Rockets Rise to the Challenge; Bring Home First Annual BSC Pumpkin Cup.

The captains with the cup!

Girls Dominate Conference Championships; Cullen Claims Individual Crown for 2nd Year in a Row!

Saturday October 26th at Coakley Middle School in Norwood, the Needham boys and girls cross country teams proved their meddle and won the first annual Bay State Conference Pumpkin Cup signaling joint dominance of the league by achieving the lowest combined team score.  The two teams collected just 94 points to outpace Newton North (182) and Brookline (208).

The Lady Rockets ran down the competition to finish first in the 12 team field scoring just 34 points and outdistancing runner-up Weymouth (66).  The win at the BSC meet came just three days after the girls sealed up their second consecutive conference title by defeating Wellesley 18-44 and extending their dual meet win streak to 29.

Margie Cullen & Sarah Armstrong run at the front of the pack.

Margie Cullen led the way for the Rockets, as she has done all season, winning the individual title and blazing the 5 kilometer course in 18:01!  Finishing second for the Rockets and third overall was Sarah Armstrong in a season best time of 18:25.  Kaleigh Hughes and Sammy Lerner worked well together throughout the race and finished 9th and 10th in 18:57 and 18:59 respectively.  Katie Horton and Julianna Donovan worked their way up through the field to finish just behind their teammates in 11th and 14th in 19:06 and 19:12.  Maddi Terry rounded out the varsity scoring running to a 22nd place finish in 19:50.

The varsity team performance wasn't the only story however as the JV squad led by Galia Bernat's 3rd place finish in 21:13 placed a close second to Weymouth getting outscored by a mere 4 points.  In comparison, last year's team lacked the depth that has emerged in 2013 and were unable to score in the JV competition.  Finishing behind Bernat were teammates Haley Filippine (7th), Courtney Barrett (9th), Camille Manoukian (10th) and Daria Fortin (16th).  In the freshman race, Jill Robins and Molly Retik led the way running to 7th and 8th place finishes respectively while Lily Auger crossed the line in 30th.

Boys Finish 2nd to Equal Highest Team Finish of the Past Two Decades!

Adrian leads the chase pack while John and Tommy hang tough.

This fall has been, at times, frustrating for the Rockets as they've battled through injuries and often felt ill-prepared to face the tough competition of the Bay State League.  But all of that vanished in the rear view mirror Saturday when the boys team finished second with 63 points, just 11 behind conference champions Newton North.  The runner-up placing avenged regular season losses to rivals Brookline and Wellesley and cemented the boys chances of a high finish at the Divisional Championships in two weeks.

Racing in only his third meet this season, Adrian Amaya returned to the line-up, reinforcing the team and leading the way finishing in 4th place overall with an impressive 15:48 for the 5k course.  The quartet of John Benner, Drew Khalaj, Tommy Kelley and Alex Turner provided the necessary depth for the team's success.  Benner ran comfortably in the top 10 for most of the race before ultimately finishing in 7th place in 16:06.  Khalaj and Kelley remained close to Benner for most of the race before finishing 13th and 16th and running times of 16:18 and 16:29 respectively.  Meanwhile Turner took a more conservative approach starting slower and working his way up through the field to finish 23rd in 16:37.  Alex Elman (31st), Nathan Maynard (47th) and Patrick Caron (49th) rounded out the team.

As with the girls team, the varsity race wasn't the only highlight as Needham's neophytes crushed the freshmen field scoring just 35 points to runner-up Brookline's 79.  Matt Mahoney led the way cruising to victory on the 2.5k course in 8:33.  Teammates Duncan Shaver, Chris Gillis, David Muir and Tejas Kelkar finished behind Mahoney to complete the scoring.  In the JV race, Cal Fleming turned in a gutsy performance to finish 7th in 17:34.

Next up for the Rockets are the Divisional Championships at the Wrentham Developmental Center on Saturday November 9th.  The girls' race is scheduled for 9:25 a.m. with the boys' set to go off at 10:45.

For complete results visit: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ma/Oct26_BaySta_set1.shtml.

Photos courtesy of Kim Benner. Full album can be seen here: https://picasaweb.google.com/107787430639967656086/102613BSCConferenceMeetNorwoodMA?authkey=Gv1sRgCOn5so265Z-UiAE&feat=email.