This past weekend was one you dream of during the doldrums of summer training. An absolutely perfect weekend for cross country racing all throughout New England, we were treated to superb performances by Massachusetts athletes at major races throughout the region.
Ocean State XC Invite
Championship Races
We knew full well that Grace Connolly of Natick was an extremely talented runner, as she took the trails and track by storm last year as only a freshman. Though prior to Saturday, we still hadn't seen wether or not the talented Natick runner was ready to up her game for the 2016 season. Connolly had raced a few dual meets earlier this month, but it was clear she was just going through the motions and treating them as workouts. Toeing the line on Saturday in the Championship Race at the Ocean State, we finally got to witness what Connolly has in store for this upcoming fall. It was a competitive and crowded field, but Grace looked confident doing a majority of the work in the lead pack. As the race approached halfway and the tempo increased, runners began to fade and Connolly only grew more comfortable. Pulling away swiftly over the final mile, Grace came down the final stretch with not a competitor in sight and took the win in a very fast time of 18:00.06. Since the first Ocean State XC Invite in 2007, only one other Massachusetts girl has run faster than Connolly's time on Saturday and that was Abbie McNulty (17:48 CR) in 2013.
Doing their part and also representing Massachusetts very will in the Girls Championship Race, were Rachel Sessa and Emily Sessa of Tewksbury. Present in the lead pack for a majority of the race, Rachel led Tewksbury with her 4th place finish and 18:51 performance, while Emily was not too far behind in 8th and a time of 19:10. Due to strong frontrunning of the Sessa sisters, Tewksbury Girls found themselves 2nd overall with 83 points. While they came up bit short of knocking off the top ranked NY squad from Guilderland with 63 points, Tewksbury did flex their small school muscle and beat out CT#1 Glastonbury.
In the Boy's Championship Race, Noah Carey of Guilderland would break the hearts of New Englanders and bring back the individual title to New York for a second straight year. Despite New York taking two of the top three spots, Ben Kovacs of St. John's broke things up a bit with his fourth place finish. Now assuming the role as #1 runner for St. John's, Kovacs' 15:52.5 on the Goddard Park course proved he is more than ready. Plus, due to Ben's front-running and putting four runners in the Top 20, St. John's Boys picked up their first big win of the season at the Ocean State Invite. In addition to beating out quality regional competition, the boys from Shrewsbury also easily took down a Lexington (3rd 128 points) squad that was ranked #4 in the Large School Pre-Season polls. Despite coming up short to St. John's, Thomas Lingard of Lexington still had a strong day as the top Minuteman finisher in 7th place and a time of 15:55.2.
