Frank Kelley Invitational - Girls Varsity

Frank Kelley Invitational - Girls Varsity; 29 Sept. Wrentham MA
Photos by Dave Fineman
Course Map
Results; girls varsity, div 1
MSTCA Fall Meets schedule and results

Amherst Invitational

Amherst Invitational.
Results
Photos by Dave Fineman

NSHS v Wayland & Westford

NSHS double dual meet against Wayland and Westford Academy was yesterday.
Photos from Dave Fineman

Steven's writeup on Bedford, Boston Latin meet

from Steven:

Newton South girls cross country preview and report of our meet vs Bedford and Boston Latin.

I was very proud of our team last year as we had so little experience and we still made it to the All State championship to keep a streak alive of making it to All State every year since the turn of the century and we have now made states 19 times in the past 20 years.  Last year was not easy, but with a lot of help from the leadership of Anna Laurence and Hannah Friedman we were able to grow a great deal last year and make All State.

My hope as the coach was that we could build on the growth from last year and get back into being a team that will be in the hunt for a trophy at the DCL and Ea. Ma. championship meets once again.  

We still are not the most experienced team that I have coached, but we did return four girls with state level experience and a very deep JV team with some girls that got to run varsity races at some point in the regular season.  So before our season started I was hopeful that our returning varsity kids would show improvement and that our JV kids would rise to deepen our varsity so that we would be a truly stronger team with much more depth.  I also knew that we had a couple of gems coming up from our two middle schools who could contribute to our varsity early in their careers.

Before we ran our first workout I knew that we had the stronger and deeper team that I had hoped for as all of our returning girls put in a good summer of running.  In our first week we ran a 3 mile time trial and that promise showed as every girl on the roster from varsity through our JV had improved a great deal.  

So going into our first race vs Bedford and Boston Latin I knew that we had a very solid and deep team due to the dedication that our entire team had shown in the way that they prepared for the season.

Our meet vs Bedford and Boston Latin was such a strong early showing for us as we won both meets scoring 15 to 50 against Bedford and 16-46 against Boston Latin.

I did not run junior Lucrecia Aguilar who has traded off with junior Anna Rhatigan in workouts as our top runner as she was a bit ill, but she has shown enough in workouts to know that she is much improved and will return to our line up for our meet vs Westford and Wayland on Wed. and also for the Amherst Invitational on Saturday.

I had planned to race Lucrecia, and Bedford has a top notch girl in Erin Dietz, so going into the meet the plan was to allow Anna  and Lucrecia a chance to race against one of the best and for freshman Rebecca Grusby to run for a comfortable 4th place in the meet.  But just prior to the race we decided to allow Lucrecia time to get healthy and found out that Erin would not race so we allowed Anna to pace Rebecca.

What a great outcome as Anna ran an outstanding 18:07 time to win over our 2.9 mile course and Rebecca Grusby followed her every step and made a huge splash in her debut in 18:08.  Anna is one of the very top returning girls in Ea. Ma. and she flew over our course looking stronger than I have ever seen her so it was a monster race for Rebecca to keep up.  I knew that this kid was going to be really good and had an idea that she would be in our top 3 early, but the ease in which she did it really impressed me.  She has a great attitude and she is having fun so getting such a fast start seems natural for her.  With Lucrecia back to racing this week we will have one of the best top 3 in the entire state moving forward.

After that our depth really kicked in.  Senior captain, Emily Caggiano, is our most experienced runner and she ran a very steady race to finish 3rd in a very nice early season time of 19:54.  Junior Margalit Glasgow is one of the most improved girls on our team and she raced in with Emily to take 4th in 19:55.  With Lucrecia slotted back in I feel that our varsity top 5 is  where I hoped that we would be and a great deal ahead of where we were last year at this time. Our growth has continued as I had hoped.  But it is our depth that excites me as there are many other girls that are showing  that they may be able to help as top 5 scorers in the future.

Junior Yasmine Hashemi is running her first cross country season after having run some varsity last year in track and field. She raced like she knew what the sport is about as she placed 6th in 20:18 to round out our top 5 scoring.  Not only does Yasmine give us more depth and the ability to help our score she is also a great example of how to be a tough competitor.  Another new comer, sophomore Matia Whiting, who spent 9th grade abroad ran 20:20 in 7th and what she lacks in training background and experience she makes up for with a very nice stride and a lot of promise. With more training background my feeling is that Matia will grow a great deal from her already exciting starting point.  Junior Sara Wang got to win races at the JV level last year in track and field and has really grown by putting in a lot of work. She has become a very dependable varsity runner who could score well for us as she finished 9th in 20:21.  In many ways the improvement that Sara has shown is what our team is really about.

Another exciting new comer is junior Lizzie Fineman who has been a varsity level sprinter since joining our team as a freshman.  She already knows how to compete as she has been an All American running a 200 on a sprint medley that finished 6th in the nation and now she is learning to use that experience in a very different way.  She showed promise as a varsity distance runner in the spring when she was part of a 4 x 800 relay that set the meet record in the Division I state freshman / sophomore state event.  Lizzie was able to place 10th in her first cross country race by hanging in with a pack of girl with much more experience.  She finished in 20:27 while beating the 3rd runner for Boston Latin and the top girl from Bedford.  Lizzie is just starting to get a distance running background and she could improve a great deal as she gains a foundation in this type of training and could very well make our state meet team by the end of the season.  Another one of our most improved girls who does a great job of leading by example is senior team captain Leah Abercrombie.  She ran a solid 21:03 to finish 12 seconds ahead of Boston Latin’s 4th runner and she also beat the first Bedford girl.  Leah has improved so much that in workouts she has spent some time in among our top 4. She is a great example that hard work leads to improvement that you can be proud of.

We are back to being so deep that our JV team is strong enough to compete against and beat many varsity teams.  Our JV team will be among the very best in the loaded DCL and many runners will rotate into our varsity.  For the first time in a few years the number of varsity caliber runners that we have on our team exceeds the number that we are allowed to race at meets at every level.  Our JV team will enjoy a lot of success and this started with us taking the first 9 places against Bedford and Boston Latin.  Leda Olia who was on our state roster last year did not run with a sore foot and she is a viable varsity runner who could make our state team.

Junior Sarina Weiss and freshman Caraline Pham mirrored the efforts of Anna and Rebecca as they also helped each other over the entire race with Sarina setting the strong pace and finishing 2nd in 16:50.  It was nice to see Sarina look so strong as she battled with injury the entire last year and has worked hard to come back.  I actually told her “welcome back” with 150 meters to go and I was rewarded with a knowing smile as we both knew that she was running a race that she could be proud of.  Caraline Pham is a freshman with talent and a great attitude and she finished very strong to win the JV race in 16:50.  Junior Leah Jacobson is a girl that has a great approach to racing and is very consistent placing 3rd in 17:23.  

Sophomore Caroline Delheim is another girl who started as a sprinter and continued on our varsity team in the indoor and spring seasons as a member of our 4 x 400. She has now moved into doing distance training.  She ran her first cross country race and looked very much in control finishing 4th in 17:24.

Freshmen Noosha Aliabadi 17:27, sophomore Louisa Kimmell 17:32, freshman Annika McGraw 17:55, freshman Amelia Stern 18:10 and sophomore Amy Gilbert 19:06 all had great races and rounded out the top 9 places.  This is a very dedicated pack of young kids and I am happy that each was rewarded with such a strong first meet of the season.  In 13th was one of our most improved girls in sophomore Audrey Hooker in 19:38.  Freshman Maia Fefer showed a lot of courage in finishing 20th in 21:00 as she was running with considerable knee pain.  Sophomore Laura Grosser earned a top 30 placing in 23:38 which is well ahead of her pace last year at this time.

Double dual meet NS v BL v Bedford

Newton South v Boston Latin v Bedford,
double dual meet at Newton South, Wed. 12 Sept 2012

Captain's report by Nicholas Reed:

The first race of the season always is a cause for apprehension but the training over the past few weeks payed off with both physical and mental discipline exhibited by team members. It was a good race by all and pulling out the win is always a bonus. However, looking beyond the win there were a lot of very strong performances by individuals, packs of runners, and the entire team as a whole. JV is looking quite strong- with a few runners who could participate at the varsity level. As to varsity we are exceptionally deep this year- there were a few hiccups as far as packs and pacing but as the season progresses we should have a pack of 4 or 5 runners up in the position I (Nicholas) came in today. Overall it was a fantastic start and is a good sign for the rest of the season.

Photos, results and more stories to come.
Photos by Dave Fineman
Boy's varsity team photo by Jon Olson

2012 XC season is about to start, Wednesday

The 1st NSHS XC meet of the 2012 season is
4:15 pm, Wednesday 12 Sept. @ NSHS
Order of events:
boys JV
girls varsity
boys varsity
girls JV
Go NSHS!
Please send me more details.
The 1st Milesplit poll is out today. 9 or 10 coaches take their best guestimate and rank the 1st 25 teams; 25 points for 1st and 1 point for 25th. Newton South girls are ranked 7th and boys 30th.
Link to Milesplit poll
OK, we need a few writers for short... or long blog entries as stories, reports, alum results, whatever. A captains quick report after each meet would be great. Parent or student photographers needed.