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D1 Race
Hammering hard down the final homestretch of the fairgrounds last year were, Liam Sullivan of Northampton and Esu Alemseged of CR&L and Sullivan pulled off the win by one second. Now who will be hitting that final stretch together on Saturday night? Our two picks would be Ben Kovacs of St. John's and Lucas Aramburu of Brookline. At this meet last year, Aramburu was only a freshman and ran an impressive 15:35 to finish 6th and beat out Kovacs by three seconds. Kovacs would seek revenge a few weeks later at the All-State Meet and handily beat Aramburu at Westfield.
A new chapter will unfold this Saturday evening, after both runners have gotten off to great starts this fall. Aramburu kicked off the season with a big victory on a tough Manchester Invite course and then followed it up with a 13:00 performance last weekend at Manhattan. Meanwhile, Kovacs has taken the reigns of the St. John's program and started off by leading them to victory at Ocean State with his 15:56 performance. Then followed that up with a 12:57 at Manhattan and a big team victory for his squad in the overall merge. These two athletes are very evenly matched and we are expecting sparks to fly in the final mile.
Looking to join in on the fun at the front should be Wellesley senior, Ben Matejka. Getting things started earlier this month, Matejka ran 16:15 at Frank Kelley to finish 3rd behind the likes of Tristan Shelgren and Marcelo Rocha. The #1 Wellesley runner was 13th at this meet running 15:52 and while we don't know if he can beat Kovacs or Aramburu, Matejka should be in the top five and under 15:40 on Saturday.
Kevin Quinn of Needham, Joe Walsh of St. John's, Thomas Weiss of Wellesley, and Cody Moran of Weymouth, will also be fighting it out to finish in the top five.
Team
In 2015, St. John's crushed their opponents with their 15:53 team average and won by almost forty points. On Saturday, the Pioneers will be arriving in Barnstable undefeated and fresh off a very impressive showing at Manhattan. Not only did they claim a victory in their Varsity B race, but also finished first in the overall team merge. Given the level of competition at Manhattan on an annual basis, a team winning the overall merge doesn't happen everyday. Now how will St. John's do this coming Saturday? Well despite the Raiders of Wellesley being ranked #2 in MA and ahead of St. John's, they will not be able to touch the boys from Central MA this weekend. St. John's should pick up their third straight victory of the season, Wellesley will finish runner-up, and there will be a fight for third between Needham and Wachusett.
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D2 Race
Individual
Brandon Hall of Hopedale has been playing a very hot hand this fall and he will look to roll the dice once again this weekend in Barnstable. The junior kicked off the year by taking a strong second at the Ocean State Invite with a 16:08 performance (16:32 in 2015). Entering October, Hall picked up his first victory at Frank Kelley running 16:21 and then followed it up with another victory last weekend at the Wachusett Invitational. Given those results, we have little doubt of Hall's current fitness and he is the clear favorite for victory.
Perhaps the only potential threat to Hall picking up his 3rd straight win of the season will arise from Parker Charter's, Nico Agosta. The junior from Parker beat Hall at this meet last year and went on to finish an impressive 5th overall at the 2015 All-State Meet. Only racing once so far this fall, Agosta took on the Championship Race at the Ocean State Invite and finished 25th running 16:38. Given that result in late September, Nico is going to need to bring everything he has on Saturday in order to take down Hall. Looking to keep Agosta company in the persuit of Hall will be Norwell junior, Steven O'Driscoll. The Norwell harrier had a nice season opener at Frank Kelley and was well ahead of his performance in 2015. As he took 5th last year in this race running 16:09, we should see O'Driscoll be in top five again on Saturday and dip under 16:00.
A few others mixing it up in Saturday's lead pack will be; Matt Greatorex of Wakefield, David Wollensak of Hopedale, and Nathan Johnson of Littleton.
Last year in Barnstable, Hopedale and Wakefield clashed under the lights and Hopedale went home victorious with a 101 point total to Wakefield's second place total of 115. Meeting for the first time this year at Frank Kelley, Hopedale once again came out on top with 42 points to Wakefield's 57. As of now, we don't see much changing between these two squads and Hopedale should claim another team victory on Saturday night. If Wakefield wants to flip the script, they will need to tighten up that gap between their #1 - #2 runners and be more competitive with Hopedale's #2-#5 runners. Contending for third place in the team battle will be the boys from Norwell and Duxbury.
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