The Newton South girls "dream team" continued to make history Saturday, placing 2-3-6-8-10 to score 29 points and win the EMass Div I title over Lincoln-Sudbury . According to the Boston Globe, that is the lowest point total for a girls team at EMass Div I in state history. (Q: How does the Globe know this? I would trust Josh Seeherman more than the Globe sports desk...)
Andrea Keklak of LS won the individual title, just barely edging out South's Madeleine Reed. Both runners were given the same time of 18:20. Then it was Kelsey Karys (18:28) for NS, Corey Stock (18:42) and Ellie Hylton (18:45) for LS, Bridget Dahlberg (18:52) for NS, and finally Brookline's Leah Gellineau in 7th as the first runner not from the two top teams. I mean, it was as if NS and LS decided to have a dual meet at Franklin Park, and for fun invited 25 other teams to join in.
Olga Golovkina (18:56) and Kathy O'Keefe (19:04) finished in 8th and 10th, with Framingham's Camille Murphy (18:56) in between.
As expected, after NS (18:44 team avg) and LS (18:55 avg) had divided the spoils of the top two places, Haverhill (19:49 avg) took a strong but distant third. Billerica was 4th, and then.... Chelmsford grabbed the last qualifying spot for the state meet, leaving Newton North in sixth. More about that in a moment.
Carolyn Ranti was top finisher for the Tigers, running 20:02 and qualifying for the All-State meet as an individual. I'm going to guess (i have no inside info) that she skips the state meet to rest and begin the transition to indoor track where she will be one Joe Tranchita's captains.
Becca Park (20:33) was North's second finisher. She was followed by Nora Barnicle (20:48), Susannah Gleason (21:15), Davika Banerjee (21:53), Elena Hemler (23:04), and Liz Altieri (23:07).
The Tigers' 219 points left them 16 points behind Chelmsford. It was the final indignity for the Class of 2009 harriers, who were always near the top, but never able to break through as a team to get to the All-State meet. Their four-year record at EMass included:
2005 - 190 points, 7th (18 points behind 5th)
2006 - 156 points, 6th (18 points behind 5th)
2007 - 178 points, 7th (2 points behind 5th)
2008 - 219 points, 6th (16 points behind 5th)
That's a remarkable record of consistent performance, but also four near misses in four years. Peter Martin has earned the white hairs on his head.
Let's see, other notes: Framingham had two individual qualifiers, Camille Murphy and Sarah Bowhill. The Bay State League was well-represented with four teams in the top ten. In addition to Newton North, Brookline finished 7th, Framingham (!) 8th, and Weymouth 10th. The other BSL team, Braintree, finished 19th.
As for Framingham, in 2006 the Flyers finished 25th in EMass Div I, ahead of only Revere. Last year, they were 17th. This year, 8th. Congratulations to their program for such an impressive improvement in a short time!
Div II - Kasper wins, White 2nd
In Div II, defending D1 State champ Kristin Kasper (North Andover) ran 18:18 to win the individual title by over half a minute. The second finisher was Natick's Becca White (18:53). Although Natick finished 8th, White and teammate Caitlyn Maclellan (20:05) qualified for the state meet as individuals.
Needham was the other BSL team to compete, finishing 21st.
Div III - Wellesley, Milton qualify for states
The Wellesley girls placed their top five scorers in the top 50 overall, to finish 2nd, behind only Bishop Feehan in the team scoring. The Raiders were led by freshman Priyanka Fouda (19:59) who finished 9th.
Milton made it two teams to qualify from the BSL in D3, as they finished 5th beating out Pentucket by a mere 5 points. Other have pointed out that Miltons turnaround from last year is astonishing. In 2007, they finished 27th at this meet. To qualify for the state meet in the next year is a remarkable achievement.
In Div IV, Dedham finished 25th.
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2 comments:
why would anyone ever skip the state meet???
Agreed. The state meet is the ultimate meet in Massachusetts and qualifying for this meet is a great honor and the culmination of a lot of hard work and dedication. There's plenty of time to rest for indoor dual meets.
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