By Thom S. Hunter
As the winds began to gust and the drizzle transitioned to steady rain, the varsity runners toed the line at Franklin Park for the Catholic Conference Championship. Unfazed by the conditions the competitors ran an aggressive first mile. From the start, it seemed it would be a battle between St. John's sophomore sensation Tristan Shelgren (15:50 5K PR ) and the defending Tri-County League mile champion, Colm Feeney from BC High. Though Shelgren led the pack from the gun and rounding White Stadium, Feeney had pulled by his side through the mile clocking in just under 5:00 minutes. BC High's Joe Stover was two seconds behind, the main pack of potential Conference All-Stars were within five seconds of the leaders. Passing the mile, Feeney put on a brief surge, but by bear cage hill he and Shelgren were again step for step.
The main pack that formed at the mile were familiar with one another from previous Conference battles. John Lara of CM is an established middle distance standout (1:56 for 800m) for the Knights and hung with the main pack through the mile. The Xaverian duo of Roger Hellard and Peter Keohane had improved of late, reminiscent of the form they were in as members of the top 5 last year; scorers for arguably the best team ever to not qualify for an All State meet. With Lucas Taxter, the D1 winner, and all of the top five under 17:00, Xaverian finished 6th in EMASS D1. St. John's McGrath Bissaillon and Jackson Skelley were on an upswing of their own, having both run in the 16:50's at Baystate and hopeful their formidable top three would prove enough. With injuries to teammates Josh Turk and Luke Bugler, there was less margin for error for the Prep's top point scorers.
After the mile some individual battles emerged. With Feeney and Shelgren in an epic test of wills, BC High's Joe Stover was a target in the middle ground as a gap emerged between the front runners and the conference pack. Ascending bear cage, Xaverian's Roger Hellard, and BC High's Tim Duduch's were ahead of Xaverian's Peter Keohane and St. John's McGrath Bissaillon. By the two mile and entrance to the wilderness it was a pack of four that would push one another through the final straight way. Next was the deep pack that would distinguish BC High from the field this year. BC High's 4-8 runners, David Nagle, Nick Fein, Anthony Ioffredo, Andrew Byrne and EJ Kelley, worked as a pack as #3 runners Jackson Skelley of St. John's and Joesph Tzanetos of Xaverian tried to keep up pace.
Exiting the wilderness and entering the small up hill heading to the playsted, Colm Feeney held a tenuous 10 meter lead over Shelgren. By the downhill into playsted Shelgren was again stride for stride with Feeney. Feeney again opened a brief lead on Shelgren, but was unable to create a proper gap. Between the backstops and entering the final straight away Shelgren was on Feeney's shoulder. Though it seemed both were in full kick mode down the final straight away, Shelgren found another gear with 40 meters remaining and held that one stride lead into the finish. Both finished with a time of 16:34. Undefeated in Conference running, Shelgren became the undisputed Conference MVP.
Joe Stover ran a tough race essentially on his own for the last mile plus and managed to extended his lead over the pack by nearly :15 seconds. As Stover was nearing the finish, it was unclear who within the pack of four, (Xaverian's top two Hellard and Keohane, BC High's Duduch and Prep's Bissaillon) would emerge. Hellard (17:11) held the front position, and though Bissaillon had put on a late push up the final straight way for 5th, Duduch eked back into the 5th spot at the line, with Bissaillon 6th and Keohane 7th. All were within :03 of each other. Finishers 8-12 were from BC High, with the 4th and 5th for the day being Sophomores David Nagle and Nick Fein. Everyone in BC High's top 7 was under 17:30. CM's John Lara finished 18th and Malden Catholic's Colin Harvey finishing 24th. Final scores for the varsity: BC High 27 St. John's Prep 41 Xaverian 50, Catholic Memorial 113 and Malden Catholic 129.
In the JV division, BC High's depth continued to impress taking the top 14 places in the race. BC High had a team time of 17:50 and with Junior's Jack Flavin, Ben Cooper, and Nick Sommer all under 17:45. The Freshman team title went to BC High. Malden Catholic's Freshman Jonah Carlson led the race from wire to wire finishing in 10:59. Xaverian's John Mariano held off St. John's Sam Indresano to round out the top three. The first ever Catholic Conference Middle School crown was taken by St. John's Prep, with Xaverian's Sean Sullivan winning in an impressive 11:13.