Manchester-Essex High School | McClelland Miscellanea

Tag Archives: Manchester-Essex High School

July 4, 2011 · 9:44 pm

Jonny Wilson Wins 35th 4 on the 4th Road Race in Bridgton

Jonny Wilson on his way to winning the 35th 4 on the 4th.

Chris Harmon (#1924), Richard Klauber (#1625), and Jonny Wilson (#1516) at the start.

(Bridgton ME) Jonny Wilson from Falmouth (ME) and the University of Richmond won the 35th 4 on the 4th road race on Monday morning at Bridgton in 20:19.

A record-setting 1849 runners finished the race on an overcast morning with temperatures close to 70 degrees at the muggy 8AM start. In typical Maine weather fashion, the temperatures rose into the 80s by early afternoon before a rowdy thunder/lightning storm appeared in mid-afternoon only to be followed by very pleasant temps in the upper 70s later in the afternoon. The good news was that the warm weather and the showers didn’t show up until after the race was over.

The first five finishers (Jonny Wilson, Richard Klauber, Christopher Harmon, John Vallo, and Sean Livingston) ran from the turn onto Main Street past The Magic Lantern with comfortable cushions between each other.

Jonny’s lead was a little difficult to gauge because the police escort came down part of the hill before turning off. Once the escort left it was clear that Jonny (red shirt senior on this year’s Spider track team) was not going to be caught by Richard Klauber. Last year’s winner, Phil Richert (19:58), was past The Magic Lantern before another runner appeared at the top of the hill.

Pickles Lajoie in 6th with plenty of competition closing fast.

The final positioning for places 6-11 (Pickles Lajoie, Silas Eastman, Tim Even, Erica Jesseman, Pete Bottomley, and John Barbour) was settled after the Magic Lantern. Pickles had 6th going past me but had to run for his life after Reny’s to keep that spot.

Tim Even made up at least three spots after he passed by me.

My wife and I always are on hand at the start to make our winner selections. She had Phil Richert last year! This time she went with Richard Klauber who finished second. I went with Tim Even. He finished fifth last year but this time lost contact with the top five and had to sprint in the last hundred yards to get 8th.

John Vallo (4th), Pickles Lajoie (6th), and Tim Even (8th) all were connected to the University of Southern Maine’s track team this past season.

Christopher Harmon (3rd) was a senior at Maine this year and part of their track program.

Sean Livingston (5th) won this race in 2005 and 2006. The 42-year-old from Barrington, Rhode Island coaches cross country at Roger Williams University in Bristol (RI).

Silas Eastman with Erica Jesseman gaining ground on the left.

Silas Eastman (7th) is only 16. He was 6th last year and 7th the year before as a 14-year-old. He’ll be a senior at nearby Fryeburg Academy in the fall.

Erica Jesseman (9th) was the top woman finisher this year, last year, and in 2006. The former UNH runner dropped nearly a minute off her time (23:06) last year to this year (22:10).

Pete Bottomley (10th) finished ninth last year. The 49-year-old started running as a senior at Oxford (ME) Hills and then went on to make the cross country team at Maine.

John Barbour (11th) is a 57-year-old who qualified in 1988 and 1996 for the Olympic Marathon Trials. Recently he started an indoor track team at Manchester-Essex High school in Manchester, Massachusetts. He lives in Gloucester (MA).

Kristin Barry was top Maine woman runner at 2010 Beach to the Beacon 10K

Kristin Barry (12th) helped run the Cheverus track program this school year. She is 37 and the mother of two. She was a very successful runner at Dartmouth before going to Georgetown to become a lawyer. Last year she was the 10th woman finisher at the Beach to Beacon 10K and the first female Mainer to cross the finish line.

I am not a professional photographer but like the proverbial blind squirrel I do happen into an acorn occasionally! I do not charge for any of the pictures you see in this entry. I will send pictures via email to anyone interested. My email address is in the CONTACT at the top of the blog page.

(Any of my statistical information and caption information is unofficial.)

Henry Osborn (11)

Mark O'Horo (7)

Tim Even

Tim Even and John Barbour

Pete Bottomley (right)

Erica Jesseman

Manchester-Essex Rolls Past Matignon 93-48 to the North D4 Semi-Finals

Chris Bishop – career high 34 points and a terrific defensive job

(Manchester) If you were looking for drama you were at the right place (Manchester-Essex High School) on Saturday night. The Massachusetts High School Drama Festival was held there.

For those of us in the packed gymnasium there was little, if any, drama as the Hornets had everything working and routed Matignon, 93-48, in the D4 North quarter finals.

The Hornets are now three wins away from winning the state Division 4 title. Remember that there are only D4 tournaments in the North and South. The upper three divisions have a Central and a West also, so they play more games to sort their champion out.

M-E’s North semi-final opponent is St. Mary’s of Lynn. The Hornets have played them twice, losing at home in December and winning at St. Mary’s on February 14th. Also still alive are Georgetown and Winthrop. The Hornets split with G’town during the Cape Ann League season.

Chris Bishop (#4) connected on six 3’s

M-E (17-4) led undramatically in this one from beginning to end and how fitting it was that Chris Bishop (34 points) should score first (on a layup). The 6’1” junior had a career night burying six three’s in 2 ½ quarters of playing time. Matignon played a lot of zone defense and their fear of Joe Mussachia (and his 24.7 scoring average) led to abundant open looks for everyone else. On this night Chris took full advantage.

By the time Chris scored his last points, the Hornets had a 67-33 advantage and there still were 1 ½ quarters to play.

Matignon (14-7) trailed just 19-13 after a quarter and certainly promising for them was the fact that Joe Mussachia had already picked up two fouls.

Even with Joe on the pines at the start of the second quarter M-E started to do everything right and the Warriors could do nothing to stop them.

The Hornets pressure continually and the Warriors had eleven turnovers in the second quarter. They were actually only able to get off seven shots and connected only once.

Down the other end, M-E missed its first seven shots and then went 11-for-18 rolling up an amazing thirty-three points. Chris had seventeen of the points. And if you really want to talk about great offense – the Hornets tallied twenty-seven points in their last eleven possessions. I guess you could say they had it going!

The lead was 52-25 at the half and I doubt that any in the sweltering crowd gave Matignon a chance for a comeback in the second half. The Hornets were just too good on both ends of the court on this day. M-E led, 78-40, after three periods.

Ron Slager was held to six points after getting 22 in the Warriors win in the first round. He had Chris Bishop defending him for some of the time.

Junior Bob Crane led Matignon scorers with twenty points. His life became a whole lot easier when his defender (Joe Mussachia) picked up his second foul in the first quarter.

Joe Mussachia – thirteen points and a slew of rebounds and assists

Amherst-bound Joe ended up with thirteen points in limited minutes. I don’t have his rebound or assist totals but I’d guess he was close to a triple/double. He may have assisted on all of Chris Bishop’s three’s.

Joe Burgess came off the bench and tallied ten points.

The student section was decked in white shirts. They all filed out before the game was over and then rushed back onto the court to congratulate the players when the game ended.

It was my first time seeing the indoor part of the M-E facility. The lighting was excellent as well as the seating. However, there seemed to be no way to vent the heat that the crowd created. I’ve put on a few pounds this winter so sweating was actually a positive!