Tag Archives: Kerry Phelan

October 29, 2011 · 7:18 pm

Hamilton-Wenham Girls and Newburyport Boys Win 2011 Cape Ann League Cross Country Championships

Kerry Phelan (HW) first

Alex Sullivan (North Andover) first

(Topsfield) In a world with few certainties, the Hamilton-Wenham girls cross country team is the exception……..they show up and they win. They have now put in seven consecutive unbeaten Cape Ann League seasons after winning the Cape Ann League Cross Country Championships at chilly/rainy Bradley Palmer State Park on Saturday afternoon.

The undefeated Newburyport boys saved their best race of the season for this race as they placed four runners in the top six finishers and handily dispatched second-place Masconomet by 26 points.

Rebecca Morse (666), Sarah Kieran (163) and Kerry Phelan (113)

Individually, the girls race for the top spot looked a lot like last year minus Alison Lanois (she’s now a freshman at Dartmouth). Rebecca Morse (2nd last year), Sarah Kiernan (3rd last year), and Kerry Phelan (4th last year) ran together ahead of the field with the final outcome in serious doubt.

You get four looks at the runners. Somewhere between the 3rd and 4th look, Kerry made her move to finish first at 18:46. Kerry was 15th in 2010 and improved her time by nearly 1 ½ minutes.

The race for second was settled on the mini-Heartbreak Hill just before the finish line as Mackenzie Shelgren ran down Sarah Keiran. Mackenzie was well off the three leaders for much of the race.

Rebecca Morse struggled in at 4th after losing only one race (to Sarah Kieran) all season.

Freshman Emily Weigand of HW rounded out the top five.

The HW girls winning total was 34 with finishes of 1st (Kerry Phelan), 5th (Emily Weigand), 7th (Claire Pacione), 10th (Meg Blatchford), and 11th (Emily Horgan).

The Masco girls ended up 2nd with 76 points while Pentucket was 3rd with 97 points.

battle for 2nd early on

Individually on the boys side, it was Alex Sullivan, of North Andover, and the battle for second. Undefeated all season, Alex took the lead early and won by fifteen seconds (16:23). Alex improved twelve spots over his 13th place finish in 2010.

The Newburyport trio of Keith Conway, Chris Suprin, and Nick Carleo battled among themselves for second and in the process put a damper on any thought 9-1 Masconomet might have had of a team upset. The Clipper threesome finished in that order in front of 5th place Marco Caserta of Masco.

Another Clipper, Joe Santo (6th) outran two other Masco runners (James Polakiewicz – 7th & Jake Moorman – 8th). When Chris Orlando arrived in 12th the deal was settled for Newburyport with 27 points.

Max Vye led Newburyport to victory in the the JV boys event.

Hamilton-Wenham took home first in the JV girls division.

The next two weekends have high school cross country events at Franklin Park including the state meet in two weeks. I might have to go to the state meet to see if the HW girls can collect a title.

This site has complete results from the 2011 Cape Ann League cross country championship.

(I collect my own stats and take my own pictures. I own any mistakes on this entry.) Clicking on the pictures enlarges them to normal size.

Keith Conway 2nd

Chris Suprin (492) 3rd & Nick Carleo 4th

Marco Caserta (292) 5th & Joe Santo (488) 6th

Mackenzie Shelgren catches Sarah Kieran (163) for 2nd

Rebecca Morse 4th

Emily Weigand 5th

Newburyport Boys and Hamilton-Wenham Girls Remain Undefeated in Cross Country

Two of the best cross country coaches around (Don Hennigar & Steve Sawyer) matched up at Maudslay State Park and both came away with a reason to smile.

(Newburyport) Two of the best, and I’m not just writing about the coaches, won easily at Maudslay State Park on a pleasant Wednesday afternoon in Cape Ann League cross country competition.

Chris Suprin (16:02) surged down the stretch to nip teammate Keith Conway for the win.

Don Hennigar’s undefeated Newburyport boys team (4-0) stayed that way capturing the first five spots. Steve Sawyer’s undefeated Hamilton-Wenham girls team (4-0) crossed the finish line in a six-member, first place blanket. Thanks to HW athletic secretary Dianne Bucco for identifying the girls in the picture for me.

HW stuck the Clipper boys with their only regular season loss in 2010.

Chris Suprin’s late race surge was enough to edge teammate Keith Conway for first place by a second – 16:01.

(Left-to-Right) Clair Pacione, Emily Weigand, Meg Blatchford, Emily Horgan, Kerry Phelan, and Sarah Duffy finish together.

The HW girls finished in what looked like a normal workout mode with no effort made to lunge ahead late. The official gave the six HW girls the finishing cards and told them to sort out the order of finish among themselves.

(I collect my own information and take my own pictures. I make a serious attempt to be accurate. Mistakes can happen.) Clicking on a picture will increase its viewing size.

Kevin Rutigliano (14th)

Jack Blatchford (9th)

Dan Von Staats (8th)

Michael Allara (7th)

Matt Gillis (6th)

Chris Orlando (5th)

Nick Carleo (4th)

Joe Santo (3rd)

Kiley Knowlton (7th)

Kelly Conway (9th)

Erin Carroll (10th)

Kristin Mackey (12th)

Madeline Moore (13th)

Hamilton-Wenham sweeps at the 2010 Cape Ann League Cross Country Championships

Alison Lanois (HW) takes girls title after finishing second in 2009

Kieran Kinnare (Ipswich) continues undefeated with a win at the Cape Ann League championships

(Topsfield) The Newburyport boys cross country team was dominating (taking the first seven places) but that was in the Cape Ann League JV championships at sunny, cool (low 50s), breezy Bradley Palmer Park on Saturday morning.

At the varsity level, however, the Clippers (11-1) had to settle for another second to Hamilton-Wenham (12-0) – 51-62. HW had won an earlier matchup, 23-32, at Patton Park on September 29th.

The HW girls were winners in convincing fashion…….as they’ve been all season. In this undefeated season, the Generals were 1-5 in eight of their twelve victories. Today they were 1-4-7-8-9 which was more than enough for the CAL championship.

Alison Lanois was the winner (as pictured above) and the makeup of the top four finishers was in place by the time the runners passed the starting line area for the first time. The picture shows Alison (#1133), Kerry Phelan (#1140), Sarah Kieran (#1186) and a hidden Rebecca Morse (#1973) all bunched together. Later there would be separation as the gap at the finish shows between Alison and Rebecca.