Boys Bay State Invitational
Nick Carleo put on a superb display of just how to run a controlled race, well out in front, at Saturday's Bay State Invitational.
The defending Div. 2 state champion out of Newburyport was relaxed the entire way and still had plenty left at the finish line in what was his first big race of the season.
Carleo was barely breathing hard after tearing through an opening 4:46 mile and destroying the Kevin Black field with a sterling time of 15:40.12 on the slick 3.1-mile Franklin Park course.
Each of the eight races yesterday was named after a Mass State Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach, Black being the legendary Whitman-Hanson cross country guru.
Carleo's win puts him in a strong position to race even faster at Franklin Park, the site of this year's All-State meet in November. He was well ahead of Northampton harriers Liam Sullivan (second, 16:06.39) and Aidan Gilson (third, 16:15.18). North Middlesex's Chris Skelly cracked the top five with his fourth-place finish in 16:20.49.
Carleo is supremely confident he can run faster in the Div. 2 state meet race if needed.
"I just wanted to go out decently hard and see what would happen," said Carleo. "We just wanted to come here as a team and get a feel for the course. This was the first hard effort of the year too. I felt really comfortable. I don't know what I went through the first mile in, but it felt easy. The race was hard, but it wasn't brutal."
It was all St. John's of Shrewsbury in the team competition (65 points), good enough to defeat Northampton (80) and Newburyport (98).
Billerica's P.J. Garmon also dipped under 16 minutes as he captured the Bob Maguire race in 15:53.77. Garmon was content to tuck himself in the pack through a 4:58 opening mile and was among the half-dozen runners jockeying for position at mile two (10:21) before entering the winding Wilderness section of the course where harriers often make their biggest moves to break away. Garmon did just that and left the field behind with an easy victory.
"Today I decided to sit back with the top group and push it when I got to the Wilderness," Garmon said. "It turned out good. When you're behind in a pack it's a whole lot easier and you don't have to think about pushing the pace.
"I woke up this morning, walked outside and knew it was going to be a good day."
Scott Cody's Cambridge crew was a big winner in the team competition with 51 points behind Daniel Aschale's second-place finish in 16:04.37 and Esu Alemseged's 16:23.86 that copped fourth overall. Tucker McNinch of Lenox was third in 16:21.62 and West Bridgewater's Adam Petti checked in at 16:29.70 for fifth place.
Xaverian's Lucas Taxter was among a cluster of harriers in the early going and pushed hard down Bear Cage Hill to take the lead. Taxter was alone at the front by the time he raced past two miles in 10:15 and surged again in the Wilderness on the way to capturing the Frank Mooney event in 16:03.35. Taxter destroyed his previous best of 16:37 on the course.
Taxter made the decision early that he wanted to move hard over the second half of the course continuing to push to the finish line.
"I was trying to keep in contact with the front pack," said Taxter. "After going down Bear Cage I decided to go after the first guy. We stayed together for a little bit and then I pulled ahead. The first mile we went out fast, the fastest I've gone out all season. I know what I'm capable of doing in my next races. I did what I had to do with my surges and it paid off."
Lowell had the performance of the day in the team competition, placing three runners in the top five to finish with a paltry 25 points for the win. Larry Carney led the charge with second in 16:17.54 and Anthony Rodriguez took third with his 16:36.15. Chris Polanco was fifth in 16:40.63.
Xaverian ran well as a team to take second with 71 points. Seekonk was third with 111, followed by Manchester Essex's 140 and Whitinsville Christian's 141.
Methuen's Jeff Reddy made certain the pace in the Kevin Malone race was hard from the start. The talented harrier burned through the first mile in 4:42 with Medfield's Austin Scola in tow just five yards back. Reddy's lead was eight seconds at the two mile (10:02) and he never faltered as he bulled his way to the finish in 16:04.48. Scola was consistent the entire way in taking second in 16:10.82.
Like Taxter, Redding took a huge chunk of time off his previous course-best of 16:40.
"We went out fast the way we wanted to," said Reddy. "I kept pushing the pace so I could drop people and stay at the front. I worked it up the (Bear Cage) hill to get a bigger lead and I used the downhills. He was right on me, but I worked it and was able to drop him."
Methuen is off to a good start this season and is currently undefeated in the Merrimack Valley Conference. The team's calling card has been to run aggressively from the start.
"We were trying to win the team title," said Reddy. "We go out as a pack and run as hard as we can.
Reddy and teammate Matt Marchand (fourth, 16:37.82) led Methuen to the team win with 30 points, well ahead of runner-up Hamilton-Wenham (120) and Shrewsbury (128). Walpole was fourth with 141 points and Holyoke was a point back at 142.
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