The undefeated Brookline boys race the once-defeated Newton North boys today, but the meet holds little suspense. Newton will run hard. Seb and Dan will run great races, probably well under 17 minutes. Newton's pack will race bravely, and their young runners will show great promise...
...and, unless perverse chance intervenes or they have decided not to, Brookline will still win with relative ease. Brookline's top three will finish 1-2-3 and the meet will be over before the first North runner rounds the old backstop, and sprints along the side of the soccer field toward the finish. And Brookline's 4 and 5 might also be up there, depending on how hard they are running.
The Newton North-Brookline dual meet SHOULD be an annual drama between two of the top programs in the league, and, in recent years, the state. But the meet has not provided that much drama, at least since 2001, when North eked out a 27-32 win at Larz Anderson. That was a close, fun meet, with Brookline taking 1-3-5, but North prevailing with great pack running. (Brookline got revenge later that season by narrowly winning the league meet.)
From 2002-2004, North dominated the rivalry, as they dominated the league. In 2005, Brookline's super sophomore class turned the tables and started their own run of dominance, which has continued to this day. None of the meets in those five years have been really close, although some of the individual battles have been memorable (Polgar-Gibson at Larz in 2005 was a dandy race).
There hasn't even been the drama of having the ascending team end the streak of their rivals. In 2001, Brookline lost its first dual meet in five years to... Braintree! And that was long before they raced Newton at the end of the season. In 2005, Newton North lost its first dual meet in five years to... Wellesley! By the time Brookline came around, the Tigers had been proven mortal, after all.
And the final indignity to the rivalry is that the dual meet usually happens right before the league meet, which means that the meet is immediately followed by another meet, perhaps seen as more important. (This was NOT the case in 2001, which might have contributed to making the meet more interesting.)
Well, I'm just whining here, because I see no way around it. But wouldn't it be great to see one of these meets where the two teams are evenly matched, are both undefeated, and where non one knows the outcome until the 10th (or 11th or 12th) runner crosses the line?
Maybe next year.
The rivalry since 2001:
2001 NN 27 - Brookline 32
2002 NN 15 - Brookline 48
2003 NN 22 - Brookline 33
2004 NN 18 - Brookline 41
2005 Brookline 24 - NN 35
2006 Brookline 18 - NN 42
2007 ?
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3 comments:
it was supposed to be close in 2003.......
Ezra lichtman raced very well and got 17.43!! he wsa 31 seconds ahead of his pr.
Great race by Lichtamn. Perhaps the new wave of NN runners will help make the rivalry close again. Next year should be an interesting one. Heck this race was more interestimng / close than I wanted it to be for quite a whlie.
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