Mike Hanley

Hingham’s Julie McConville found the limelight to her liking at Saturday night’s enormously popular MSTCA Twilight Cross Country Invitational. McConville shook Bishop Feehan’s Abbey McNulty by the mile mark in the small school division and it was a clear route to the finish over the fast, 3.1-mile Barnstable Fairgrounds layout. Her blazing 17:30.6 finish put her well ahead of Tyngsboro runner-up Kerri Keohane (18:06.03) and Renee Caps of Narragansett (18:18.04). McNulty finished fourth in 18:22.11 and Hopkinton’s Shelby Aarden rounded out a solid top five with an 18:34.13. The races were held under the lights on the fairground layout and attracted more than 2,700 harriers from Massachusetts  

The MSTCA Winter Festival signaled the start of major invitational action in Massachusetts, and several prominent athletes from last year picked up right where they left off.  It was an impressive first day at the Reggie Lewis Center as the Small School athletes were on center stage Saturday. 

There is something about racing at night that causes athletes to lose their feel for pace and forces them to run an abnormally fast first mile.  This scenario will force athletes out of their comfort zone early in the race, and will once again separate those pack running squads that thrive on their ability to work together.  The team that maintain their composure in the first mile, and practice patience until the half-way point, will most likely prevail.   

Bishop Feehan High cross country coach Bob L'Homme isn't one to exaggerate, so when he compared Saturday's performance at the Ocean State Invitational to when the boys' and girls' track teams won state titles, you knew it had to be big. (via www.thesunchronicle.com)

The Martha's Vineyard Invitational kicked-off the weekend of racing with Bishop Feehan, Notre Dame Academy, Barnstable, and a host of others headed to the island for an early season test.