Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Report from Steven on Twilight meet

Report from Steven:

Newton South @ Bob McIntyre Twilight Cross Country Invitational
10/13/2012 @ Barnstable Fairgrounds, Falmouth, MA

As a team we had our best meet yet at the Twilight with 6 of our varsity girls setting their season bests and 5 personal records.  Team wide including the 9th grade race and JV race we had 15 personal records which is a great ratio for a single meet.  That was so pleasing on the individual level and it allowed us to take 2nd place out of 17 teams in which 6 teams came in ranked in the top 20 in the All State Division I.  We have solidified our place as one of the best teams in Ma.  We scored 78 points to take 2nd on the placing of 1st Frosh Rebecca Grusby 18:22 PR, 4th junior Lucrecia Aguilar 18:55 PR, 9th junior Anna Rhatigan 19:18, 29th sophomore Matia Whiting 20:29 PR, 35th junior Yasmine Hashemi 20:33 PR, 40th junior Margalit Glasgow 20:49 PR and 41st senior Emily Caggiano
20:52 season best. It is very meaningful to be able to beat so many ranked teams.  This is the kind of effort that we will need to move from the Ea. Ma Championship to make All State. Our front running was impressive and so was our depth.  Our 1 - 8 spread was very nice when you consider that Sara Wang also broke 21:00 in placing 6th in the JV race.  
Rebecca Grusby ran an outstanding race to take first in the Division I varsity race in an incredible time of 18:22.  That places Rebecca in a tie with former All State 2 mile champion and 2 time All State cross country runner up Eliza Beardslee for 6th on our Blue All Time List (under 19:00) as she passes up Kathy O Keefe 18:29, Julie Farago 18:36 and Melanie Fineman 18:50.  These are multi time Boston Globe All Stars, State Division and All State Champions and All Americans that Rebecca is now keeping company with.  This is an amazing accomplishment for a 9th grader of the likes that we have never seen and she does it by keeping it fun and in perspective which is so refreshing.
Lucrecia kept Rebecca in sight the entire race and set a 37 second PR to move into 11th on our Blue list in 18:55 just behind Melanie Fineman (former Division I mile champion, 5 time All American and All State Mile Runner Up to teammate Kathy O Keefe and ahead of Olga Golovkina and Aly Venti (became All New England College Champion for Amherst). This was a great effort for Lucrecia and her confidence should be very high after this.
Our three lists represent the very best of the over 600 girls that have run for Newton South in the 21 year McChesney (Steven and Marianne) era.  The Blue list is made up of girls that have broken 19:00 for 5k and that represents the top 2% of all girls that have run for our storied program.
Only 30 girls have made the Orange list or better as you need to break 20 minutes to make that list as Anna Rhatigan has twice this season and that represents the top 5% of Newton South cross country all time.   Our Black list just got a few more names added as Matia  moved up from 55th to 44th placing on the list.   Yasmine placed her name on the black list for the first time in 20:33 with Margalit close behind and also making the list at 52nd in 20:49 for the first time.  Emily Caggiano set a season best in 20:52 and has run onto the black list many times as our most experienced runner.
Junior Sara Wang ran a great race to place 6th out of 280 runners in the JV race in 20:56 PR which puts her 59th out of the 63 girls in our program that have broken 21:00. 9th Grader Caraline Pham chose to run in the JV race to help the team effort and she ran a great 12th place in a PR of 21:12. Junior  Sarina Weiss who has a place on the black list in the past returned to great form and took the last JV medal in 25th place in a season best of 21:39.  A great case could be made for Louisa Kimmell being our most improved girl as she had a huge PR to place 28th in 21:44.  9th grader Annika McGraw also had a huge PR to break the 22:00 barrier in 21:57.
Junior Leah Jacobson was close behind in 43rd with a nice time of 22:14.
Senior captain Leah Abercrombie ran a minute and 29 seconds faster this year than she did last year in the same race and placed 68th in 22:53.  Sophomore Amy Gilbert ran a PR in 24:05 to place 115th and sophomore Audrey Hooker ran a very solid 25:23 for 181st place.
This JV team is so strong that our times would have placed the JV team in the top 10 in the girls varsity race.  That is a nice testament to the dedication of our entire team.
In the 9th grade race Noosha Aliabadi ran a wonderful race placing 52nd out of 195 runners in a PR time of 15:01 and Ksenia Potapov looked strong in placing 128th in a PR of 16:38 for the 2.1 mile course.

Varsity Team - Division 1:

1. Needham       47
2. Newton South     78
3. Notre Dame (H)  83
4. Weymouth    97
5. Franklin              160
6. Brookline            174   6 teams ranked top 20 in State going into meet 
7. Falmouth     234
8. Marshfield    257
9. King Phillip        263
10. Brockton          283
11. Reading           283
12. Beverly            292
13. Oliver Ames    321
14. Stoughton        331
15. N. Attleborough 379
16. Mansfiled       402
17. Holyoke         423

No comments: