The 2001 USATF New England Grand Prix starts here. Melrose hosted the first of seven New England Road races that make up the Grand Prix. There were dozens of hopeful and competitive teams with optimism for 2001 competition. On this past March 11, Sunday morning, the sun parted and began chipping away at piles of snow the height of your average runner. Over 2,000 runners gathered, flanked by over 80 flashing law enforcement vehicles for the running of the Melrose Law Enforcement Half Marathon. For the Polar Beverages Sponsored Worcester based Central Mass Striders, it was the general theme of “BRIDESMAID BUT NOT THE BRIDE.” It was six divisional 2nd place finishes (Men's Open, Women's Open, Men's Masters, Women's Masters, Men's Seniors) with one Blow you Doors off first place finish by the Women’s Seniors. No other team so dominated the race. The season is very young.

Even with two ailing runners (Byrne Decker of Yarmouth, ME and team captain Dave Dunham of Bradford, MA with an apparent stomach flu), Dave Dunham still led the CMS Men to a close (:51 from first behind Reebok Boston.) second out of 23 teams competing teams. In the Men's Open race, the teams top 5 runners score. In the Grand Prix events, the cumulative time of the five scorers determines the team's placement. Dan Verrington was close behind Dunham, scoring second for CMS with Kevin Beck (Concord, NH), Mike Payson (Brunswich, Maine), and Fergus Cullin (New Hampshire) scoring 3-4-5. Byrne Decker and Larry Sayers (Bellows Falls, Vt) were the displacers. Five CMS men scored in the top 18 places. Under USATF rules, Sayers running as a Masters (+40) scored both as an Open runner and as a Master.

• 1. REEBOK BOSTON 5:52:47

• 2. CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 5:53:38

• 3. BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOC 5:56:40

• 4. GREATER BOSTON 5:59:57

• 5. GREATER LOWELL 6:00:26

For the CMS Masters, Larry Sayers led the way to 2nd place out of 15 competing teams, beginning the year like 2000 ended: 2nd place to the Whirlaway Racing Team Masters. From the close time (and distant 3rd place finish from Greater Lowell) this year too looks to be a two team race. Jim Garcia, Tim Eno, Gregg Cornell (Rhode Island), Jerry Learned (Hopkinton, MA), Bill Gaudere (Hudson, MA) and Kevin McGovern (Sterling, MA) followed.

• 1. WHIRLAWAY RACING TEAM 6:15:32

• 2. CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 6:18:28

• 3. GREATER LOWELL 6:37:29

• 4. CAMBRIDGE SPORTS UNION 6:51:51

• 5. GREATER SPRINGFIELD 7:03:28

The ageless Jerry Learned, scoring in the 40+ and 50+ divisions, backed up by Mark Hines and George Kasierski took Senior’s second place out of 14 competing teams in the while CMS Vets Stu Thurston, Stan Vancelette, and Karl Tuomivaara took 2nd of three competing 60+ teams.

• 1. CAMBRIDGE SPORTS UNION 4:07:56

• 2. CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 4:14:18

• 3. NORTH MEDFORD CLUB 4:19:46

Women’s Open

With assistance from the Masters, (First scorer Rhode Island's Marge Bellisle) CMS women took 2nd behind a strong BAA team and a whisker ahead of Whirlaway Racing Team. Second scorer Rebecca Woolley downscored her way through 2 divisions to help out the Open team. Let me repeat that. THE LADY IS 50 AND IS SCORING WITH THE 20-30 YEAR OLD’S! Karen McGahie (Sterling, MA) coming off a strong run at Stu's 30K the previous week was third scorer followed by Worcester, Mass runner Barbara McManus. Cheryl Taylor also of Worcester, MA, and new to the CMS women's team ran a personal record over the 13.1 distance of 1:30:40. From Western Mass, Maureen Burns and Sidney Letendre and Cyndy Gaudere of Hudson, Mass rounded the strong women's team.

• 1. BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOC 4:13:59

• 2. CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 4:18:41

• 3. WHIRLAWAY RACING TEAM 4:19:03

Melrose half-marathon left the CMS 40+ women in an uncommon position. 2nd! After a dominant 2000, some new Masters have apparantly found their way to a strong Whirlaway Team. Marge Bellisle, the downscoring Rebecca Woolley (you know if there was a 19-29 division she’d have probably scored there too) followed by Maureen Burns, Sidney Letendre, Cynthia Gaudere, Anne Ryan and Linda Usher. The remaining races will be an important test. A significant factor will be the shorter distances where depth of field is important. In 2000 the depth of the talent in the Master's team was instrumental in the 2000 Championship.

• 1 WHIRLAWAY RACING TEAM 4:20:55

• 2 CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS 4:25:13

• 3 CAMBRIDGE SPORTS UNION 4:44:10

Women’s Seniors