Sunday, November 10th: USATF New England XC Championships: Franklin Park in Boston, MA
 
Ladies’ Recap:
By Nicole Falcaro

After dominating their last appearance at Franklin Park two weeks ago at Mayor’s Cup, the women’s team returned to Franklin Park this weekend to prove they weren’t a won hit wonder at the USATF New England XC Championships. This time, the women let the dogs out and raced the 6k version of the course. Though the team’s usual top runners are recovering from the uphill Dash to the Finish Line, the women took second place as a team. Unfortunately, it was a bitter sweet symphony, as they could not collect any winning$ because they aren’t in the New England region, but it was worth seeing this tainted love Christina Argueta noticed in the results:

What they wrote in the women’s team results =

image1

What they wrote in the men’s team results =
image2
Averages and verb tenses are hard.

Leading the team was (rico) suave Andrea Bradshaw with a 10th place showing in 21:51. Debuting for Central Park for the first time was Alyssa Selmquist who was 7 seconds behind Andrea in 21:58. The 6k course built strength and mettle, as it included two runs up the infamous Bear Cage Hill. “I had a great time at the race,” Alyssa tubthumps. “It was nice to meet some more members of CPTC and compete as a team. The hill was tough the second time around, but the downhill really helped propel you to the finish line.”

bradshaw

 

Andrea led the women’s team to a second place overall finish, running on leaves as crunchy as an environmentally conscious vegan hippie.

Photo Credit: Amanda Wright

Christina Argueta was next for the Orange and Blue, taking 15th place overall in 22:05. Hannah, Steph, and Nicole decided to relax the first mile, which left enough to whip it the extra kilometer. Hannah reported that “after running conservatively for the first mile, Steph and I found ourselves running with a great little pack for much of the race and we were able to keep pressing forward and moving up. Even though I couldn’t quite hang with her at the end, it was great to have a little Stephanie by my side during those middle miles! It was also awesome to have Cat out there cheering us on!”

steph

 

Steph runs by a bib number she ripped off a competitor.

Photo : Sue Pearsall

start women

The start of the race on grass as soft as your mama’s pudding.

Photo Credit: Amanda Wright

The next XC race on the schedule is the NYRR Fred Lebow [Too Se]XC Championships this Sunday at Van Cortlandt Park at 11:30am. Jai Ho!

Results:

=====================================================================
         Name                Age Team                    Finals 
=====================================================================
 10 #341 Andrea Bradshaw      25 Central Park            X21:51
 12 #441 Alyssa Selmquist     22 Central Park            X21:58
 15 #340 Christina Argueta    24 Central Park            X22:05
 19 #342 Nicole Falcaro       26 Central Park            X22:23
 24 #343 Stephanie Herrick    26 Central Park            X22:42
 29 #344 Hannah Rose          23 Central Park            X22:53

Men’s Recap:

By Matt Lacey

After hours of hitting refresh on the Massachusetts Race Results page of Coolrunning.com, I was eventually rewarded with the proof of our men’s team’s efforts at the New England Championships. I was also immediately alarmed by the giant ‘X’ next to the names and times of only our runners, and began imagining the scenarios that could have gone wrong, the most likely being another course malfunction (but why did it only effect CPTC!?!). I also did not rule out people getting lost on the drive up and having to start the race later than the rest of the field, or the violation of some uniform regulation that 99% of the people in attendance had no clue existed.
Fortunately the “X’s” merely stem from the fact that the insular clubs of New England do not want to be challenged in team results by a club from an adjacent metropolitan area, and thus all worries were put to rest.
In the meantime, it was clear that CPTC ran a very smart team race, with runners 1-4 separated by only 15 seconds. Jon Wetzel once again led the charge, capping off his 10k effort in 32:38, followed closely by Stan Berkow in 32:41. Will Davis was nipping at Stan’s heels, coming through in 32:47, leading the way for his compatriot on their pre-dawn Sunday morning drive, Jonevan Hornsby, in 32:53. The “scoring” 5 was rounded out by cross country veteran John Kenworthy, who once again trekked it from Albany in order to don his orange singlet. It must also be mentioned that Taylor Burmeister made his CPTC debut in 35:01, and Herbert Plummer came up 5 seconds short of his overall 10k PR with a time of 37:00.
WetzelNEs
Jonathan Wetzel leads the men’s team with the stairway to heaven in the background.
Photo Credit: Rod Hemmingway
After two trips to Boston in the last three weeks, it must come as a great relief that this week’s cross country offering is much closer to home, the Fred Lebow Cross Country Championships, a 5k in Van Cortlandt Park on Sunday, November 17th.
=======================================================================
    Name                     Age Team                    Finals  Points
=======================================================================
 28 #207 Jonathan Wetzel      26 Central Park            X32:39
 32  #50 Stan Berkow          24 Central Park            X32:42
 34  #51 William Davis        28 Central Park            X32:48
 38  #52 Jonevan Hornsby      36 Central Park            X32:54
 62  #53 John Kenworthy II    26 Central Park            X34:12
 71 #477 Taylor Burmeister    26 Central Park            X35:02
 96  #55 Herbert Plummer      31 Central Park            X37:00