A well-calculated approach to the season. A well-calculated move at mile 2.
For the second straight year, Jack Graffeo is heading out west!
The Westford Academy senior continued his unbeaten season in a big way on Saturday morning. Making a decisive move with a mile remaining, Graffeo pulled away from a tight lead pack and went on to capture individual gold at the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals.
Graffeo was all alone coming down the final stretch at Franklin Park, crossing the line with a winning time of 14 minutes, 59.8 seconds for the five-kilometer layout The Colorado-bound runner was more than 15 ticks ahead of Phillips Andover (MA) Academy’s Tamrat Gavenas, who was timed in 15:15.1 for second.
Next up for Graffeo, the Foot Locker Nationals (FLN) on Dec. 14 at Balboa Park in San Diego where he’ll be joined on the line by three other runners with ties to the Bay State -Gavenas, Tyngsboro native and Bishop Guertin (NH) senior Matt Giardina (fourth, 15:26.1) and Falmouth junior Silas Gartner (tenth, 15:35.1).
“This whole year has been strategic,” said Graffeo, the recent Div. 1 Meet of Champions’ winner, who was competing in just his fifth race this fall. “We were really being strategic on what races I would choose, which ones I would race, and all that. I’m happy that the result is what it was because I knew the discipline I wanted to come away with. I know that two weeks from now, that’s what I want to come away with.”
Graffeo essentially led from the onset. The only difference is the first two miles he had slightly more company by his side. He led a bunched up pack through an opening mile of 4:41. With Gavenas by his side, he hit the second mile in 9:44.
Just 11 seconds separated the top 10 at that checkpoint.
That’s where Graffeo felt the time was right to say good-bye to his competition, pushing the pace on the slight uphill near two miles and then continuing that momentum to the finish.
“I’ve used that spot in the past,” said the two-time Foot Locker finalist. “It’s a really good part of the course. If you can mentally blow yourself through it, it’s a good spot to make a move.”
“I didn’t expect to feel as good as I did,” he added. “We have been doing a lot of strength-base sessions leading up to this race. I knew I had the strength to take any of these guys,”
After battling with the region’s best, Graffeo will now take on the nation’s elite at FLN. He has high hopes down in San Diego.
“I just want to do what I always do – go out and have some fun and hopefully get the win,” he said. “That would be nice to come out on top.”
Gavenas improved on his placement from last year by two spots and, like Graffeo, booked his second consecutive trip out west for the nationals.
The talented senior, a victor at the Manchester Invitational and NESPTA Division 1 Championships in his only other races this fall, had a slow start to his season due to an injury.
“I had plantar fasciitis, ” he said. “I was just trying to keep it healthy, stay off my foot a little bit and not run many race just because I didn’t want to get injured again. Coming into (today), I felt I could run fast.”
Gavenas proved that by matching Graffeo stride for stride during the initial mile.
“It was a little faster than I wanted to go,” he admitted. “But that’s what championship races are all about. They go out a little fast. You see it happen in the NCAA and you see it here. We’re getting to that level where we can go out fast and hold that pace.”
Two weeks after his top finish at last year’s regionals, Gavenas finished third at the nationals. He’s looking to possibly match (or exceed) what he did in 2023.
“I just want to be in the race and see what I can do,” he said “I am always trying to push myself. I’m always trying to be the best me I possibly can be.”
Giardina will be competing in two championship meets in the weeks ahead. He’s heading to the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Ore., this coming weekend after qualifying last Saturday at NXR-Northeast with a seventh-place finish.
Giardina felt competing last week helped him in his latest conquest.
“I felt ready,” he said. “I think racing last week and doing well there definitely gave me some confidence going into this. I felt ready going in. It didn’t both me at all.”
The Panthers’ Gartner solidified the final qualifying spot with his tenth-placing showing. He was six seconds ahead of the next finisher.
Gartner generally hovered in seventh though tenth throughout the race.
“We came out and it was kind of a big pack,” he said. “There was four guys that kind of went ahead and there was me and (five) people. I knew if I stayed with the pack I could probably get (a qualifier). With one mile to go, I looked back and there was no one behind me. I knew if I just stuck with the pack, I could get it. I came around the corner (for the final stretch) and finished strong.”
The Panther junior continued what’s been a splendid campaign on the trails this season. His performance on Saturday was just another example of how special it’s been for the recent Division 2 champion.
“I feel really excited. That’s what I wanted to do,” Gartner said. “I don’t think I was favored to finish in tenth place but I did it. I am really happy I did.”
In the girls’ race, Amelia Alvazzi of Phillips Academy Andover was the first MA finisher, taking 13th overall in 18:30.9. She was followed by Oxford’s Cameron Davis (18th, 18:38.1) and Cambridge Rindge & Latin’s Aoife Shovlin (21st, 18:41.0).
