The ultimate goal was a trip to Oregon for the nationals in two weeks..
While he fell short of earning that ticket at Saturday’s Nike Cross Regionals Northeast (NXR-NE), John Bianchi was still holding his head high after a more than satisfying performance against the region’s best. The Natick senior finished 12th overall in 15 minutes, 55.8 seconds on the demanding five-kilometer layout at Bowdoin Park.
“I’m really happy with how I did,” he said. “I gave it my all — that’s what I try to do every race. There’s a little bit of, ‘I kind of wanted to make NXN.’ But I gave it everything I have. I can’t really be mad about any part of the race.”
The recent MIAA Meet of Champions runner-up delivered a best at Bowdoin by more than 40 seconds than he did last year, when he placed 36th overall. With a full year of experience on the course, he came in with a race plan tailored to his strengths.
Bowdoin begins in a wide open field that quickly funnels into a narrow path roughly 400 meters into the race. The first half features a series of demanding hills before the course transitions into a gradual descent around the midway point. The final 800 meters flatten out, rewarding runners who have conserved enough energy to surge home.
“I kind of identified that I’m more of a downhill runner. I went out so I could keep the lead pack in sight. I wasn’t really in the lead pack—I was probably in the high 20s during the hill section, the first half of the race,” Bianchi said. “I really just tried to move up in the second half with all the downhills. That really helped me gain places and run a fast time.”
Finishing just ahead of the Redhawks standout was a familiar face — Landon Sarney of Oliver Ames. The Pirates’ senior, who edged past Bianchi in the final meters of the Division 1 race at the Meet of Champions, did it again on Saturday. He was just inches ahead of his rival, placing11th overall in 15:55.7.
“He actually came up to me in the last section of the race,” he said. “We kind of duked it out over the final stretch. It was pretty awesome that we were able to find each other and battle it out at the end.”
Finishing not far behind in 16:18.2, was Hopkinton’s Sean Finnegan. (Running under Hillers Track Club, apologies for missing him in the preview) Finnegan was third, behind Bianchi and Sarney at the Meet of the Champions, and was the third Bay State Runner at Bowdoin Park.
In the girls’ championship race, the 2–3 finishers from the Meet of Champions — Needham’s Greta Hammer and Lexington’s Jane Conrad — were the Bay State’s top harriers. Conrad got the best of her rival this time, placing tenth overall in 18:15.8. Hammer, last year’s NXR-NE runner-up, was close behind in 18:18.7, good for 12th place.
The race featured five athletes who broke 18 minutes on the demanding 5K layout, highlighted by a course-record performance of 17:00.6 from Lawrenceville School (NJ) junior Blair Barlett.
In the team competition, Division 1 champion Lexington placed sixth among 31 schools in the girls’ race with 199 points. Billerica followed in eighth with 246.
On the boys’ side, Concord-Carlisle finished eighth among 28 schools with 257 points, while Natick placed ninth, totaling 303 points.
One Response
First time attending NXR-NE and seems to me that the venue can’t handle the crowds. Parking backup to enter was a disaster and then during the races the only way to catch runners at the midpoint was to run up the road where cars and tour buses were inching along trying to exit through the crowds.
Traffic was an issue on the course too. Two years ago the girls NE championship race had 196 runners. Last year there were 229. This year there were 263 finishers with 31 of the top 100 unattached to a scoring team. What’s it going to look like if there are 300 runners next year?