A Sea of Mud at Franklin Park

There was a glut of cross-country racing yesterday, with the EMASS H.S. Championships, and NCAA DI and DIII Regionals. I was in Groton with Concord Academy at the NEPSTA Championships, so I couldn't witness first-hand the mud-fest at Franklin Park.

Luckily, Henry Finch stayed out all day an captured hundreds of photos from the high school races in the morning and the NCAA New England DI Regional in the afternoon. You can see his photos here.

It was the kind of day that those who race will remember for a long, long time -- a battle with the elements that can make you swear off cross-country forever or get you hooked for life.

In the D1 races, Newton North had two individual qualifiers for next week's State Meet at Northfield Mountain. Margo Gillis finished 2nd to Sudbury's Andrea Keklak in the D1 Girls race, running 19:44 to Keklak's 19:26. As a team, Newton North finished a very strong 11th.

 11.   307  NEWTON NORTH                 (  22:39  1:53:14)
===========================================
  1      2  Margo Gillis                      19:44
  2     59  Jaya Tripathi                     22:53
  3     73  Devika Banerjee                   23:08
  4     75  Susannah Gleason                  23:14
  5     98  Rebecca Traynor                   24:15
  6   (105) Shoshana Kruskal                  24:29
  7   (108) Melissa Weikart                   24:34

In the Boys D1 race, Dan Ranti finished 18th overall in 17:29 to qualify for the State Championship meet. The top ten individuals NOT on qualifying teams qualify as individuals. North's Jake Gleason was the 15th individual, missing the qualifying standard by less than ten seconds. Here's another Henry Finch picture of Jake just before the two-mile mark:



The Newton North boys finished 12th in the team standings.

 12.   313  NEWTON NORTH                 (  18:16  1:31:16)
===========================================
  1     18  Dan Ranti                         17:29
  2     33  Jake Gleason                      17:47
  3     46  Ezra Lichtman                     17:59
  4    101  Mike Weinfeld                     18:53
  5    115  Mike Goldenberg                   19:08
  6   (116) Sam Fogel                         19:08
  7   (140) Justin Keefe                      19:27