Cullen Claims Conference Crown! Girls' Team Finishes First; Boys Fourth at BSC Meet.

Girls leaders just before the 1 mile mark.

Leading up to the Bay State Conference Championships the Needham girls' cross country team was 11-0.  They had beaten everyone in the league, they had finished fourth at Theford, second at Amherst and won the Twilight Invitational and yet they still felt like there was something left to prove.  And so they proved it, winning the meet with a score of 35 points, 29 ahead of both Newton North and Weymouth.  If beating all the teams in the BSC during head-to-head competition was unprecedented, winning the conference meet outright with the lowest team score of any winning team in the last eight years was unheard of.  In fact, the Rockets were so dominant that if the conference meet was scored like a dual with every other team combining their efforts to make one "super-team", Needham still would have taken it 28-29!

Margie Cullen sprinting to win!

As the gun went off and a horde of girls sprinted across the field at Coakley Middle School in Norwood, Needham went straight to the front.  Passing the one mile mark at 5:50 was Margie Cullen and Natick's Sarah Lagan with Caroline Turner, Sarah Armstrong and Julianna Donovan as well as Newton North's Evie Heffernan and Sonya Jampel and Weymouth's Ashley Betts in arrears.  Cullen and Lagan held down the accelerator while battling back and forth for the lead and began to string the field out.  But it was Needham's fantastic four that kept the pace and the pressure high and slowly the front pack splintered apart with only Lagan able to keep up.  With just over a half mile to go, Cullen threw the knockout punch and ran away to a solo win covering the 5k course in 18:50 and becoming the first freshman to win the BSC meet since Ashley Davidson of Natick in the fall of 2000.  Lagan held on to finish 2nd in 18:54 with Armstrong and Donovan claiming 3rd and 4th respectively.  Turner who has been strong for the Rockets all season overcame an off day to finish 8th in 19:27 and Hallie Armstrong ran tough to place 19th.  Katie Horton and Rachel Blautein rounded out the scoring for Needham placing 21st and 24th.

While the boys' team didn't make quite the waves that the girls did, they still put up a very solid showing despite running without three of their top seven and utilizing a conservative team approach.  Team records in the Bay State Conference are decided during the regular season dual meets.  Thus the conference meet serves as little more than an exhibition with potential bragging rights going to any team that avenges a regular season loss.  The NHS boys hope to qualify for the All-State Championships held in three weeks at Northfield Mountain but before that goal becomes a reality, there are several hurdles they need to get over between now and then including getting healthy.

The boys run relaxed.

Boys leaders

As the race got under way, a pack of blue and gold eased off the starting line at a pedestrian pace.  Conversely, Newton North's Gabe Montague took the race by the scruff of the neck and proceeded to hammer the first couple of miles towing along a pack of four including teammate Mike Schlichting, Wellesley's Danny Palladino and Weymouth's Nolan Parsley.  Parsley seemed to be the class of the field with a recent win in the McIntyre Twilight invitational and a 2 mile PR on the track of 9:26 but it was Montague (perhaps spurred on by the presence of his teammate) that kept pushing the pace.  Meanwhile behind the front pack, Needham's Tyler Hagen and Adrian Amaya battled with Brookline's Jesse Fajnzylber and Framingham's Brian Gilligan for best of the rest.  Further back in the field,  captain Zak Heier, Alex Elman, Ben Baron, Mike Newfield and Brendan Gillis bided their time waiting for the right moment to make their move.  Just after two miles the pack of five began working their way up through the field before ultimately finishing 30th, 32nd, 37th, 39th and 40th.  Meanwhile, Amaya and Hagen gave the Rockets a strong one-two punch by finishing 7th and 8th in 16:31 and 16:34 respectively.  Even with a rather modest effort the boys' team managed to place 4th overall merely falling short to Newton North, Brookline and Wellesley.

Haley Filippine leads teammates Alex Clifford and Emily Wills.

There were several other top ten finishes for the Rockets including a second place by Alex Turner in the boys' Freshmen race.  Turner sprinted off the line and led nearly from start to finish before ultimately getting out kicked by Natick's Chris Peabody.  Both athletes were timed at 8:45 for the 2.5k distance.  Alex Cohen also finished well placing 6th in the same event.

In the boys' JV 5k, Drew Khalaj competed well finishing 4th overall in a personal best time of 17:26.  Finishing behind Khalaj but still garnering top twenty honors were Jack Strollo, Cal Fleming, Nathan Maynard and Derek Howes.  In the girls' JV race, Haley Rayment ran straight to the front of the pack while teammate Haley Filippine took a more cautious approach.  In the end, both athletes prevailed with Filippine finishing in 9th and Rayment taking 12th.

Full results can be found at: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/12/ma/Oct27_BaySta_set1.shtml.

Next up for the Rockets is the MSTCA Coaches Invitational at the Developmental Center in Wrentham.  The meet is Saturday November 3rd and is scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m.

A victorious girls' team poses for the paparazzi.

Photos courtesy of Kim Benner and Ken Horton.

Girls Win First BSC Title in Program History! Boys Finish Regular Season at 9-2.

Bay State Conference Champions: Girls finish regular season 11-0.

Turner on her way to victory.

Coach O'Connell

Tuesday October 23rd, Needham hosted their final home meet of the season against the Wellesley Raiders and both Rocket teams came out victorious.  The girls' team entered the meet undefeated in conference competition and continued to do what they've done all season long: win.  Caroline Turner, Margie Cullen, Sarah Armstrong, Julianna Donovan and Rachel Blaustein eased into the race on the first lap running just off the pace of Wellesley's Eileen Monagle and Valerie Collins.  To the uninitiated spectator, it would appear that Wellesley was in control as several more of their athletes filled in behind.  On the second lap however, Collins began to fade as the quartet of Turner, Cullen, Armstrong and Donovan continued to stalk their prey.  With 400 meters remaining, Needham threw in a surge and caught the tiring Wellesley runner.  To Monagle's credit, as all five athletes sprinted for the line, she held onto 4th place to prevent a complete Needham sweep.  None-the-less, Turner a senior,  finished fastest to win in 20:41 in her final race at Cutler Park.  Armstrong and Cullen finished 2nd and 3rd with Donovan 5th.  Blaustein finished 8th, Daria Fortin 11th and Erica Koljonen 14th in Needham's 19-36 rout of Wellesley. 

The boys' race on the other hand could not have been more different.  Both teams entered the meet with a record of 8-2 but having been dealt losses by different teams.  Needham's Adrian Amaya and Tyler Hagen ran straight to the front with Wellesley's Danny Palladino.  Behind the front-running trio, a sea of Wellesley and Needham runners flowed over the paths and trails of Cutler Park.  The Rockets ran tough to finish in alternating order as Amaya lowered his own course record for the third time this season finishing in 16:24 with Palladino a close second in 16:26.  Hagen finished a solid 3rd in 16:44, Tommy Kelley 5th in 16:59, John Benner 7th in 17:13 and Zak Heier came on strong to close out the fop five running 10th in 17:31.  When all was said and done, Needham eked out a 26-29 win over Wellesley putting nine runners ahead of the Raiders' sixth.

John Benner, Zak Heier and Alex Elman run as a pack.

Captain Noah Mertz looking determined.

Previously, both Rocket teams easily defeated the Framingham Flyers in a dual meet held on October 16th.  While counting toward their win/loss record, the meet lacked any true excitement and was merely a stepping stone toward greater accomplishments as the season comes to a close.

Full results can be found at: http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/School.aspx?SchoolID=19349. 

Cross Country at its Best

I just came across this article on Milesplit... definitely worth a read.

http://ny.milesplit.com/articles/94688-musings-of-a-rookie-xc-dad

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

Greatness isn't achieved over night.  It isn't achieved over the course of a season or even a year.  It isn't achieved just because you improve your win/loss record or drop your personal best time.  Greatness is achieved through hard work, through progress made and lessons learned.  Greatness is achieved by always pushing to be better than you are and that's one of the best parts of our sport.  But to have a great team, or a great program or to leave a great legacy it's important to stop and remind ourselves where we came from.

This season the boys' and girls' teams have been at the top of their game with the boys currently at 8-2 and the girls at 10-0 and both teams coming off high finishes at the McIntyre Twilight Invitational just last weekend.  If the girls get an expected victory against Wellesley this coming Tuesday October 23rd, it will mark the first time in program history that the Lady Rockets will have won a Bay State Conference Championship.  Equally impressive, the #17 ranked Needham boys http://ma.milesplit.com/articles/93770-top-25-coaches-poll-10-08-12 are well positioned to make a run at the All-State Championships next month, an honor that has not been achieved in 28 years!

Through a bit of research and uncovering of results, it appears that NHS cross country used to be a powerhouse program in year's past.  The boys' team won the Bay State Conference Championships in 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1984 and qualified for All-States in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1984.  In 1970, the boys' team placed 2nd at All-States and in 1971 they won the Divisional Championships!  Needham has had numerous individual success stories too beginning with back-to-back Divisional Championships by Paul Keating in 1969 and 1970 at none other than Franklin Park.  Following the success of Keating, teammates Steve McMorrow and Tim Sullivan took the same titles in 1974 and 1975 respectively.  In recent memory, the Rockets have qualified four individuals for All-States; Charles Beard (class of '06), Sam Miller (class of '08), Dan Shields (class of '10) and Tommy Kelley (class of '14).

On the girls' side, the evidence is a little less clear.  According to Neil Duross (cross country and track coach at NHS from 1969 to 1984) "in 1974 we had one girl on the team... in 1979 several fairly good girl runners were on the team. The next several years the girls got better and better but they were never recognized as an official team."  MSTCA official Kevin O'Malley coached at Needham in the 80s and 90s and wrote the following: "The BSC was probably the last conference to add girl teams. The girls ran the JV races until I think Newton North and Brookline came into the league. Newton dominated and Walpole had some great teams.  Katie Masselam was the best NHS runner in XC as she made All-States twice, and was a Division 3 All-American at Middlebury."  More recently, four athletes from NHS have qualified individually for All-States; Emily Lipman (class of '08), Katina Russell (class of '10), Olivia Nolan (class of '12) and Caroline Turner (class of '13).  The last and possibly only girls' team from Needham to qualify for All-States was in the fall of 2010.

This fall has been a special one for the Rockets.  Both teams have worked hard, competed well and begun to see the fruits of their labor.  But there are still meets to be won and championships to be tackled before it's all said and done and I for one am excited to see what the future holds!

         Left to right: Mark Murray (Wellesley 2 mile record holder), Eric Kilburn (Needham 2 mile record holder), Steve Ridge (880 yard record holder) and Rich Benner (Wellesley 1 mile record holder).

Steve McMorrow (Needham 1 mile record holder) and Rich Benner in 1972 Cross Country Dual Meet @ Wellesley

Needham's Tim Sullivan and Wellesley's Paul Murray

Tim Sullivan of Needham leading  the Bay State Conference Championships in 1977 - Between '73 and '77 Needham only lost 3 XC meets.  Tim only lost one dual meet from his sophmore to senior years.

Undefeated Needham 1975 - In Fall 1975 Needham went 1, 2, 4, 6 at the conference meet with Scott Walters, Tim Sullivan, Chris Laucks, and Kevin McMorrow. At Divisionals they went 1, 6, 12, 20 with Sullivan, Walters, Laucks and Kevin McMorrow.

Photos courtesy of Rich Benner

Girls Win McIntyre Twilight; Boys FInish 3rd!

Saturday evening October 13th at the Barnstable Fairgrounds in Falmouth the sun began to set and the temperature dropped into the low 40s but the Rockets' afterburners glowed hot!  The girls' team continued to impress as they beat all-comers in the large school division varsity race scoring 47 points to outdistance Newton South with 78 and Notre Dame Academy Hingham with 83.  The victory marked the first major invitational win for the girls' team in program history and hopefully will springboard them into post-season success.

The field bolted from the starting line, a mass of bodies coursing with adrenaline.  Needham quickly formed a pack at the front with Caroline Turner, Margie Cullen, Sarah Armstrong, Julianna Donovan and Katie Horton all running in the top 15.  Turner and Cullen passed the one mile mark in a brisk 5:44 with Armstrong and Donovan at 5:50 and Horton another five seconds back.  During the second lap of the three lap 5k course, it became evident that Needham was firing on all cylinders as all five girls hit two miles in under 12:30.  With just over a half mile remaining, Cullen began to open up a small gap on Turner as the two ran tough all the way to the line finishing in 3rd (18:48) and 5th (18:57) respectively.  Donovan, Armstrong and Horton contributed greatly to the team's success finishing in 11th (19:20), 12th (19:21) and 19th (19:55).  Remarkably, Needham improved its team's top five average time on the same course by one minute 37 seconds from one year ago!

Not to be outdone, the NHS boys' team ran their hearts out to finish third in the team competition a mere three points behind perennial powerhouse Brookline.  Up front, the Warriors' Aaron Klein and the Rockets' Adrian Amaya fought back and forth before the fast early pace took its toll on a tiring Amaya as Klein beat him down the stretch.  Amaya still managed to record his second fastest time of the season finishing 6th overall in 16:12.  Behind Amaya, Tyler Hagen continued to impress as he ran a gutsy race to finish 10th in a big personal best time of 16:20.  Tommy Kelley ran tough to finish 32nd in 16:52, with John Benner, Alex Elman, Liam Walsh and Zak Heier rounding out the top seven.
Bishop Feehan won decisively by taking the overall team title with 53 points, Brookline was second with 135 and Needham squeaked into third with 138 beating Cambridge Rindge and Latin by 6 points.

Other highlights on the night for the Rockets included three finishers in the top 15 of the boys' JV race as Drew Khalaj finished 10th in 17:35, Mike Newfield 12th in 17:39 and Alex Turner 14th in 17:45.  Brendan Gillis also had a great race to finish 21st in 17:55.  For all four athletes it was their first time breaking the 18:00 barrier.  In the girls' JV race Daria Fortin continued her run back to form after an injury layoff and finished 22nd overall in 21:33.  Hayley Rayment had a phenomenal effort to finish 48th in 22:22 cutting one minute and 43 seconds off her personal best time!

Full results can be found at: http://ma.milesplit.com/meets/122500-bob-mcintyre-twilight-cross-country-invitational-meet

Next up for Needham is a dual meet on Tuesday October 16th versus Framingham at FHS.  The meet is scheduled to begin with the varsity boys' race at 4:00 p.m.

Rockets Defeat Natick; Dismantle Norwood

JV boys getting ready at the start.

Emily Wills runs in the rain.

Wednesday October 10th, the Rockets traveled across town to Elm Bank Reservation in Natick to take on the Red and Blue and the Mustangs and both boys' and girls' teams came away victorious.  The varsity boys' race took an unusual direction with Natick opting to run a tempo and sacrifice the meet in preparation for their dual with Walpole next week.  The Rockets had been planning on marking the pace of their rivals but after a slow first mile on the pancake-flat course it was apparent that Natick was not prepared to rise to the occasion.  Meanwhile Norwood, a program that has struggled in recent years, was never a part of the equation.  The Rockets ran together as a pack and finished 1-9 on the 2.5 mile course to beat both teams 15-50.  Captain Zak Heier was officially given the win in a time of 14:54.  Finishing with the senior were, Alex Turner, John Benner, Alex Elman, Liam Walsh, Brendan Gillis, Adrian Amaya, Tyler Hagen and Tommy Kelley.

Varsity boys get down to business.

A mere half hour earlier, freshman Drew Khalaj led the way in the JV race upping the tempo during the later stages to get the victory.  In a highly unusual situation, Khalaj's winning time of 14:24 turned out to be the fastest time on the day by a full 30 seconds!  Finishing behind the fleet freshman were a large group of Needham athletes taking places 3-12.  The JV race also set the stage for a dominant effort by the Lady Rockets as they took 6 of the top 10 spots.  The race was led from start to finish by junior Daria Fortin making her return from injury and getting the win in 18:03.  Sophomore Claire Connors crossed the finish line next to make it a Needham one, two.

Varsity girls run tough against Sarah Lagan.

The varsity girls race was expected to be an easy affair with the plan being to group up and run with Natick's top finisher.  As it turned out, no one knew about sophomore transfer Sarah Lagan who ran to the front and stayed there for the entirety of the 2.5 mile race.  Shadowing the Natick stand-out were senior captain Caroline Turner and freshmen Margie Cullen, Sarah Armstrong and Julianna Donovan.  With less than a half mile remaining, the Rockets began to pull away but Lagan hung tough and ended up out kicking the quartet to the finish line winning in 15:36.  Natick's Erin Murphy finished in 6th place and closing out the scoring for the Rockets were senior captain Hallie Armstrong in 7th, sophomore Katie Horton in 8th and junior Rachel Blaustein in 10th.  Needham won the meet beating Natick 21-40 and Norwood 15-49 to extend their conference record to 9-0!

Full results can be found at: http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/School.aspx?SchoolID=19349.

Saturday October 13th, the Rockets travel to Falmouth to compete in the 2nd Annual Bob McIntyre Twilight Invitational at Barnstable Fair Grounds.

Order of Races:

4:30pm            9^th Grade Boys                                    2.1 miles
4:45pm            9^th Grade Girls                                    2.1 miles
5:05pm            10^th Grade Boys                                  3.1 miles
5:25pm            10^th Grade Girls                                  3.1 miles
5:55pm            J.V. Girls                                             3.1 miles
6:25pm            J.V. Boys                                            3.1 miles
6:50pm            Girls Varsity    large schools                3.1 miles
7:20pm            Girls Varsity   small schools                3.1 miles
7:50pm            Boys Varsity  large schools                 3.1 miles
8:25pm            Boys Varsity   small schools               3.1 miles

Rocket Harriers Race North to Thetford Invitational

Saturday October 6th members of the boys and girls cross country teams traveled to Thetford, Vermont to compete in the prestigious 22nd Annual Woods Trail Run.  It was the first trip to Vermont for the Rockets and was planned into the schedule to give the runners an opportunity to compete on one of the most challenging cross country courses in all of New England as well as simulate what the Rockets hope to experience in November at Northfield Mountain for All-States.  As the first races on the day began, the clouds looked heavy and dark in the sky and drops of rain splashed down on the course threatening to turn the 5k circuit into a mud bath.

The first race on the day for the Rockets was the 2nd seed girls race which saw junior Haley Rayment and senior Marie Leirvaag cover the unrelenting course in 26:02 and 26:27 respectively.  When asked by her teammates how the race was, Rayment alluded to the difficulty of the course and of Morty's Monster, a 600 meter long giant of a hill at 3 kilometers in, by saying "don't think about the hill until you get to it... it was fun though".

Next up for the girls was the 1st seed race which saw the Lady Rockets in a position they've become familiar with this season; finishing high up in the team results.  Senior captain Caroline Turner and Freshman Margie Cullen worked well together during the race and moved up through the field.  At the end, Cullen outsprinted her teammate to take 15th place overall in 20:55, while the veteran captain finished one spot and four seconds behind.  Freshmen Julianna Donovan and Sarah Armstrong continue to run well together and finished in the front of the pack placing 24th and 25th respectively with excellent times of 21:18 and 21:19.  And closing out the scoring for the Rockets was senior captain Hallie Armstrong again running a controlled effort to cross the line in 67th place in 22:27.  Behind the top five, came sophomore Katie Horton (22:51), junior Rachel Blaustein (22:53) and sophomore Claire Connors (24:34).  By finishing 4 runners in the top 25, Needham closed the point gap to Amherst Regional (the only team that beat them at the Amherst Invitational two weeks earlier) by scoring 144 to Amherst's 123 and finishing 4th in the team standings out of a total of 41!

As the day wore on, the rain got heavier and the course conditions worsened.  By the time the 1st seed boys race began, patches of the course were mud-slicked and saturated with water.  The Rockets knowing what they were up against, took a conservative approach to the race and started out at a controlled pace.  Junior Adrian Amaya running with the top group, hit the one mile mark at 5:17.  Behind him ran senior Tyler Hagen and junior Tommy Kelley both passing the first split in 5:30.  Amaya kept up the steady pace working hard during the second half to finish 9th overall in a stellar time of 17:28.  Hagen too ran a very gutsy race finishing in 17th just 11 seconds behind Amaya.  Meanwhile, Kelley and freshman John Benner worked through the course taking the uphills in stride and the downhills at ferocious speeds finishing 44th in 18:20 and 51st in 18:28.  Rounding out the Needham squad were junior Alex Elman (18:51), sophomore Liam Walsh (18:52), seniors Brendan Gillis (19:30) and Zak Heier (19:33) and freshman Alex Turner (19:48).  Well after the race was finished and the boys' team had taken their cool down, the race organizers were announcing the top team finishes and somewhat to their surprise, the boys snagged a 5th place out of the 51 teams represented!

For full results go to: www.lancertiming.com

Race video: http://vt.milesplit.com/meets/101573-22nd-annual-woods-trail-run

For race photos go to: http://public.fotki.com/dugaut/woods-trail-run/

Next up for Needham is a double dual meet with Natick and Norwood on Wednesday October 10th.  The meet will be held at Elm Bank in Natick and is scheduled to begin with a co-ed JV race at 4:00.

Girls' Team Improves Conference Record to 7-0! Boys Drop a Tight Race with Newton North; Amaya Lowers Own Course Record.

Alex Turner on his way to a 2nd place finish.

Tuesday October 2nd the Rockets hosted their second home meet of the season competing against Newton North and Walpole on a muddy, rain soaked course.  The meet began with a co-ed JV race which saw Alex Turner finish in second place overall and and just miss breaking the 18:00 barrier with a solid effort of 18:04 on the 5k course.  Backing up Turner's tough run was Brendan Gillis in 3rd, Drew Khalaj in 4th, Alex Cohen in 6th, Alex Caswell in 7th, and Jeff Ewing in 9th finishing six in the top ten and once again displaying the depth of the team.  In an unofficial scoring of the JV meet, Needham beat Newton North 22-36 and racked up a perfect score of 15-50 against Walpole.  In the girls' race, Haley Rayment led the way finishing 79th in 24:05 and improving her personal record by 16 seconds.  With 132 athletes to officially finish, the JV race went on record as the largest field ever to compete at Cutler Park.

Jacob Anderson running tough.

By the time all the sticks had been collected, names had been written down and times transcribed from stopwatch to score sheet, the varsity boys race was well underway.  Newton North took the pace out hard with Gabe Montague surging to the front and covering the first mile in 5:02.  Not to be outdone, Needham's Adrian Amaya followed in hot pursuit keeping the gap on his opponent to just six seconds.  Behind the two front runners were Tyler Hagen and Tommy Kelley amidst a pack of Tiger athletes.  As the race neared the halfway point, Amaya was looking considerably more comfortable than Montague but Newton North looked to be in control of the team standings.  Ultimately, Amaya pulled away from his competition for the second week in a row and broke his own course record set a mere 5 days ago by winning in 16:25.  Montague finished four seconds back with the Rockets taking places 1, 4, 7, 9 and 10 and narrowly losing to the Tigers 24-31.  The race between Needham and Walpole never materialized to be much of a contest with the Rockets taking down the Rebels 19-38.

Liam Walsh fights for the lead.

The varsity boys staying loose before their race.

With two races down and one to go, the course was in considerably worse condition for the start of the varsity girls race.  None-the-less as the gun went off, Needham and Newton North surged to the front leaving most of the Walpole team in their wake.  An elite group of Needham's Caroline Turner, Newton North's Sonya Jampel and Evie Heffernan and Walpole's Gina Conti quickly established themselves at the front of the pack.  Following close behind were Margie Cullen, Sarah Armstrong, Julianna Donovan and Katie Horton amongst a crowd of black and orange singlets.  Going into the meet, the Rockets knew the Tigers would be tough to beat but only time would tell just how difficult a task was in front of them.  Turner, using the home course advantage and knowing she'd have to drop her competition early, pulled away from the other three athletes as she entered her second loop.  By the time she'd reached the 2 mile mark, Turner had a five meter lead on Conti and considerably more on Jampel.  Meanwhile, Cullen kept up a fierce pace and outran the opposition finishing one second behind her teammate.  Turner and Cullen placed first and second overall running 19:36 and 19:37 respectively.  Behind the dynamic duo, Armstrong finished in 7th place with a scintillating time of 19:56, while Donovan and Horton rounded out the top 5.  Finishing in 17th and 24th places respectively were seniors Hallie Armstrong and Erica Koljonen making their return from injury.  Both athletes are expected to add much appreciated depth and strength to the already impressive squad.  In a meet that was defined by gutsy running and tough competition, the Lady Rockets came out on top by the slimmest of margins defeating Newton North 28-29 and Walpole 19-38 and keeping their dual meet win streak alive.

Margie Cullen and Sarah Armstrong run stride for stride.

Captain Hallie Armstrong makes her return.

Full results can be found at: http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/School.aspx?SchoolID=19349

Next up for the Rockets is the 22nd Annual Woods Trail Run in Thetford, Vermont on Saturday October 6th.  For anyone who finds themselves in the central Vermont region, the first race on the day for Needham will be the 2nd seed girls' race at 2:00 p.m.