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.