Marshfield’s Joel Hubbard has been packing in mileage for his rookie cross country season at Syracuse University, so it made complete sense to him that he throw a move, more akin of a distance race, at the field in Saturday evening’s 16th Annual Falmouth Scholastic Boys Mile on the speedy high school oval. Racing in warm, breezy conditions under a threatening sky, Hubbard bolted to the front of the tight pack with 400 meters remaining, only to have Pembroke’s Wesley Gallagher surge past him with 200 meters left and hold on for the victory in 4 minutes, 33.98 seconds. Hubbard nailed down second in 4:36.94, the same time as teammate Kevin Thomas who was third. Brendan Robertson of Westboro finished fourth with his 4:38.39. Gallagher, who has been running 75-mile weeks on the quiet roads of Pembroke, was happy with the win and didn’t give much thought to his time. “This is off of no track training,” said the Northeastern-bound Gallagher. “I’m just doing all cross country training. This is off of nothing. I’m happy with the race. “I wanted to hang in the back. I realized we were going 5-minute pace. I was scared he (Hubbard) was going to hold that kick the whole way. When there was 200 to go and I passed him, I was really scared he was going to come right up on me. I just wanted to go for the win.” Hubbard, who clocked a scalding 4:09.74 mile to finish second to Mansfield’s Josh Lampron in the state meet, was curious to see what kind of mile her could run solely off of distance training. “I haven’t really trained for this at all,” he said. “I knew I didn’t have that much speed in me so I figured I’d go with 400 left instead of 150 or 200, where I’d normally make a move. I wanted to get enough distance on them and try to hold them off. It didn’t really work out that way.”
Falmouth Academy’s Ella Martin had the hometown crowd behind her as she led a deep girls’ field through three quarters in 3:55. Longmeadow’s Camille Blackman and then Liz Holmes of Foxboro passed the tiring Martin on the final lap and it was Blackman who had the stronger kick over the final 200 meters. Her time of 5:11.32 led the top six finishers under the meet record of 5:27.59 set by Anna Gannett in 2010. Holmes, who will debut in cross country this fall, was a strong second in 5:15.42. Wachusett’s Colleen Sands placed third in 5:17.20 and an exhausted Martin held on for fourth in 5:17.25. Stella Worters of Charlton placed fifth with a 5:25 and hometown favorite Lauren O’Neil clinched sixth with a time of 5:27.38. Blackman, who owns a personal best of 5:03, had no intention of leading early, but rather settle in the middle of the pack for the first 800. “Before we even started the race I was thinking I’d hang behind a little and then make a move on the third or fourth lap,” she said. “It felt a little slow and then I realized I was in first. I was a little nervous. I felt like I had a target on my back. My legs felt really good and I just went on the last lap.“I was going for place. It would be hard to get a PR doing cross country training.” Heading into the race, Holmes had one track workout under her belt, concentrating instead on cross country mileage. Like Blackman, the Foxboro High sophomore wanted to draft off the leaders and avoid the stiff breeze on the backstretch. “I wanted to stay behind them and let it play out,” said Holmes. “One of the girls (Martin) just took off. Mentally, it’s so hard to see someone that far ahead of you. I had more than I thought I would at the end. I would have liked to win.” Sands made it third place for the second year in a row in a race that was different from 2011’s wait and kick affair. She credited her triathlon training for her added overall strength this time around. “I’m doing less mileage, but a lot of biking and swimming,” Sands said. “This was a five minute race. With the triathlon, I’m out there for an hour and a half, two hours. It really builds your mental strength being out there so long. “I feel a lot stronger and my endurance is better. The speed will come later.”