The Season Kicked off this weekend with two early low key Cross-Country Invitationals. On the North Shore In Newburport, the Annual Clipper Relays started the season with a fun 3 x 2 mile relay. Lowell High School, one of the pre-season favorites, walked away with the team title. The Lowell High School team of Mike Kalenoski, Nick Mcardle, and Pat Coppinger set a meet record with a time of 30:02 for the six mile race. Although not all the coaches turned in the Split sheets, we believe Nate Adams from Lexington had one of the fastest times at 9:42. Nate won the first leg of the six mile race, he was followed by Norwell's Owen Wiggin's (9:44) , and Methuen's Mike O'Donnell (9:46).
In the Girl's competition, nobody could stop a Catarina Rocha led Peabody team. Great work by teammates Sam Allen and Lauren Barrett kept Peabody within the Top few teams. Catarina Rocha, one of the premier runners in the country, made up the ground easily and cruised home as the Tanner's finished with a combined time of 35:54. We did not have a split on Rocha, but she left no doubt who had the fastest female split of the day. Erin Dietz of Bedford won the first leg of the six mile race as she was clocked in a fast 11:47 over the rolling two mile course. Lowell's Bryanna Allison (11:50) was second , followed by Shannon Murdock form Exeter-NH (12:01), and Peabody's Sam Allen (12:02).
About 3 hours south of Newburyport off the coast of Cape Cod, the 6th Annual Martha's Vineyard Invitational took place. In the girls race, Shepard Hill's Stella Worters (19:43) won by over 20 seconds over Sandwich's Tori Sivco (20:04). Plymouth North's Nicole Borofoski was third (20:19) . The Notre Dame Academy tandem of Elizabeth Constatino finished 4th (20:27) and Mollie O'Leary 5th place (20:40) as the Cougars went on to place seven runners in the Top 15 to take home the team title with 42 points. Plymouth North finished second with 72 points.
In the boys competition, the host team took home their own trophy by scoring 60 points over second place Hopkinton High School. The Vineyard placed four in the Top 15 led by Senior Michael Schroeder's 7th place finish. New Bedford Senior Paolo Tavares won the individual race rather easily, he ran a fantastic early season time of 16:07 over the 5k course. Other runners in the top five included Will Casazza Barrington-Ri (16:47), Patrick Levenson Hopkinton (16:49), Ian Meyer Belmont Hill (16:52), and Dan Stomski from Shepard Hill (16:55).