Brecher, Doug 11 Newton North HS 15:10 22

Clay went on to have a modest indoor and outdoor track season, graduated and went off to Brandeis for a year, where he ran XC for a season. He has been working with City Year in Philadelphia for the last year and a half. He stopped by Cold Spring Park this summer to say hi, and said he hadn't given up on running but it wasn't his priority right now.

He might not be tearing it up for colleges now, but that race in 2004 makes Clay a Newton North legend.

EMass Div I Photos from Henry Finch

Henry Finch, father of one current and one former Newton South runner, has taken a great series of photos for the Div I EMass championship races and posted them on the Newton South Running Times blog site.

Henry strives to take photos that actually show how the race develops over time. In his series of pictures from the girls race, it is fascinating to contrast the runners from Newton South and Lincoln-Sudbury. He also has a great series of pictures showing the final sprint duel between L-S's Andrea Keklak and Newton North's Carolyn Ranti.

Thanks to Henry for taking these pictures and making them available. Congratulations to the Newton South girls on their victory, the Newton South boys on their third place, and of course to the L-S girls and boys who both finished in the runner-up spot on Saturday to move on to the All-State meet.



Newton South: 2007 Girls Div I Champions (photo: Henry Finch)

High School: Emass Championships

Div I Girls: Newton North So Near, So Far


After finishing sixth last year, the Newton North girls ran their hearts out in an attempt to improve by one spot and qualify for states this year. Instead, they finished one point behind Billerica (6th) and two points behind Lexington (5th) and could only wonder how you can get so close two years in a row.

The Tigers were led by junior Carolyn Ranti who finished fourth overall in the Div I race in 18:56, a few inches behind Lincoln-Sudbury freshman Andrea Keklak. Ranti was followed by Nora Barnicle (32nd, 20:16), Adina Hemley-Bronstein (43rd, 20:31), Franca Godenzi (47th, 20:34), Becca Park (56th in a PR 20:53), and Liz Altieri (103rd, 22:18).

With her fourth-place finish, Ranti qualifies for the All-State meet as an individual. In another near miss, Barnicle was one spot away from qualifying.



Carolyn Ranti in full stride a few feet from the finish (photo: Henry Finch)

Although no Bay State girls teams qualified in Div I, congratulations to the following individual qualifiers:

4. CAROLYN RANTI JR Newton North 18:56 I
9. CAMILLE MURPHY JR Framingham 19:22 I
16. KRISTEN MAHONEY SR Weymouth 19:37 I
29. CAROLYN CONNOLLY JR Weymouth 20:13 I

Div I girls individual results

Div I girls team results

Div I Boys: Brookline Untouchable; Newton North a Solid 8th


Brookline took four of the top six place, averaged 16:02 for its top five, had a solid sixth man, and was simply in a different league than all the other teams competing in the Div I Emass championships. Brookline's score of 36 points was nearly 130 points better than runner-up Lincoln-Sudbury. In a dual meet between Brookline and the combined might of every other Div I team, Brookline would have won 26-31. You get the idea.

But, as Coach Mike Glennon will be happy to tell you. They are not satisfied with winning EMass. They have bigger goals.

Robert Gibson won the race in 15:39 in his first race since Oct. 20th. David Wilson finished second in 15:51, with Mike Burnstein 5th (16:00) and Elliot Lehane 6th (16:04). Ryan Hardiman rounded out the Warriors' top five finishing 22nd in 16:34.

Newton North's Seb Putzeys ran a tremendous race in his final effort at Franklin Park, placing 8th in 16:14, good enough to qualify for the All-State meet as an individual. Dan Hamilton was next for the Tigers, running 17:13 for 46th. Right behind was junior Jarad Foreman, who ran a personal best 17:14 for 47th. Newton North's youth movement was next to contribute, as sophomore Devin Perry ran 17:31 and freshman Ezra Lichtman ran 17:32 to take 74th and 76th. Seniors Ben Chebot and Charlie Krasnow finished out their HS XC careers running 17:41 and 18:09, respectively.

8. SEB PUTZEYS SR Newton North 16:14 I
46. DAN HAMILTON JR Newton North 17:13
47. JARED FOREMAN JR Newton North 17:14
74. DEVIN PERRY SO Newton North 17:31
76. EZRA LICHTMAN FR Newton North 17:32
89. BEN CHEBOT SR Newton North 17:41
117. CHARLES KRASNOW SR Newton North 18:09


Div II: Needham Boys Sixth

The Needham boys team came oh-so-close to qualifying for states, placing sixth with 183 points, just 8 points behind Franklin for the final spot. The Rockets were led by senior Sam Miller, who finished 7th overall and qualified for the All-State meet as an individual, running 16:29.

In the girls race, Natick junior Becca White finished second in 18:43 and senior Anya Price finished 7th in 19:24, as the Natick girls team finished tenth. Needham's Emily Lipman had a great race to take 5th in 19:15, and the Needham girls nabbed 12th. Congratulations to these three, who all qualified for the State meet as individuals:

2. REBECCA WHITE JR Natick 18:43 I
5. EMILY LIPMAN SR Needham 19:15 I
7. ANYA PRICE SR Natick 19:24 I


Div 3: Wellesley Teams Are Third

Wellesley's boys and girls both finished third, as the Raiders became the only Bay State school to qualify both its boys and girls teams for the state meet.

The girls came into the meet ranked high on the strength of their depth, and they did their job, placing runners 14-16-21-25-34 with a spread of :50 to take a close third behind Bishop Feehan and Oliver Ames.

The Wellesley boys had been telling anyone who would listen that they deserved consideration at the state level, and they made their case with an identical third-place finish behind the same two teams: Bishop Feehan and Oliver Ames. The Raiders were led by a fourth place finish from Nick Caroll (16:48) and an eight-place finish from Will Volkman (17:04), who was returning to racing after suffering an ankle sprain in the final weeks of the regular season.

The Walpole boys and girls teams also made a fine showing. The boys finished 10th, led by Eric Flaman (24th, 17:25), who was only one second and one spot away from qualifying for the state meet as an individual. The Walpole girls placed 8th, paced by Diana Wiseman (29th, 20:23).

Div IV: Dedham Girls 25th

The Dedham girls team placed 25th in D4, led by Melissa Hallisey (90th, 22:56). The Dedham boys were 36th, led by Dan Hernon (141st, 19:42).