November 27, 2010

Footlocker, NXN Northeast Regionals Today


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!

November 26, 2010

NNHS Alumni Results - 11/26/10

Thanksgiving isn't all about Football and Feasting... in New England at least, it's also about joining friends and neighbors, little kids and college students home for break, grandparents and recent grads... for that happy tradition, running in the local Turkey Trot.

Every year I scan results from dozens of races to see all the familiar names, including Newton North alumni, runners from my running club (CSU), and folks who are fixtures on the Boston running scene. After the excitement of fall marathons and the intensity of cross-country championship meets, it's just a fun day of racing for the entire running family.

Turning first to the Boston Volvo 5K Road Race, it looks like Team Chebot had a good day, with Dan Chebot taking third place overall (16:11), followed by Scott Cole (14th, 17:58), and Jesse Chebot (44th, 20:00). Scott and Jesse are cyclists these days, not pedestrians, but everyone runs on Thanksgiving!

(I should also note that Dan might have had a little fatigue in his legs from competing in the USATF Pacific Association XC championships last Sunday, where he finished 57th overall with a time of 33:43 for 10K.)

Over in Watertown, NN assistant coach Shawn Wallace finished second overall at the Donohue's 5K Turkey Trot, running 16:52.

My CSU teammate (and NSRP regular) Terry McNatt usually has a talent for finding the race with the deepest, most competitive field -- seemingly determined to deprive him of his Thanksgiving portion of glory -- but yesterday he helped himself to first place at the AMPT Earn Your Turkey 5K race in Wakefield, winning by a full minute with a time of 16:34.

In Somerville, another friend of NSRP (and CSU and Concord Academy and Tufts XC), Tyler Andrews ran into a buzzsaw of competition but emerged with a fourth-place finish (first in his age group) at the 14th annual Gobble, Gobble, Gobble 4M race in Somerville. Tyler blitzed the course in 20:39 (5:10 pace!) and was well ahead of several luminaries, such as BU's Eric Ashe, who finished 10th. In the same race, NNHS alumnus John Blouin finished 27th in 22:56.

...

If you didn't run a Thanksgiving race and are feeling left out, here's a reminder that Brookline H.S. is hosting their 2nd Annual Warrior 5K XC Run at Larz Anderson Park on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on the same course that the team uses for high school meets. You can re-experience all those thrilling Brookline-NN meets on the very same hills run by the McArdle brothers, Barnicle, Gibson, Polgar, Burnstein, and the rest.

November 21, 2010

Weymouth, Brookline Are State Champions

Hearty congratulations to the Weymouth girls (and coach Mike Miller) and the Brookline boys (and coach Mike Glennon) on their championship performances in the State Meet at Gardner yesterday!

Weymouth, which earned the school's first-ever state cross-country championship, had to fend off a strong challenge from "home team" Wachusett Regional, which had dominated the Central Mass meet on this same course a week ago, and Bay State rival Wellesley, which had won the EMass Div 3 race at Franklin Park and was competing at the State Div 1 level for the first time.

It seemed that the new alignment (and expanded field from the six EMass divisions) helped create a terrifically well-balanced race at the front. The top fifteen runners in the girls Div 1 race were from 15 different schools. In the end, Weymouth had the most depth, and was the only school to place five runners in the top forty. As it so often turns out, their fifth runner was the difference, as Bridget Jaklitsch crossed the line well ahead of any other team's final scorer.

Taking individual honors, Lincoln-Sudbury's Andrea Keklak repeated as state D1 champion, running 16:37 to best Peabody sophomore Catarina Rocha by five seconds. This was Keklak's second time running at Garder. As a freshman in 2007, she finished 7th and led her team to the championship. Let us take a moment to appreciate how good Keklak has been over the past four years. In that time she has won three EMass D1 titles and two individual state championships, also finishing second as a sophomore.

(An interesting side note: one of Keklak's teammates from her sophomore season -- then senior Jennifer Gossels who now runs for Williams College -- won the individual title was second at the NCAA Div III championships yesterday.)

Speaking of appreciating runners, in her final XC race for Newton North, Margo Gillis finished 15th overall in a time of 17:33.

MIAA Girls D1 State Cross Country Results


And now to Brookline.

The last time time the state meet was held at Gardner, Brookline dominated, placing four runners in the top ten and scoring a mere 25 points. On that day, the Warriors' top FIVE scored fewer points than any other team's top THREE, and fewer points than 13 of the 15 other teams' top TWO, which is about as dominant as any team has been at the state level.

This year's D1 race was a lot more competitive. Brookline had finished second to Lowell at EMass, and was also facing defending champ Mansfield and Central Mass champ St. John's of Shrewsbury. In the Emass race, Brookline had not run Evan Sternstein, but it was Sternstein who stepped up big to finish 5th for the Warriors -- a step behind teammate Mark Perry -- and seal the victory.

Shrewsbury's John Murray won the individual honors, running 14:06, which happens to be about three seconds faster than Chris Barnicle ran when he won in 2004. Chris, it will be remembered, went on to win the Footlocker Northeast Regional and finish 6th at Footlockers. I'm just saying. Murray was 12 second ahead of Weymouth's Steve Sollowin, who finishes his Mass. XC career with an EMass D1 win and a state runner-up finish.

Newton North's Dan Ranti, who qualified as an individual, finished 50th overall in a fine time of 15:14.

MIAA Boys D1 State Cross Country Results


In Boys D2, Pembroke Brookline-ized the competition, finishing 1-3-5-11-15 and beating runner-up Hamilton-Wenham 35-114. Pembroke junior Wesley Gallagher won a sprint finish over Old Rochester's Dana Dourdeville, 14:20.5 to 14:20.8

In Girls D2, Bishop Feehen was clearly the best team on the course, going 1-4-14-17-25 to defeating Hamilton-Wenham 61 to 85. Feehen's Viviana Hanley was the individual champion and had the fastest time of the day, running 16:28.

November 15, 2010

CA on the Podium

I stood alone at the back of the Governor's Academy gym, where rows and rows of folding seats had been set up for the awards ceremony following the New England Prep School Div III Championships. All of the boys and girls from Concord Academy were sitting in their assigned section, close to the podium. Some of the boys had changed into jackets and ties, something I had never seen them do before. The reason for their unusual choice of attire was the possibility -- only a possibility, since no results had been released from the race run several hours before -- that CA had been one of the top three teams, an outcome that would mean a trip to the podium, a plaque, and a chance to bear back news to the school that the team had earned its highest-ever finish at a New England championship race.

It had been a really good season -- a historically good season for the Chameleons. Unfortunately, although we had peaked well and run our best times at the league championship meet the previous week, we had been beaten by a better team from Beaver Country Day School. I fretted that the kids themselves wouldn't realize what they had accomplished, so I was glad we had one more chance to do something special.

It was maddening to have to wait for results, without even quick scoring to give us a clue about how we had finished. I had seen enough to know that Groton, with four in the top ten, had won the team title, and I was fairly sure that St. Mark's had finished second, well ahead of us, but it seemed to me that several teams, including CA, had a bunch of runners finishing between 15th and 40th. It had been impossible to count how many from each team. And it didn't help that the team I was most worried about how uniforms the same color as the team that had dominated.

As the meet director began reading the names of teams in reverse finishing order, one part of me was busy preparing myself for the bad news that we had missed out by some agonizingly slim margin. I knew if that happen I would spend the next year thinking about whether I had prepared each runner to race for every available place. But another part of me knew that the kids had run well. They had run really well, and smart, too.

The course at Governor's Academy is mostly flat for the first 1.5 miles, with several short, steep "speed bumps" that wreck a runner's momentum and sap energy from the legs. After another short hill to 3K, the course crosses a covered bridge and begins a long, twisting climb through woods South of the campus. After the climb, the course descends through the woods for a bit, passing the 4K mark, then run back down a service road back to the covered bridge. The final 700 meters crosses the center of campus, rolls down to the fields, and ends with about 350 meters around the fields and to the finish.

I believed my team was one of the top three teams in the race, but I kept saying there was no reason to prove it in the first 1K. Having had the recent experience of going out hard at Franklin Park, they decided they didn't want to make the same mistake on a tougher course. For my part, I said that whether they went out fast or went out slow, they had to have complete confidence to see their strategy through. If they went out slow, they would need to believe that they could move up through the field and not be discouraged at an early deficit. If they went out fast, they couldn't use that as an excuse to give up when the hills came.

Fifteen seconds after the gun went off, it was obvious which strategy they had chosen. They were all near the back of the field as they ran across the first long field, and as I watched, I hoped they knew what they were doing.

At 1K, they were still a little buried in the pack, but not too bad, and I could see that they were taking the opportunities given to them by the course to pass a runner here or there. I saw them next at 1.4M. Arthur, my top runner, was in 19th, and the next four were in a large pack with runners in places 30-40. What I didn't know then, but was able to figure out later from some video shot by one of our runners who was not competing, was that we were in 6th at this point, and if the race had ended there, we would have had about 165 points.

In the final 2K, they had fought hard to gain back places. Most spectacularly, Arthur moved from 19th to 5th with 300m to go, and came within a couple of seconds of running down the 4th-place finisher. Our next finisher moved up from 34th to 18th. The others had all finished in the top 35. Would that be enough?

As the meet director announced the 6th-place team, my heart began pounding. When he announced the 5th place team with 160 points, I think I stopped breathing. He seemed to be speaking in slow motion now, as he said, "...and finishing fourth, with 149 points..." and then the name of another school.

And then we were next. He called for the captains of the third-place school, and our guys went up in their rarely-seen but suddenly appropriate blazers and ties to accept their plaque, and really, from the cheers of the other CA runners in their seats, you couldn't tell the difference between us and the winning team.

After the ceremony, when I finally got my hands on the results, I saw that it hadn't even been close. We had scored 107 points. We had been down 20 points at the halfway mark and had beaten the fourth place team by 40. On a difficult course, almost every runner on the team had been at or near a season's best. I was very proud.

So now it's time to wrap up the season. Arthur and Adam (our fifth) will be back next year, but the others are seniors and have run their last high school cross-country race. It's always hard to realize that it's done, and that there are no "next weeks" to set that PR or beat that rival team.

But one thing that makes the NEPSTA meet better than the MIAA championship meets is that there are JV races, and those races always give us glimpses into the future. In the JV race yesterday, one of CA's runners put on spikes for the first time and ran a minute faster than he had ever run before. I had mentioned to him in the days leading up to the race that the top 15 finishers in the JV race were called up and awarded ribbons. I figured he had an outside chance to sneak into the top 15, so why not? His response to the challenge was to run 19:11 and finish 6th, an astonishing time for a runner who completed his first race this fall in just over 24 minutes.

The desire to stand on the podium has that effect on people.

November 14, 2010

NNHS EMass Results - 11/13/10

It can be hard this time of year because sometimes you don't know that you've run your last race until the results are posted and the points have been tallied and you see whether you're moving on or not.

It wasn't realistic to think that either Newton North XC team was going to make it to the State Meet this year, even with the slightly more generous six-division alignment of the EMass championships. Yet, I'm pretty sure North hoped to have one or two more individuals qualify.

On the girls side, Margo Gillis placed 7th in the D1 race and will compete as an individual at States. The NN team ran well to finish 10th out of 18 D1 teams in a blessedly smaller race (last year under the old alignment the D1 girls race had 189 runners, compared with 129 this year). Here are the results:

7 MARGO GILLIS 19:36
39 DEVIKA BANERJEE 21:18
53 JULIA SCHIANTARELLI 21:53
56 REBECCA TRAYNER 22:05
71 MEGHAN BELLEROSE 22:40
77 JULIA SCHLOSSMAN 22:53
84 MELISSA WEIKART 23:17

(http://www.coolrunning.com/results/10/ma/Nov13_MIAAEa_set7.shtml)


For the boys, it appears to have been a tough race for the team's "big three" of Dan Ranti, Ezra Lichtman, and Justin Keefe, who ran so well at the State Coaches meet last week. I'm guessing there was a reason (A fall? An injury?), although sometimes it's just the way the race develops and whether you're having a good day. Here are the results:

19 DAN RANTI 16:50
31 EZRA LICHTMAN 17:04
62 JUSTIN KEEFE 17:36
87 JON LONG 18:07
100 STEVEN MICHAEL 18:25
113 DAVID BUZBY 18:33
131 DAVID DEMAREST 18:51

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/10/ma/Nov13_MIAAEa_set1.shtml

Overall, it was a good day for Bay State teams. For the girls, Weymouth won D1 (a first in the program's history, I believe), Wellesley won D3, and Needham qualified for the State meet out of D2 with their 4th-place finish. For the boys, Brookline was 2nd in D1 and Walpole was 3rd in D3 to move on to the State meet in Gardner next week.

Also deserving special mention, Weymouth's Steve Sollowin won the D1 race with the fastest time of the day in any division, running 15:47.

November 09, 2010

"Planned Disaster" at the NYC Marathon

Most runners in a major marathon begin their races well-rested and bubbling with enthusiasm and hope. Hours later, that overflowing energy has been drained and runners finish transformed, often not in a good way. Some merely cross the finish line very tired. But others, predictably though unfortunately, encounter trouble along the way -- maladies from blisters to bruises, heat stroke to hypothermia to heart attacks.

An immense amount of planning and logistics are required to prepare to treat the runners who end up needing medical attention. For the several hours following a race like the New York City Marathon, the effort resembles the mobilization of medical resources after a natural disaster.

In fact, in many ways, marathons turn out to be apt testing grounds for responding to disasters. In some sense, a marathon is a "planned disaster" -- that's one of the observations in an interesting article in today's New York Times (Doctor Prepared for the Worst at Marathon).

The article describes how the NYC Marathon expanded its medical services for the 2010 race under the new philosophy of Dr. Stuart Weiss, the race's second-year medical director. The article quotes Dr. Weiss to the effect that it's a unique situation to be working in an emergency room and have all your patients running to you.

For anyone who has gratefully accepted treatment at a race, or only wondered about what preparation is needed to stage such an event, it's a fascinating article.

November 08, 2010

NNHS Results From State Coaches Meet

On Saturday, Newton North competed at the State Coaches meet in Wrentham. For all but the top seven varsity runners, this is the last meet of the season. The varsity goes on, of course, to compete at the EMass Championships at Franklin Park, November 13.

Below are the Newton North results, culled from the complete results available on the MSTCA web site.

A very impressive performance from Ranti, Lichtman, and Keefe in the Boys Jr-Sr race. Also good to see the depth at the freshman level for the boys.

Girls 3k Run CC Freshman Div I
14 2391 Rudie, Elizabeth FR Newton North 12:48.20
85 2380 Horn, Anastasia FR Newton North 15:05.23

Girls 5k Run CC Soph. Div I
20 2393 Schiantarelli, Jul SO Newton North 21:16.10
29 2373 Bellerose, Meghan SO Newton North 21:44.60
59 2386 Moore, Charlotte SO Newton North 23:06.47
130 2389 Raymond, Christine SO Newton North 26:12.98
154 2384 Loftus, Caroline SO Newton North 27:51.58
160 2399 Sylvia, Sarah SO Newton North 29:06.54
169 2378 Handler, Daneille SO Newton North 31:46.33

Girls 5k Run CC Jr. - Sr. Div I
35 2400 Trayner, Rebecca JR Newton North 21:15.03
84 2402 Weikert, Melissa JR Newton North 22:38.64
96 2382 Kugener, Tiphaine JR Newton North 22:56.66
115 2375 Cooke, Laura JR Newton North 23:28.73
117 2377 Hamilton, Jenny JR Newton North 23:30.74
118 2396 Sokolov, Rosie JR Newton North 23:31.71
136 2388 Phillips, Allie JR Newton North 23:52.60

Boys 3k Run CC Freshman Div I
25 2435 Schlichting, Mike FR Newton North 10:59.68
57 2405 Brandl, Max FR Newton North 11:23.27
61 2416 Fabry, Alex FR Newton North 11:29.40
75 2406 Buttereton, Adrian FR Newton North 11:42.16
91 2420 Freedman, Jared FR Newton North 11:48.35
122 2421 Galgano, Ben FR Newton North 12:06.55
127 2422 Goffstein, Adam FR Newton North 12:10.19
158 2413 DeGroot, Henry FR Newton North 12:28.35
208 2425 Huang, Sam SO Newton North 13:12.91
220 2412 D'Urso, Joseph FR Newton North 13:32.14

Boys 5k Run CC Soph. Div I
28 2428 Long, Jon SO Newton North 17:53.25
38 2414 Demerest, David SO Newton North 18:03.77
105 2404 Bishop, Thomas SO Newton North 19:25.78
174 2436 Smith, Gmalek SO Newton North 20:45.10

Boys 5k Run CC Jr. - Sr. Div I
3 2433 Ranti, Dan SR Newton North 16:17.47
4 2427 Lichtman, Ezra SR Newton North 16:17.87
5 2426 Keefe, Justin JR Newton North 16:19.31
104 2407 Buzby, David JR Newton North 18:10.15
109 2431 Michael, Steven JR Newton North 18:12.38
187 2417 Feinhaus, Isaac JR Newton North 19:06.21
234 2438 Tripathi, Jesse JR Newton North 19:41.20
240 2424 Harris, Evan JR Newton North 19:44.40
259 2430 McSally, Bernard SR Newton North 19:56.79
307 2434 Schamm, Sam JR Newton North 20:37.72

November 06, 2010

Tanya Jones (NNHS '92) to be Inducted into NNHS Hall of Fame

Tanya Jones, Newton North's all-time top scoring athlete in state track and field competition, will join eleven other alumni as inductees into the Newton North Hall of Fame Class of 2010. The Hall of Fame dinner will be held Friday, November 26, 2010, from 6:00 p.m. at the Sheraton Needham Hotel -- 100 Cabot Street, Needham, Mass (more info here).

Most of the information below was provided by pre-eminent NNHS track historian Josh Seeherman.

A 1992 graduate of Newton North, Tanya Jones won an amazing ELEVEN individual Class A/Division I championships in four events: the 300 (indoor), 400 (outdoor), high jump, and long jump. In addition, she won at least four All-State championships (results from the 1989 All-State meet have been hard to find).

In the 1992 indoor season, Jones became the first and only NNHS girl to win a triple crown (running, field, relay) at the Division 1 level, when she won the 300y dash and high jump, and was part of the winning 4x440 relay. Her win in the 300y was her fourth Division I title in four years in the same event, making her the only Newton athlete to ever accomplish that feat.

While she was on the team, Newton North won the Outdoor Division 1 team title in 1989, 1991, and 1992, and the Indoor Division I and All-State titles in 1992.

Jones' 300 and 400 times (300 converted from yards to meters) have not been
seriously challenged by any other NN athlete. Her fastest 400 time in Mass. competition appears to have been 56.90, although she might have run faster at a New England or National level meet. Her winning time from the 1992 indoor 300y was her best result, a staggering 35.98, which converts to approximately 39.5 for 300m.

Finally, at the Division 1 level Jones scored 127 points, a number so high that
it is 40 points in front of the next highest-scoring girl (Senta Burton) and over 50 points in front of the boys' record (Gordon Thomas' 75.5).

After graduating from Newton North, Ms. Jones attended Brown University, where she was a five-time Ivy League champion in the 400m with a PR of 55.19.

Her academic career has been even more impressive than her athletic achievements. While at Brown, she was a two-time Academic All-Ivy award winner. After earning her B.A., she went on to obtain a masters degree in International Health and Development from Princeton in 2001 and a PhD in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 2010. She was a Ford Pre-Doctoral Fellow from 2006-2009, focusing on Development and Modernization, Medical Anthopology, and Social Theory.

Jones is currently a Foundation Relations Associate at Pathfinder International, where she focuses on the scaling-up of health programs in Africa, particularly related to HIV/AIDS care and treatment.

Tanya Jones H.S. record in Div I and All-State Meets:

Division 1 Championships
1989: Indoors, 300y, Outdoors 200m & Long Jump
1990: Indoors, 300y, Outdoors 400m
1991: Indoors, 300y, Outdoors 400m & Long Jump
1992: Indoors, 300y & High Jump, Outdoors just Long Jump (injured ?)

All-State Championships
1989: Could not locate results
1990: Outdoor 400m
1991: Indoor 300y, Outdoor 400m
1992: Indoor 300y

November 04, 2010

Salazar/Ritz Profile in New Yorker

Jennifer Kahn has written a well-informed and provocative profile of Alberto Salazar and Dathan Ritzenheim in the latest issue of the New Yorker, as Ritz prepares for the New York Marathon, Sunday (The Perfect Stride).

The article does a great job of capturing the obsessive lengths to which Salazar will go, to which he has always gone, to maximize performance. It describes his spectacular career but brief career as a marathoner, and his transition to working for the Oregon Project and coaching some of the best American distance runners in the country. The main focus of the article is Salazar's attempt to re-engineer Ritzenheim's stride to make him a more efficient, less injury-prone runner -- and a champion on the world stage.

One of the things that sets Salazar apart is that he is willing to take gigantic risks to maximize the success of his athletes. It's frightening when he makes mistakes, as he does. But it's exhilarating when he succeeds. Who wasn't thrilled to see Alan Webb return to something like his racing form this summer and early fall under Salazar's patient guidance?

But as the article points out, it's hugely risky to tinker with an athlete's stride. Few coaches would have the confidence and single-minded focus to commit to the project.

Because he is willing to take such risks, Salazar will always be in the spotlight, always be evaluated based on the performance of the latest top-level athlete in his care. When Ritz gets underway in the NYC Marathon on Sunday, it might well be his coach feeling all the pressure.

November 01, 2010

NNHS and NSRP Alumni Results - 10/31/10

Tom Davis ran an impressive race to finish 2nd in the Cape Cod Marathon on Sunday, running 2:31:05 (5:45 pace). I'm fairly certain Tom, himself, would say it wasn't a particularly fast time, but the CCM course is brutal on a windy day. After the first ten miles, which are quite flat and sheltered, the course becomes much more hilly and exposed to the wind off the water. Very few people run under 2:30 there. So congratulations to Tom on a great effort.

Several old friends of NSRP competed at the UAA Championships in Van Cortland Park on Saturday. Mike Burnstein (Washington U., Brookline) and Paul Norton (Brandeis, Amherst H.S.) had great performances. Burnstein won the 8K race in 25:40, leading Wash U. to the team title; Norton was a few steps behind in 3rd in 25:42. Other local runners included: Yuji Wakimoto (35th, 26:41), Sam Donovan (72nd (28:19), and Billy Littlefield (74th (28:52).

The NESCAC championships were held at Hamilton College on Saturday, and Tyler Andrews reports that there was mud, mud, mud, and hills on the 8K men's course. NSRP'er Andrews finished a very respectable 26th in 27:03, as Tufts placed 3rd in the team race. Other veterans of Cold Springs Park included two Newton south alumni, Andrew Wortham (33rd in 27:10) and Will Cha (107th, 29:25). Needham's Sam Miller finished 85th (28:26), but he's never been to NSRP, so I'm not even sure why I'm mentioning him...

And while I'm not mentioning people, congratulations to Needham H.S. XC Coach Chris Van Cott, who won the Bill's 5K road race in Newton on Sunday, running 16:49.