Photo by Patrick Bendzick
Individuals
The big question this year from the ACL will be who can run with Dennis Yarmouth Regional High School's junior harrier, Jordan O'dea? As a sophomore, O'dea went undefeated in league races and set a course record of 15:56 on the 2.65 mile course at the ACL Championship meet, breaking the previous record held by Michele Palmer of Plymouth South (2001). From there, O'dea went on to run with Bishop Feehan senior Viviana Hanley at the EMASS Division IV Championships where Hanley put 8 seconds on her in the last half-mile. O'dea would finish second once again to Hanley at the All-State Championships. All the cards seem to be falling into place as O'dea is the top returner from the ACL, the Eastern Mass Division, and the All-State DII championships.
Three runners may be able to push O'dea to the finish line. Plymouth North junior Nicole Borofski was 2nd to O'dea at the ACL meet and placed 13th in the EMASS Championships. Her stellar performance at the EMASS Championships allowed her to advance to the All-State Championships where she placed 46th on the rolling Gardner Golf Course. Borofski recently attended the FOSS Running Camp in New Hampshire, where she was voted "Camper of the Year" by the staff and her peers. Her positive attitude, talent, and work-ethic may be enough to may close the gap on O'dea.
Two other runners hoping to make strides on O'dea are Senior Captains Jocelyn Hubbard (Marshfield) and Mikhaela Tropp (Sandwich). These two runners spent the majority of the 2010 fall season with injuries. Tropp was able to rally a bit in her first cross country race ever where she eventually finished 3rd to O'dea and Borofski at the ACL Championships. Tropp also went on to qualify for the All-State Championships by placing 24th at the EMASS Championships. Tropp is currently healthy and looking forward to gaining experience during the dual meet season as she has her sights set on a return to the All-State Championships. Hubbard was also injured last fall, but had a successful winter and a fantastic post-season spring in the 800m where she ran a big PR of 2:17 at the New Balance Twilight Series. She also has "big meet" experience as she's competed at the Nike Indoor Championships in 2010. A healthy summer with lots of miles for these two gifted athletes may result in spoiling O'dea's hopes of a post season championship sweep.
Teams looking for the title
The team to beat once again is Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. Coach Jim Hoar's team has been a juggernaut throughout the years and the Dolphins seem to always find themselves on top of the podium. If everything goes as planned, this year is likely to be no different as they return all of last year's varsity seven. Helping O'dea will be Keagan Colmer, Vicky Paaso, Lee Drown, Jess Currier, Emma Harney and freshman Mary Stafford. The 2010 DY team placed 6th at the EMASS Division IV race and missed advancing to the All-State Championships by a dissapointing 9 seconds! You can be sure they have not forgotten the feeling from that day and will be using it as a motivating factor in 2011 .
Nauset Regional HS lost two of their top three to graduation, but rumor has it that freshman sensation Jenny Leyton is debating between soccer and cross country this fall. Either way, it may be hard for this team to recover from the loss of Robyn Argo and Sarah Knopp. Coach Katie McCully has done a wonderful job with this team and her postive coaching style is sure to breed more success in the near future.
Marshfield HS appears poised to challenge the Dolphins as they only lost one varsity runner from 2010. But remember, they will be adding a healthy Jocelyn Hubbard and should have plenty of support with Katie Driscoll, Meg Banks, Soibhan O'Malley and Kara Ryan on the starting line. It will be hard not to get excited for this dual meet as Marshfield has always been able to rise up and make even the most challenging goals attainable.
Another young team that returns their top 5 is Sandwich HS. With a healthy Mikhaela Tropp (800m DIII Champion), and a motivated sophomore Tory Sivco (12:20 2-mile), Sandwich will have two great front runners. If the senior group of Bethany Gomes, Nicole Daly, Stacey Sivco and Grace Barter can work together to close the gap, Sandwich will have a realistic shot at surprising more than a few teams.