barryWorkplace in turmoil? Looking for a positive experience? Try attending a college cross country meet. Green grass, blue skies, puffy white clouds, incredibly healthy young people, intense coaches, happy parents. Cool stuff!
Normally, cross country is a crashingly boring sport (hey, I competed in the sport for years, and even I acknowledge it is boring to watch a start, stand around for 25 minutes, watch a blurry finish, then go home). But, watching a cross country meet at Franklin Park is a real treat. You get to see the runners at the start, then at one, two, three, and four miles, then the finish. This is a wisely designed course. Great job!
Wanna' know where all those Central Mass high schooler runners went? They went to college, joined their cross country teams,and some of them competed in the New England XC Championships. They got a beautiful day (Friday is always great, but this one had really good weather).
Alas, Smith College placed 39th of 42 schools, with a grand total of 1,086. Oh well.
Erin Dromgoole, Millbury HS 97 and Dartmouth Junior, dominated Central Mass distance running for a few years, including winning the State Division 2 XC championships and competing in the Foot Locker National XCs. However, after making a splash as a Freshman, she has been absent for most of the last year-plus. Today she returned with the Dartmouth "B" team, finishing seventh overall, and third placer for Dartmouth, in the Women's Open division.
Sara Saba (Shrewsbury 97), rolled home 69th for U Mass Amherst. also in the Women's Open.
Women's Open Division
PLACE NO. NAME SCHOOL YR time PACE DI
===== ==== ================== ================ === ===== ===== ==
1 533 Roisin McGettigan Providence Coll. Fr 18:21 5:54 1
7 357 Erin Dromgoole Dartmouth Coll. So 19:00 6:06 1
69 436 Sara Saba UMass-Amherst Jr 20:10 6:28 1
In the Women's Championship Division, several recent names showed. The Guiney sisters, from New Jersey, placed 5th and 6th for Boston College. BC finished second overall. I know they are not from Central Mass, but they ARE from Jersey. The very distinctive running style of the O'Neill twins, from Eastern Mass, both attending Yale, brought them home 13th and 14th. Andover's Susan Ashlock, the Mass HS 2 Mile champ a few years back, ran well for Dartmouth, finishing 34th overall. Unfortunately, Dartmouth was missing Bromfield's Lara Niell.
Providence, BC, and Dartmouth took 1-2-3 in the women's team competition. This was the fourth straight win for PC.
Kristy Pappas, (Fitchburg HS 96) placed 72nd for U Mass Lowell. In '95, Kristy placed 4th in the Central Mass Division 1 HS XC Championships.
Katie Litwinowich, (Wachusett HS '99) and University of New Hampshire frosh, placed 75th. Katie was the top Central Mass HS 880 runner in '96.
Emily Hogan (Algonquin 98) placed 160th as the seventh placer for Holy Cross. Emily, a former Telegram & Gazette All Star, placed in the top five in the Central Mass HS XC Division 1 championships three straight years.
Danielle Brideau (Fitchburg 96) placed 213th for U Mass Lowell. Danielle placed 7th in the 1995 Wachusett Invitational. You can look it up.
Laura Byron (Notre Dame 1999) and U Mass Lowell Frosh, placed 230th. Here's a factoid...Laura once placed 19th in the 1997 Central Mass HS XC championships.
Women's Overall
PLACE TmPl NO. NAME SCHOOL YR time PACE DI
===== ==== ==== ================== ================ === ===== ===== ==
1 1 228 Shannon Smith Boston College Sr 17:25 5:36 1
5 5 218 Catherine Guiney Boston College Fr 17:40 5:40 1
6 6 219 Megan Guiney Boston College Fr 17:47 5:43 1
13 13 730 Kate O'Neill Yale University Fr 18:02 5:48 1
14 14 731 Laura O'Neill Yale University Fr 18:03 5:48 1
72 72 451 Kristy Pappas UMass-Lowell Sr 18:51 6:03 2
75 75 156 Katie Litwinowich Un.New Hampshire Fr 18:54 6:04 1
160 158 94 Emily Hogan Holy Cross So 19:59 6:25 1
213 211 444 Danielle Brideau UMass-Lowell Sr 20:44 6:39 2
230 228 445 Laura Bryon UMass-Lowell Fr 21:01 6:45 2
Another St. John's Alum, Mike Dolan (97?) placed 70th for a loaded Providence College team.
Jim Carbary (Hopedale 97?) placed 104th for Bentley College in 28:01. Here's something to remember: Jim placed 13th in the 1995 Central Mass HS XC dor Division 2.
Dave Clark, no relation to the Dave Clark Five (ask you grandfather), of Westboro HS (98?) placed 148 for Colby.
Steve LeMarbre, (Hopedale HS 99) placed 157th for the Trinity JV. Ooh...factoid: Steve placed 7th in the 1997 Central Mass HS XC championships.
Men's Subvarsity (aka Junior Varsity)
PLACE TmPl NO. NAME SCHOOL time PACE
===== ==== ==== ================== ================ ===== =====
1 1 145 Peter Hollatz Brown 25:42 5:13
43 36 567 Sean Murphy UMass/Amherst 26:54 5:28
70 405 Mike Dolan Providence 27:23 5:34
148 114 172 David Clark Colby 28:32 5:48
157 508 Steve Le Marbre Trinity 28:39 5:49
In the Men's Championships, several Central Mass'ers showed up.
Tim Curran, (St. John's 99) scored for Providence, placing 29th overall and fourth for his team. Tim was the first American to finish for PC, with his teammates hailing from Ireland (2) and England. Tim's teammate, Keith Kelly, scorched the course to win in 23:43. Long, tall Keith took the lead at one mile, then pulled away from the chase pack to settle the race in the second mile. From there, it was just a matter of who would finish second.
Also seen were Pat Boehm (Wachusett HS 99, Harvard Frosh), rolling home 77th overall, and seventh man for Harvard.
Nate Jenkins (Naragansett HS 99, U Mass Lowell Frosh), was the top man for his team, coming home 82nd.
Joe Sans, also of Narragansett (class of 98), finished 142, and fourth man for the U Mass Lowell team. Apparently there is a pipeline from Narragansett to Lowell.
Jonathon Murphy, (Worcester's South HS 98), was the fifth man for U Mass Lowell, coming home 147th.
Another former Worcester HS runner, Andy Gallivan (Doherty HS class of?) finished 219th as top man for Worcester State in 27:42.
Joe Lepain (Wachusett class of?) was fourth man for Assumption College, coming home 252nd.
Brown took first in the team race, followed by BC and PC. PC's fifth man was the 40 point difference between 1st and 3rd.
Men's Varsity 77 76 251 Pat Boehm Harvard 25:54 5:16 83 82 583 Nathaniel Jenkins UMass/Lowell 25:59 5:17 147 578 Jonathan Murphy UMass/Lowell 26:37 5:24 219 201 Andy Gallivan Worcester State 27:42 5:37 256 251 25 Joe Lepain Assumption 29:11 5:55
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 05:20 PM