Just getting to the starting line of Saturday's BAA Scholastic Mile was a victory for defending champion Melissa Lodge of Hopkinton. Finishing second to teammate Lauren Hazzard made the day a whole lot sweeter.
Lodge has only been running for a month after a painful stress fracture ended her indoor track season and put her in a boot for six weeks and on the sideline for another two. Lodge eased into the three-lap race that started and finished on Boylston Street and then kicked hard to take second in 5:34, and with Hazzard won the team award for Hopkinton.
The race was a huge benchmark for Lodge, who will be bringing her talents to the University of Louisville in the fall. "I wasn't sure how it (shin) would respond to the roads and the tough turns, but it felt great," said Lodge. It went surprisingly well. I was happy with it."
Lodge was confident that Hazzard, who ran a personal best of 5:06 in the mile during the winter, was the runner to beat and if she could finish strong, would help Hopkinton clinch the team award.
"(Lauren's) killer," Lodge said. "She stepped up this winter and did amazing. I had no doubt in my mind that she could take over. I didn't know where I was going to end up in the pack. I was just trying to do my best."
Lodge stayed back on the first lap and began to focus on eventual third-place finisher Katie Collins of Newton South with 800 to go. She went by the Lions' freshman on the final lap to clinch second. Collins clocked 5:34.3 to finish a step back.
Hazzard ran within herself early on and still found herself at the front of the pack. She pulled away over the final kilometer to win easily in 5:22.7. "I was a little nervous, but I felt good and decided to go for it," Hazzard said. "I was just going for place. It's a hard course to get a good time on because of the turns. With three quarters of a lap left I heard people yelling that I had a big lead. The crowd was great. It wasn't like any other race."
"I like to stay back and leave it until the end, at least early in the season."
Collins found out she was running just two days before and was ecstatic just to be on the starting line. She enjoyed her duel with Lodge and was pleased with third. "It felt like Christmas Eve," Collins said.
Dartmouth-bound Mike Schlichting of Newton North tried to savor the atmosphere of the day and picked up the win in the boys' race in 4:39.0 "It's really cool. It's not often you get to race with this many people watching you," he said. "I've been invited to a couple of meets and it's extremely fun when there's a huge crowd that actually wants to watch you race."
Schlichting tucked himself into the big pack and used his 4:14-mile kick to edge Wellesley's Ben Griswold, who finished in 4:40.5 "I don't mind running a little slow if I can push it at the end," he said. "It makes the effort worth it."
Griswold cut loose on the last lap and moved up from fourth to second. Newton South's Tom Stephens was a step back in 4:40.6. "It was really fun," said Griswold. "It was really exciting to run in front of such a big crowd. It was very nice.
"I knew it was a great field and had no idea what I could do. I just wanted to see how I'd feel and I was really happy with the result. There was a moment going into the third lap where the pace really picked up. I really wanted to let them go, but I thought what the heck and stayed with them and they kind of came back to me.