More Coverage:Twice As Nice For Lowell !

Since the 1st girls EMASS cross country races in 1971, no school had ever won both the boys & girls Division I team titles in the same year. Now, in the last 365 days Lowell High School has done it twice. It seems only fitting, that Lowell, the oldest co-ed public high school in the country would be the school to pull off such a difficult feat.  Behind a dominant, 26 second individual victory from sophomore superstar Kaley Richards (18:17) and some gutsy 3rd mile running from her teammates, the Red Raider girls (80 points) were able to take down powerhouse Weymouth (93) and defending state champion Peabody (102) en route to the schools 2nd ever MIAA EMASS D1 Cross Country Championship. Not to be out done, racing 90 minutes after the girls, the Lowell boys put on a clinic on how to win a big meet, under pressure, in a stacked field. Despite losing the top 3 runners from last years championship team, the Red Raiders scratched there way to the programs 4th D1 title in the past 5 years. (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013) Lowell’s total of 75 points was enough to hold off Peabody (94), Lexington (125), Newton North (134) and #1 ranked Cambridge R&L (135).

 

The boy’s race was an incredibly fast paced race from the start. Newton’s dynamic duo of Gabe Montague & Mike Schlichting led most of the way, however, Lowell senior captain Johnny Abraham hung tough through an opening 4:50 mile and was able to split up the Newton harries and finish 2nd overall in 15:32. “My job was to get a low stick and create some momentum for our team” said the UMASS-LOWELL bound Abraham. “Mike & Gabe are both great runners and I had a plan to stick with them and wait for my coach to tell me how the team was doing. This was an intense race and knowing the team was running well gave me some extra motivation to finish the race strong. The teams victory means much more than my time or place, I am just happy to have done my part,” added the well-spoken Abraham. Lowell’s plan to match the top teams in the opening mile was evident as fellow seniors Randy Nong (8th, 16:02), Matt Fowler (16th, 16:18) and Andrew Whitney (25th, 16:27) joined rising sophomore Chris Gendron (24th, 16:26) in flooding the front of the race and countering any thought another team might have had of trying to run away and hide early in the race. “In September, at the Frank Kelley Invite we lost to several teams and it was because we went out to slow” said 31st year head coach Phil Maia. “Our fitness is our trump card, we know we’ll always be there at the end, we just needed to match up at the beginning of the race and today we did that perfectly” said the proud coach. Junior Larry Carney (31st, 16:33) and senior Tyler Richards (46th, 16:47) were also right in the hunt for the Red Raiders, further proving that the states deepest team is going to be tough to beat going forward. As Lowell packed up and headed for the bus, Maia gave one last message to his team, “We’ll enjoy this victory until Monday. Then we’ll make our adjustments, create a plan for Gardner and hope we can execute one more time next week”.

Coach Mary Beth McKinney-Finn figured her team would be right in it amongst the other top teams despite the fact that Lowell had not run nearly as fast as the others over the 5k race distance. “Our times were on slower courses” explained the coach. “A lot of these other schools ran meets that produced some almost un-realistic results so we were optimistic our kids would come through” said the McKinney-Finn. The girls certainly did deliver. The Red Raiders, who trailed Weymouth for most of the race, rallied in the 2nd half and demonstrated great patience and instincts in upsetting several top teams. Perhaps the best example was set by senior captain Marissa Richards (19:05) who moved from 20th at the mile to 16th at 2miles before finally kicking it home to finish a solid 10th overall and provide Lowell with that 2nd low runner to go along with her sister, the champion, Kaley. “I am proud of my team” said Marissa Richards. “We got off to a slow start but we picked it up and all the girls contributed to the win.” Just behind the Richards sisters was sophomore’s Hannah Laughlin (17th, 19:23) and cousin Lexi Richards (18th, 19:28) who both also passed several runners in the final stages of the race. Senior Ileana Medina (34th, 20:00) ran a strong race and finished just behind Weymouth’s 4th runner, which provided critical points and rounded out the scoring for Lowell. This victory, the schools 2nd in a row, sends them to Gardner for next weeks All-State Championship as a team to watch. McKinney Finn smiled and headed for the bus on what was surely a fun ride back to Lowell, “I’m excited for all the girls in our program and proud of them all”.