GARDNER – With his eyes squarely on the prize, the finish line of Saturday's MIAA Division 2 All-State race, Newburyport High junior Nick Carleo just kept pushing.
Carleo’s only concern charging up the final uphill climb at the Gardner Municipal Golf Course was where is Paul Hogan? After taking the lead over the Burlington senior around the two-mile mark, he was waiting for Hogan to make that one last move, that one last surge to the finish.
It never happened.
Looking surprised and ecstatic as he came across the line, Carleo emerged the overall winner with a time of 14 minutes, 15 seconds for the 2.9-mile course. Hogan secured second place, six-seconds behind at 14:21.
“I thought he was right on my shoulder that whole straightaway, and he just wasn’t,” the slender Newburyport runner said. “I thought he was on my shoulder and I know he has a kick. I was scared.”
There was good reason why Carleo feared Hogan going into the race. In last week’s Eastern Mass. Div. 4 race, the Burlington standout posted a victorious 15:08 clocking, the fastest time in the field. In contrast, Carleo was coming off a heartbreaking runner-up placement to Old Rochester’s Mike Wyman in the Div. 5 race where he ran 15:28, a PR but a time well off what his competitor on Saturday had done.
“Obviously, it was a goal to win, but after losing the divisional meet last week it was unexpected,” he said. “It was something that I knew was possible, but I thought was probably not going to happen and it ended up happening.”
A small pack of runners that included Carleo and Hogan stuck together for the first two-thirds of the race. Carleo made his move with just under a mile remaining on the rolling terrain.
“Probably about two miles, I started surging but it was by accident,” he said. “I kind of just wanted to get in the lead, got in the lead and everyone just started to drop. “
Unlike the divisionals, Carleo felt he was more focused at the All-State meet.
“Last week I got really distracted in the race and I was talking to myself, talking to opponents,” he said. “I figured I just wouldn’t do that. That’s what I did and it worked. I still don’t believe it.”
For the second straight year and the fourth time in the last five years, Pembroke claimed the team trophy with a convincing 49-104 win over second-place Hopedale. Medfield was third with 138 points.
“It’s awesome, number four!” said Pembroke coach Greg Zopatti, making reference to his team’s state championships. “We couldn’t have run any better. The whole team ran awesome. It’s such a team sport where anybody can have an off day and someone else has to step up, and we did that today.”
A senior-laden core compiled the scoring for the Titans with Christian Stafford leading the way by placing third overall with a time of 14:32. He was followed by fellow classmates John Valeri (sixth, 14:43), Lucas Tocher (19th, 15:21), Alex Bowler (24th, 15:31) and Phillip Martin (30th, 15:36).
“Our back-of-the-packers ran as one solid group,” Zapatti said. “Phil Martin, who had a tough day last week, really stepped up and was our fifth man today. That was huge. Alex Bowler and Adison Fine ran really well. Billy (Stafford), who ran well for us all year, went out a little quick and paid for it but he knew he could lean on his teammates…We had a really good day, a really good day.”
Manchester Essex junior Olivia Lantz won a tight battle in the Div. 2 girls’ race. In an all-out sprint to the finish, Lantz held off Danvers’ junior Catalina Dominick with a time of 16:56. Dominick was second at 16:59.
Lantz, a second-place finisher in the mile at last year’s indoor state meet, was competing in her inaugural cross-country season. She gained some confidence for the states last week when she copped the Div. 6 race at the Eastern Mass. Championships.
Her pre-race plan was simple.
“I know that I am not as strong as the other girls,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of experience. I kind of wanted to do the same thing that I did today, hang on with girls that I know are at my level or a little bit ahead me.”
Lantz and Dominick broke from a small pack with roughly 800-meters remaining. The pace soon turned into a sprint in the closing stages.
“We both started kicking with about 800 (meters) to go but she really didn’t start putting in her last gear until there was like 300 left,” Dominick said. “I was going as fast as I could go. That’s the hardest I kicked all season because I never really had to. I’m happy. I just wish I had more speed.”
“I was just trying to give it my all and hoping to come out on top,” Lantz said. “I could see her shadow behind me a couple of times and I needed to pick it up because she was too close. Once her shadow went away, I was like, 'Okay, keep up this pace and just bring it home.'"
With two of its underclassmen finishing among the top 20, Hamilton-Wenham earned the team crown by defeating second-place Manchester Essex, 56-115. Sophomore Jeannie Zheng paced the victors by taking seventh overall with a time of 17:39. Ninth-grader Olivia Horgan was 16th at 18:01.
