Shrewsbury's John Murray (#452) in a dual meet earlier this seasonHe was 3rd at the CMASS championships in Gardner on Nov. 16th, then 13th at the State Meet in Northfield five days later, running 16:46. Good performances, surely, but honestly who could have predicted that Shrewsbury junior John Murray would run 16:11 on the windy and challenging course at Sunken Meadows and take 10th in the Footlocker Northeast Regional meet. (The meet was moved from its traditional venue in the Bronx due to construction at Van Cortland Park.) His amazing and unexpected performance earned Murray a trip to the National Finals in San Diego and was the biggest surprise yesterday among Massachusetts runner competing at NXN regionals and Footlocker Northeast Regionals.
On the girls side at Sunken Meadow, Mass State runner-up Carolyn Stocker of Westfield finished in the agonizing position of 11th, missing a trip to San Diego by one spot. Groveland's Alanna Poretta was also close, finishing 15th. After her 8th-place finish at the All-State meet last Saturday, Newton North's Margo Gillis placed 48th, running 20:27. These results were all in the Championship race. In the Junior Girls race, Weymouth's Jill Corcoran placed 2nd in 20:36. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure she played soccer all fall.
Footlocker Northeast Regionals - Web Site with Results
Meanwhile in Wappinger Falls, NY, the Bowdoin Park course was the site of the Nike Team Nationals Regional qualifying meets for the NY and New England regions. The Mass. State Champs, Mansfield (running as the Mansfield Turtles for some reason), placed 9th, with State champ Patrick McGowan placing 11th. Brookline H.S. placed 15th, led by sophomore Chernet Sisay's 17:14. Interestingly for those of us who follow the private schools, Sisay was not the top soph from Massachusetts in the race, that place being occupied by the Bancroft School's Sam Fujimori, who ran 17:08.
Top individual from Mass. was Westborough's Byron Jones in 7th (16:12), who passed about 15 people in the second half of the race and was closing in on one of the top five qualifying spots for the nationals.
In the girls championship race, Lincoln-Sudbury's Andrea Keklak (8th, 19:18) and Kathy O'Keefe (10th, 19:22) were top finishers from Mass., leading their teams to 6th and 7th place team finishes.
EDIT: I can't believe in my first version of this post that I neglected to mention the Bishop Feehan girls team (running as the Rocks TC), who merely WON the girls championship race to qualify for the National Finals in Portland, Oregon. Congratulations to the Mass. D2 and Northeast regional champions!
NXN New England Regionals - Results
2 comments:
Jon,
You're right, Corcoran played soccer during the fall. This was her first race off the track, and I think she enjoyed it. You missed Swampscott's Lindsay Walsh (12th) in the champ race, but it's not your fault, she was listed as from the non-existant Swampscott, CT.
Footlocker appears to be dying, and this having been my first trip there, I wasnt too impressed. I am a history buff, but Nike appears to be the way to go from now on.
John Murray has BSC roots - his dad ran for Wellesley BITD.
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