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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

Masco boys cross country still undefeated – Pentucket girls cross country loses tight one

Jay Polakiewicz, Liam Davis, Marco Caserta, and Jake Moorman approach the finish line for undefeated Masconomet.

Rebecca Morse finishes first.

(Topsfield) No question that Hamilton-Wenham has the best girls cross country team in the Cape Ann League and probably in the state.

The question of which girls team was second best was decided yesterday afternoon at Bradley Palmer State Park as Masconomet (8-1) edged Pentucket (7-2), 27-28.

Fiona Davis of Manchester-Essex finished 5th overall but her placement is not included in the scoring between Masco and Pentucket. Fiona fooled me because she was wearing a green shirt and I thought she was with Pentucket and was part of a 26-30 Sachem win.

As I saw it, the race within the race was over positions 5-8 between Masco and Pentucket and that was where the Chieftains Mila Zernich and Lily D’Agostino held off Sachems Brianna Repke and Emma Marchant. When the four runners went past the starting line partway through the race, they were close but by the end of the race there were sizable gaps and Masco had the key 5th and 6th spots.

Senior Rebecca Morse cruised to victory for Pentucket and has to be the favorite to win the Cape Ann League Open on October 29th back at Bradley Palmer.

The Masconomet (9-0) boys team remains undefeated with a convincing, 16-45, win. The top four runners finished together for Masco and Scott Gilfeather crossed 6th for the Chieftains to complete their scoring.

Four girls battle for 5th and 6th partway through the race.

Next week (October 19th) the Chieftains return to Bradley Palmer for a showdown with equally undefeated Newburyport. It will be nice to see how individual runners can do. I doubt that we’ll see runners from either squad slowing up so that they can finish side by side with teammates as both teams have done repeatedly this season.

This was my first look at the Sachems identical twins, Tom and Joe Labrecque. The only hope of telling them apart is that they wear different colored running shoes.

I chose this meet because after checking records I assumed that the Masco/Pentucket girls race would be a close one with something (2nd place in CAL) at stake. I also assumed that the boys race would be a mismatch, based on the records, but I would get a look at the undefeated Masco boys. I have seen the Newburyport boys win easily twice (North Andover & Hamilton-Wenham). Next Wednesday’s meet between Masco/Newburyport should be an excellent take.

I will admit that trying to cover yesterday’s cross country meet has been an adventure that only a retiree with time to spare could pursue to the end. The Newburyport News had the meet at Pentucket. I called Pentucket and they said the meet was at Bradley Palmer. I called Masconomet and was assured that the meet would be held at Bradley Palmer which was where Masco’s meets were held. I took pictures at the meet and assumed that the next day the Lawrence Eagle Tribune or the Newburyport Daily News would post the complete results which I could match with my pictures. Wrong again. That left me needing help to identify pictures and that’s where Patrick Mahoney (Masco boys) and Todd Ruland (Pentucket girls) came to my rescue. Thanks, gentlemen.

(I take my own pictures and collect my own information. In this entry two coaches helped me out. I am keen on being accurate and fair.)

The pictures in this entry assume normal size if you click on them. Enjoy.