Dual County League Conference Championship
Another year of racing at Franklin Park is gone, and the rain and cold at the Dual County League Conference Championship on Friday, Oct. 28 was a somber reminder that high school championship season is not going to grace the classic Massachusetts course for another four years.
Despite temperatures in the forties and rain that kept up all afternoon, MA #1 Claire Martin continued her remarkable season with yet another victory (18:45).
"I really only noticed the rain and cold at the beginning," Martin said. "Once I start running, I block my environment out. You heat up so quickly."
Martin and teammate Katherine Collins (2nd, 19:08) led Newton South to a commanding victory with 38 points, while runner-up Acton-Boxborough finished with 89 behind a 1-5 spread of just 27 seconds.
Concord-Carlisle junior Elina Laurent (4th, 19:20) stuck with Martin for the first mile, at which point Martin made her breakaway. Laurent, along with Collins and Wayland's Sarah Tully (3rd, 19:13), made up the chase pack for the second half of the race.
"I feel so honored," Martin said of her victory. "Last year, I was second to Ariel Keklak by two seconds, so it means so much to finally get the win. I'm so proud of our team. Seeing how the girls are finishing, we've hit our goal."
On the boys side, there was not a runaway victory in either the individual or team battles. After two years of domination by Cambridge Rindge & Latin, both titles were once again up for grabs.
A mile into the race, a pack of ten runners had gained some separation over the field. After passing over Bear Cage Hill, the leaders were down to two, Acton-Boxborough's Patrick Nero and Westford Academy's Jason Dolan. They would remain within a couple strides of each other all the way until the tape, when Nero edged Dolan for the win in 16:28.
"In something like a league championship, it really feels like the culmination of all these years of hard work," Nero said. "It's really important because these are all people that I race against all the time. It feels really good."
In the team race, Nero's Acton-Boxborough team would end up third in a tight competition for the victory. Placing four in the top 13 was good enough for a 66-point win by Concord-Carlisle. They ended up just five ahead of runner-up Lincoln-Sudbury and 11 ahead of Acton-Boxborough.
One final impressive performance of the day came in the freshman 3K, when Wayland's McKenna Kelemanik destroyed the field by an entire minute in 12:29.