Ready or not, here we come!
The final meet before next weekend’s divisional state championships proved that some of our key athletes are certainly READY to face the best in their respective competitions with their performances at Saturday’s Frank Mooney Coaches Invitational.
Newton South certainly made a case for itself that its recent omittance from the boys’ MSTCA Division 1 Coaches Poll may have been an oversight with an impressive performance in the Large School Senior 5K. The Lions swept the top four placements with all clocking sub-16 minute efforts. And their No. 5 was just over a second from doing the same. Senior Thomas Flaig held off fellow classmate Alex Friedman to take individual honors with a PR of 15:27.2 Friedman crossed the line at 15:29.74. The Lions next three were junior Gavin MacDonald (third, 15:48.18), junior Nolan Harris (fourth, 15:51.05) and junior Dashiell Martin (seventh, 16:01.02).
Whitinsville Christian’s Emily Flagg defended her crown in the Small School Junior/Senior 5K with a PR and triumphant 17:21.92, the No. 2 all-time best at the Wrentham Developmental Center, site of this weekend’s meet. The Crusaders’ tenth-grader, who will be competing in the Division 2C Championships next Saturday, had some company with two others in the sub-18 club – Oxford’s Cameron Davis (second, 17:43.82) and Holliston’s Maggie Kuchman (third, 17:49.17). In all, a dozen broke 19 minutes in this race.
There were no one touching our girls’ Large School winners in both the Junior and Senior 5K races. In the former, Westford Academy’s Emily Wedlake was 50 second ahead of her closest pursuer, breaking the tape with a solid 18:31.2 effort. Central Catholic’s Madeline Courtemanche was nearly a quarter mile ahead of the pack in the Senior race where she was timed in a best of 18:15.7.
Catholic Memorial’s Michael Upton made it back-to-back victories at the Mooney Invitational with his triumph in the Large School Junior 5K. Upton, the Sophomore 5K victor in 2023, breezed to a PR of 15:45, which was more than a minute faster that when he ran last year at this meet.
Just as she’s done for most of the season, Melrose’s Reilly Powell took care of business in her race. Powell claimed the crown in the Small Scholl Sophomore 5K where she powered to a time of 19:29.7.
