McChesney Report

We have had the most rocky road into the Ea. Ma. Championship that I can remember for a long time.

I counted up 56 days of missed practice among our top 5, mostly with illness.  We also had a non running related concussion and ankle sprain to prolong our time off.

Our kids have been so resolute during so many set backs. I am extremely proud of them.

Our team qualified for the All State meet for the 20th time in my 22 years at Newton South. I have never appreciated a team accomplishing that feat nearly as much as I have this year.  I truly admire this team for what they have faced and how dedicated they have remained to their goals and how positive they stayed.  This team made it in spite of so much adversity simply because they truly and deeply believed in each other.  I am humbled by their efforts and could not be more proud of such a fine group of young athletes.

To go to All States from Eastern Ma. a team must place in the top 4 teams in one of 3 Division Championships.  There is also one wild card spot for the fastest 5th place team among the 3 Divisions. Only the 5th place team in each of the three division can earn the wild card spot based on fastest team time so we edged NN out to take 3rd in D. I.  Plymouth North and Woburn were the other two 5th place teams and we edged them out with a total team time of 1:38:22 , 19:41 average to Woburn 1:38:42, 19:45 average and Plymouth North 1:38:46, 19:46 average.

 Last year we finished 3 points and a few seconds out of the wild card spot after a long wait to find out the results. We were deeply disappointed.  

From the start of this season our team has been on a mission to get back to the All State meet. Along the way we finished our regular season with a record of 7-1 and a share of the DCL regular season championship.  But it has never been easy.  We were only able to field our full top 5 in 2 of our 9 meets leading up to Ea. Ma.  We went to 3 invitationals and the DCL championship missing key members of our top 5 and through it all we kept sight of our goal of making it to All State. A big reason we were able to look ahead was the great contributions of our other kids stepping up.  Our 6th through our 15th girls filled in time after time and kept us moving in the right direction.  We went to so many meets short handed, but we still competed at a high level.  Six of our Seven regular season wins were achieved with kids filling in for our top runners.  That is pretty remarkable.

Going into Ea. Ma. our team knew that they had gone through the worst and finally were a complete team.  We had confidence that we would make it to All State and early in the race it showed as we got a good start.

Then we had one final mishap.  Katie Collins had her shoe torn off by another runner through no fault of her own  (I got to see the shoe after we recovered it and it was still triple knotted and tightly tied) prior to the first mile.  Katie has been with or ahead of Lucrecia and Clare all season and at our big dual against Weston she was our 2nd runner and at DCL she was our 3rd.  She had to run over 2 miles with one shoe and only a sock on the other foot which is not only painful and could cause injury, but also does not allow her to get the traction that the spikes and waffle surfaces that her shoes provide.  It makes the race a lot tougher and more dangerous.  

Katie ran such a brave race and as Lucrecia said prior to knowing the results "If we get to States we all owe it to Katie".  

Rebecca, Lucrecia and Clare ran by far their best races of the season in finishing  3rd, 12th and 16th.  All finished higher than they were ranked going in and the strength of our top 3 seperated us from most teams.  Lucrecia was in 17th place going into the last mile and she passed 5 runners in the last half mile.  That was huge as we made states by 3 points.  But Katie's race was just as big as many kids in her situation would have fallen back more or dropped out. Katie's loss did cost several places, but she kept a bad situation from getting worse with her determination and courage.  She willed herself and our team forward in a way that is so inspiring.  Anna, Matia and Midori held onto their positions in the final in a way that gave us our chance to move on.  This was a total team effort and all of the girls should be extremely proud of their season and this race.

So once again we found ourselvs wondering again if we had made it and that hour or so that it takes meet managment to verify results seemed like a very long time once again.  Had another racer not taken Katie's shoe and she could have run a normal race we would have scored comfortably in the top 4 and the wait would not have been so anxious.

When the results were posted I was nervous to look.  When I saw that we had made the wild card by 22 seconds I had very mixed feeling, but the strongest feeling was pride in our girls.  I knew that we could have taken a top 3 spot, but for a shoe flying off.  But I was also thrilled to be able to tell the girls that they were going to All State and when I did they all jumped up and screamed for joy.  It was a great moment that was so well earned many times over.

19 teams from Central Ma., Western Ma. and Ea. Ma have now qualified for the All State meet.  We earned the only wild card birth in the state, but we still ran a faster race than 3 of the teams from Eastern Ma. and a faster race than 5 out of the 6 teams from Central and the West.  I told our kids that if they can all finish with their shoes at All State we could finish in the top 10.

Results can be found on Milesplit Ma.  There is also a video of the race on Milesplit Ma. and youtube showing much of the race and Katie racing without a shoe.

3. Rebecca Grusby So  18:48  ties season best

12. Lucrecia Aguilar  Sr 19:12  PR (she has a 18:58 PR at Twilight last year, but this is a faster mark based on the course)

16. Clare Martin Fr  19:23  PR

39. Katie Collins Fr 20:11

59. Anna Rhatigan Sr  20:47

69. Matia Whiting Jr  21:08

70. Midori Sangiolo Fr  21:11

1. Lowell  80

2. Weymouth 93

3. Peabody  103

4. Lexington 114

5. Newton South  129

6. Newton North  132

7. Andover  185

8. Brookline  210

9. Haverhill  223

10. Methuen  261

11. Acton-Boxborough  303

12. Westford  325

13. Malden  373  

14. Cambridge R & L  386

15. Taunton  466

16. New Bedford  473

17. Brockton  492

18. Framingham 510

19. Snowden

Best,

Steven