Recap of the final day of MIAA Divisional Championships.
Dave Peters went into last night's Div. 3 championships with heavy legs and he left with a meet record.
Recap of day 2 action from MIAA Divisionals with the Division 2 Championships on Thursday.
The Div. 2 championship meet could be a big one for Concord-Carlisle's Iris Bergman.
Chalk up a third straight title for Lowell. The Red Raiders ran away with the team title with a gaudy 84 points to win their third consecutive Div. 1 title last night at the Reggie Lewis Center.
In-depth preview of the MIAA Division 1 Championships set for Wednesday at 4 PM at the Reggie Lewis Center.
Milton junior captures three title at Sunday's meet.
Mansfield and Wellesley take boys' and girls' crowns, respectively.
Training through races in September is nothing new for Bishop Feehan's Abigail Long, who plans to do her best running in the championship events come November.
Falmouth's Craig Green is content to play the waiting game for the next few weeks to give a slightly injured groin the chance to heal 100 percent before the state meet and nationals.
Molly Huddle is in the habit of painting her finger nails different colors before every big race, depending on the occasion.
Shelby Aarden pretty much figured that the BAA Scholastic Mile would come down to herself and defending champion Lauren Hazzard, who just happens to be Aarden's Hopkinton High teammate. Both runners had experience in the unique race on the streets near the marathon finish line and they sported the fastest two mile times in the field.
St. John's Prep's Joe Luongo knew fully well what the meet record was in the 600 at Saturday's All-State meet and the Harvard-bound talent decided it was time that it needed a little revamping.
The question was raised to teenage phenom Mary Cain following her brilliant race in the 1000 at Saturday evening's New Balance Grand Prix at the Reggie Lewis Center: What advice would you give to high school athletes with the class meet championships and all-state meet looming?
The Reggie Lewis Center received its biggest amount of funding after the doors to the home of Massachusetts high school indoor opened in 1995. Outgoing Governor Deval Patrick gave the go ahead for $5.7 million in state funding for the 130,000 square foot building located in the heart of Roxbury Crossing and the Roxbury Community Center campus.
Taj-Amir Torres of Amherst-Pelham will tell you his best event is the 55-meter dash, but the Western Mass speedster showed the crowd at Sunday's MSTCA Coaches Elite Invitational that he's just as explosive in the 300.
Bishop Feehan's girls dedicated the meet to former coach Dom Curano who passed away last year and came away with a win over Hingham with 58 points. The Harbormen put up 48 points for second. The Shamrocks had big wins in the 4x50 dash (24.74) and sprint medley (4:13.77).
"It really meant a lot," said Bishop Feehan head coach Paul Powell. "It's been a long time since we won this thing. About halfway through I figured it would come down to us and Hingham."
When you have three solid middle-distance runners and your fourth is the best in the state, you're pretty guaranteed a good - if not great - time. And when your horse is at the top of his game, the performances become that more intimidating.
Just minutes before the start of the 1000-meter run, Gianna Mastromatteo's coach wrote, on the back of her hand, the split times he wanted his sophomore talent to hit en route.
It was a technical mistake in Isabella DiMare's specialty that she knows she can get away with early in the season and still recover quickly enough to pull out a victory. The Notre Dame Academy star has no intention, however, of it happening late February and early March during championship season.
All Erin Dietz had to focus on at Saturday's Foot Locker Northeast Regionals was putting in an all-out effort in the cold and she'd be on her way to San Diego in two weeks.
For the smiling Dietz, her strategy went as planned after all her pre-event concerns surrounding the biggest race of the season never came to fruition.
Dietz had the sneaking suspicion that the race could possibly be waged in mud and snow in the days leading up to the big event. So when the Div. 2 Mass state champion found the rugged 3.1-mile Van Cortlandt Park layout to be dry and without a hint of snow when she toured the course on Friday, Dietz knew the conditions would be perfect and she'd be able to take full advantage of the quirks (ie. hills) on the fabled stomping grounds in the Bronx.
Bedford's Erin Dietz always has a half smile on her face when she's running, giving the impression that what she's doing isn't difficult but a whole lof of fun. That smile broadened a whole lot more after the Div. 2 All-State raceon Saturday.
Coming off her third consecutive Div. 5 EMass win, Dietz shook defending Div. 2 champion Olivia Lantz of Manchester Essex after passing 2 miles and lengthened her gap on the way to a dominant win in 18:19. Lantz held on to second in 18:43 and Ipswich's Emily Demarco rounded out the top three in 18:59.
Nick Carleo made it clear in the week leading up to Saturday's All-State meet that he was perfectly willing to back off the pace if he was feeling less than 100% or sluggish on Franklin Park's 3.1-mile course.
Nick Carleo walked through the finish chute, his face serene, the only sign that he had exerted himself was the beads of sweat that collected on his forehead. With just two or possibly three races left on the schedule this fall, it's inevitable that the Newburyport speedster will have to go all out in at least one of them.
That next gear is what separates Carleo from the rest of the elite cross country runners in Massachusetts
WRENTHAM - Ariel Keklak hasn't asked her older sister, two-time all-state champion Andrea, for many tips on how to traverse the hills and trails this season. The Lincoln-Sudbury junior may want some pointers for next week at the all-state meet after outdueling a strong pack to capture the Div. 2 race at yesterday's EMass Cross Country Championships on the grounds of the Wrentham Developmental Center.
Liz Holmes had her Andy Dufresne moment on Saturday in her own Wrentham Redemption.
Holmes redeemed herself and dismantled the Div. 2 Junior/Senior field in one felled swoop at the State Coaches Cross Country Invitational.
On a perfect sun-splashed Indian Summer morning, it seemed almost poetic that Mansfield's Dan Romano wrestled away the lead for good on the leaf-covered trails of the tranquil Wilderness.
Racing for the first time on the 3.1-mile Franklin Park course at yesterday's 54th Annual Catholic Memorial Invitational, Romano jockeyed for the lead with Methuen's Jeff Reddy and Marcelo Rocha of Peabody through a 4:56opening. The elite threesome was still within yards of each other as they went through 2 miles in 10:21 in the varsity race.
The dream matchup was set and it looked as though the state's two most celebrated female cross country runners were going to run each other into the ground to send a message to each other and the rest of the state.
But it was Newton South's Rebecca Grusby who stole the limelight at Saturday's Bay State Invitational.
Nick Carleo put on a superb display of just how to run a controlled race, well out in front, at Saturday's Bay State Invitational.
The defending Div. 2 state champion out of Newburyport was relaxed the entire way and still had plenty left at the finish line in what was his first big race of the season.
Carleo was barely breathing hard after tearing through an opening 4:46 mile and destroying the Kevin Black field with a sterling time of 15:40.12 on the slick 3.1-mile Franklin Park course.
WRENTHAM - It looks as though there's another Rocha ready to make his mark on the cross country trails in Massachusetts.
Cross country fans and junkies sat up and took notice when Peabody's Marcelo Rocha destroyed the Div. 1 freshman field by almost 40 seconds over 1.9 miles. at last year's Frank Kelley Cross Country Invitational. And Rocha really opened eyes in the spring when he knocked off a superb 9:38 in the all-state 2 mile.
So it was hardly a surprise when the super talent put up another solid performance yesterday in running away with th