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.
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I thought yesterday was a great day overall... it was fantastic to see all the athletes come together and run on such a challenging course in that kind of championship setting. Congrats to all who competed and good luck if your season's not over yet.
i agree in your assessment of the D1 boys race for non-Brookline Bay Staters. A tough second half/last third of the race for both of us.
Thanks for your cheering too.
Post a Comment