It's a big day for Massachusetts cross-country individuals and teams with national aspirations as they'll toe the line(s) today at one of two big end-of-season regional meets: the Footlocker Northeast Regionals (Sunken Meadow State Park) and the Nike XC Nationals, aka, NXN (Bowdoin Park, Wappingers Falls NY).
Before NXN, Footlocker used to attract all the best runners in the region, pitting them in competition for one of the top spots and a ticket to the Footlocker finals in San Diego. Now many of the better runners skip Footlocker and instead compete at the NXN regional meet with their teams.
But whatever happens in the future, for now Footlocker is still a high quality race that brings together runners from 12 Northeast States. Significantly, because it is not subject to State association rules (technically, runners do not represent their schools), it is one of the only meets where public school, private school, and home-schooled runners compete together.
At Footlocker Northeast last year, Shrewsbury's John Murray surprised a lot of people by finishing 10th and earning a trip to the finals. Murray is no longer an unknown and will return to the Footlocker meet fresh off his state championship and record-setting run at Gardner last Saturday. Other familiar names on the boys side include Old Rochester's Dana Dourdeville (2nd in the MA DII State meet), Deerfield Academy's Sam Belcher (NEPSTA DI champion), Mansfield's Shayne Collins (12th at MA D1), and many others.
On the girls' side, Nashoba's Abby Hurd (3rd at MA D1), Wellesley's Priyanka Fouda (8th at MA D1), and many other Mass. natives will be competing.
The Elite Racing Systems website has a complete list of entries and will (eventually) have results.
As for the NXN Northeast Regionals, it is an exciting year for Massachusetts with several teams representing the Bay State, including these girls teams...
Bishop Feehen (aka "Rocks TC"), 15th at NXN last year
Hamilton-Wenham (aka "H-W XC Club")
Lincoln-Sudbury (aka "Mercury TC")
Weymouth (aka "Weymouth Youth TC")
...and these boys teams...
Brookline (aka "Brookline TC")
Hamilton-Wenham (aka "H-W XC Club")
Lowell (aka "Lowell XC Club")
Pembroke (aka "Titans TC")
Walpole (aka "Walpole TC")
Weymouth (aka "Weymouth Youth TC")
Sorry if I missed anyone! I should note there are also several MA runners competing without a full team, such as Newton's Kathy O'Keefe. The full list of competitors can be found on the NXN Regional web site.
Good luck to all!
1 comment:
congrats to pembroke and zopatti on qualifying a very hardworking team that deserves this honor
congrats to steve sollowin a relentless competitor and easily the best kid i have ever met. he will bring his best at nationals.
also congrats to all other competitors for great seasons
-Chris S.
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