This weekend’s regional championship takes place at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, NY. The top two teams, and top five individuals not on a qualifying team earn at a spot at Nike NXN Nationals in Oregon.
Schedule
Girls Open Race 10:45
Boys Open Green 11:20
Boys Open Blue 11:55
Boys Championship Race is at 1:50 PM
Girls Championship Race is at 2:25 PM
The race will be streamed live at Runnerspace (you will need a +plus subscription).
Four Reasons to watch this weekend’s races:
- Support the Bay State.
While the rivalries may still exist, at large, for fans of the sport this weekend should be about Massachusetts putting itself on the map. Despite some recent runs of success on the national level, the Bay State doesn’t get a lot of credit outside New England. Lexington did make it onto the DyeStat regional rankings this week and are currently third. The Brookline Boys are fourth.
This weekend the rest of the Northeast, and the country, will get to see how good these teams are. And it’s not just the two Meet of Champions victors. We think they’re 5-6 teams from the Bay State that have a shot at top five, and 2-3 have a shot a national qualifying spot.
- Greta Hammer’s swan song.
While this will hopefully be her second to last high school race, you never really know how many chances you’ll get to see her race. Hammer has had an outstanding career for the Needham Rockets. While she may have finished runner up to Abby Hennessy on multiple occasions this season, her career has been historically great.
She was runner up at this meet last year as a junior. She is #2 all time at Fort Devens. #3 All Time at Wrentham. Adding two-time national qualifier to her resume would be icing on the cake.
- Sarney vs Bianchi 2
Last week’s Boys D1 race had one of the best finishes ever between Oliver Ames Landon Sarney and Natick’s John Bianchi. The two will square off again at Bowdoin Park this weekend. While Bianchi will be trying to lead his team to glory, he’ll surely keep an eye out for whatever singlet Sarney is wearing. Both Athletes can earn a qualifying spot. After last week, who knows what Sarney is capable of. Keep in mind he was the only Massachusetts runner to take down Nate Assa in a two-mile last year. If he’s around with 200m to go, all bets are off.
- Lexington vs Billerica 2
Weymouth’s Coach Miller wrote a great piece this week putting this budding rivalry into perspective with some great teams of the past. While Lexington had a decisive victory last week, it could be closer this week. However, what makes these two teams unique is that they should return their full lineups next season. This weekend’s battle could be a preview of something even greater to come.
