Simply put, it's not always the best team heading into a race that comes out on top. When it's all finished and the results are tallied, often times it's about who the better team was on that particular day.
For the second straight time, and third in the last four years, that team has been Lowell High.
With a squad that featured four runners under the 16-minute mark for five kilometers, the Red Raiders scooped up the Division I title at the MIAA All State Final on Saturday. Lowell coasted by No. 1 seed, St. John's of Shrewsbury, by a surprising 64-135 verdict at Westfield's Stanley Park.
The Red Raiders averaged 15 minutes, 51 seconds by their five scoring runners and had a gap of just 41 seconds. Junior Anthony Rodriguez was first for Lowell, taking sixth overall in 15:37.32.
"We didn't necessarily expected a score like that as much as we planned to run together," said head coach Phil Maia. "We run to our strengths and it called for a game plan today to do what we did. The boys performed. They take a lot of pride in what they do. This sport requires a little luck and a lot of hard work; a little luck that we had the full complement. We didn't have any injuries. The hard work, of course, the Lowell kids are not strangers to hard work. The combination of the two is kind of the ingredients to our success. The kids just ran well today. I am very proud of them."
The race for the individual crown produced a mild upset as Wellesley's Thomas D'Anieri beat top seed Marcelo Rocha of Peabody with the day's fastest time, a personal best of 15:16.10. Rocha secured second at 15:27.08, while Northampton senior Liam Sullivan was third in 15:29.50.
"My coach told me to go out and run it like a senior," D'Anieri said. "Every turn and every hill I had to say this is the last one and I got to make it hurt as much as possible. I just tried to hang on that upper field. Knowing everything that my parents have done for me, everything my coaches have done for me, I wanted to do for them as much as for myself."
The Wellesley standout, who last week captured the Div. 2 race of the Eastern State Championship, knew his primary competition would be Rocha, who was eighth in the all-state meet last year and was undefeated this fall against his state rivals.
D'Anieri hung with the Peabody runner for much of the race and made his most decisive move just before exiting the wooded section of the course, about 800m from the finish.
"Marcelo is such a strong runner just the entire race and I knew that he was going to take it hard from the start so the entire time I didn't want to give him an inch. I apologize. I clicked the back of his heel a couple of times," he said. "I think, just being a senior, I have run the 800, I have run a lot of fast miles, I thought if I could be ahead going onto the field that I could get it from there."
Marblehead got the two-for-one deal in the Div. 2 race. It earning the team plaque with a decisive 51-143 triumph over second-place Melrose. Hamilton Wenham was third with 148. The Magicians also had the individual winner with senior Andrew Ernst running away with a 19-second victory over runner-up, Tommy Kirby of Mount Greylock.
In winning its team crown, Marblehead beat a quality field. Despite missing its No. 1 runner, sophomore Brandon Hall due to injury, Hopedale took fourth overall with 196 points, just a point behind Mount Greylock and Hamilton Wenham, who occupied the fourth and fifth-place positions, respectively, with 195 points each.
"Going in, we knew we had target on our back for most of the season," said Marblehead coach Brian Heenan. "In all those polls put out by the MSTCA, (we) have been number one. They kind of knew coming in. We have trained really hard the last two weeks, really focusing on this meet in particular. We knew coming in that Hamilton-Wenham had a really strong race last week at Eastern Mass. Hopedale always looks good, Newburyport, Parker Charter. (We) knew it was going to be tough, but the boys ran really well. We had five under 16:30. It was a great day."
It was a great day also for Ernst, who was timed in 15:21.16 for his 5K race. The Marblehead star trailed Kirby, the early front-runner for about two-thirds of the race. When Ernst exited the woods, it was clear a victory was on his mind. He was comfortably ahead of Kirby and the rest of the top runners in the field for the final 800 meters.
"At the start, (Kirby) had like 20 meters on me and went through the mile in like 4:35," Ernst said. "I made my move right around the two-mile mark, and I guess just didn't look back."
Ernst is now focusing on the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals next Saturday at New York's Van Cortlandt Park where he's aiming for a top-10 finish and a berth to the nationals in San Diego on Dec. 12. He's hoping his recent success and 3:47 speed for 1,500 meters will work in his favor.
"The last 600 meters there is just grass," he said. "I think my 1,500-meter speed can help me there."