All things considered, the weather seemed pretty good, with periods of rain but generally warm temperatures and decent footing. At least that's the way it seemed to me, but I wasn't running!
As the boys varsity race roared by with Kyle Higgins in the lead, something didn't look quite right. Where was Gibson? I asked Brookline coach Mike Glennon, who told me Gibby had missed the bus that morning. In Gibson's absence, Mike Burnstein won the race, with teammate David Wilson in second. Seb Putzeys ran an outstanding race for third, ahead of Elliot Lehane and Sam Miller. I believe Seb's time of 15:22 is the fastest ever run by a NNHS athlete at Houghton's Pond. Dan Hamilton also ran an outstanding race to place 10th in 16:02.
In addition to Burnstein, Wilson, and Lehane, Brookline placed three other runners in the top 12, giving them six automatic all-stars. It certainly seems possible that the coaches would vote in Gibson as an all-star, too. Anyway, Brookline won the team title easily, and Needham just barely edged Newton North for second, 69 points to 71 for the Tigers.
Complete Boys Results
In the girls varsity race, Becca White just hammered the course and the rest of the field, winning in 17:33. I believe that is a BSL championship record at this course, besting the old standard (17:42?) held by Weymouth's Catie Markesich. I'm going by memory, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong here...
Newton's Carolyn Ranti ran a strong race for second, running 18:08, 13 seconds ahead of ahead of Natick's Anya Price and 19 ahead of Needham's Emily Lipman. Franca Godenzi earned league all-star status by finishing 11th in 19:13.8. Newton North's other scorers were Adina Hemley-Bronstein (14th, 19:33), Nora Barnicle (28th, 20:24), and Becca Park (32, 20:32). Wellesley won the team title, and Newton North finished second.
Complete Girls Results
The Boys JV race looked like a Brookline-Newton North dual meet for a while. Brookline's Robert Benjamin won (for the second year in a row) in 14:32. Devin Perry was North's top finisher in 4th at 14:45, followed by Mike Dorfman (6th, 14:56) and Jake Gleason (7th, 14:59).
Wellesley took five of the top six in girls JV. Shoshana Kruskal led Newton North, running 19:15.
6 comments:
Slight correction, CoolRunnings has Devin Perry at 4th instead of third in the JV race, with Sampson of Bline also ahead of him.
John I want to comment on your statement "Needham just barely edged out Newton North for Second". Needham's cross country program has been improving for six years and now can compete with the Baystate powerhouses Brookline and Newton North and should be acknowledge for this achievement.
^Thank you for the previous comment but I would like to say props to Newton North on a great race yesterday. Everyone seemed to really step up. They certainly showed what they are capable of.
Needham compete with Bline?
Dual meet score was Brookline 27, Needham 30 if I'm not mistaken. That's competitive.
I agree! Needham has been improving, and can not only compete but win against the Bay State powerhouses. Props to the Needham program!
And congratulations to Newton North for coming very close to beating a very strong Needham team that had already beaten them in the regular season.
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