Gilmore, Barry Heat Up CMI
By Joe Reardon

Whitman-Hanson coach Kevin Black scanned the team results of the Division 1 boys race from yesterday’s Catholic Memorial Invitational. Black had already made not of winner Peter Gilmore’s time and was looking pensively at the finishes of the No. 5 harriers on each team.
Black, whose Panthers easily defeated runner-up Nashua South (N.H.), was pleased to see none of the No. 5 runners from the other 22 teams finished in front of Whitman-Hanson’s Pat Egan (27th, 16 minutes, 56.8 seconds) over Franklin Park’s 3-1-mile course. What pleased Black all the more was his runners’ team average time of 16:31. The mark was 13 seconds faster than the Panthers’ 16:44 at last Saturday’s Bay State Invitational.

"We just want to get better every week," said Black. "We want to have a good November. We’re like every other cross country team out there. We’re looking for the perfect race."
Gilmore (16:05.3) led the way for the Panthers, holding off a surging Kyle Higgins of Braintree over the final 150 yards for the victory. Higgins, who has improved more than a minute at Franklin Park since last season, finished in a personal-best 16:12.1.

A huge lead pack of 20 runners passed through the first mile in 4:59, before third-place finisher Mike Masse of St. John’s Prep (16:13.0) surged into the lead. Gilmore followed and the pair began to put distance between themselves and the pack. Masse led through two miles, but Gilmore took the lead for good shortly after in The Wilderness section of the course.
"I was just trying to hang on to the lead and bring it home," said Gilmore, who took seventh in the highly competitive Bay State Invitational. "We were battling for a while. I put on a little burst and kept going. I wanted my last mile to be my fastest, but it’s tough when you’re so tired."

Gilmore said the Panthers are training hard and haven’t yet started to taper for the all-important November races. "I had some confidence coming in," he said. "We’re keeping the training pretty consistent. We want to run well at the state championships."
Higgins, who has improved dramatically this season after a summer of 10-12 mile daily workouts, moved from fourth to second down the last 100-yard straightaway to the finish line.
"I saved a little bit and used everything around the corner to the finish," said Higgins. "It was the best finish I’ve ever had."

The smaller field, Higgins said, allowed him to run more conservatively at the start. "It was easier moving around," he said. "It helped my time out."

Ethan Penney of Haverhill was a step behind Masse in 16:14.5 with Pinkerton’s Chris Pietrocarlo clinching fifth with his 16:18.8.

Dennis-Yarmouth’s Evan Touhy-Bedford pushed the entire race in the Div. 2 event, but wasn’t able to join the two-man battle between winner Francis Hernandez of Bishop Guertin (16:23.5) and teammate Joey Jourdain (16:25.4) past the first mile. Touhy-Bedford wound up a strong third in 16:40.5, well ahead of Hingham’s Drew Morrissey (16:53) and Steve Bailey of Hanover (16:53.5).

"I was moving the whole way to catch them," he said. "After a while, I concentrated on holding off the guys behind me.

"They were going fast. Really quick."

Bishop Guertin captured the team title with 70 points.

The Division 1 girls race provided a shot at redemption and a much-needed boost for the top two finishers.

Neither Haverhill’s Christine McNaughton, nor Molly Shanley of Marshfield, were at all satisfied with their respective 14th- and 35th-place finishes at the previous Saturday’s Bay State Invitational.

Both harriers took full advantage of the near-perfect racing conditions and battled each other the entire way. McNaughton and Shanley ran side by side through the mile (5:45) and 2-mile (12:22). McNaughton surged hard into the lead, with just more than 800 yards to go and was able to keep a sprinting Shanley arrears to take a 19:29.1 victory. Shanley, who was closing in a hurry over the last 200 yards, was a second back with her 19.30.3. Haverhill, which captured the next two places with Julie Solimine (19:39.5) and Elizabeth Fullerton (19:39.7), easily took the team title with 36 points.

McNaughton felt so good, she scrapped her pre-race plan of making her move to the front at Bear Cage Hill, preferring instead to push the pace almost immediately.

"I figured I might be up there before I moved on Bear Cage Hill, but I felt pretty good," said McNaughton. "I felt good, so I tried to put a gap between us."

McNaughton was very much aware of the fact that Shanley was still in the race for first, and didn’t take the Rams’ top harrier lightly.

"I knew she was right there," McNaughton said. "I had to go hard. I didn’t want her to catch me."

Shanley, who improved her personal best on the course by five seconds, fell back going up Bear Cage Hill, but was even with McNaughton by the time they headed downhill.
"I was really discouraged after last weeks," said Shanley. "I wanted to have a great race. It was hard running alone (up Bear Cage Hill) when she got ahead of me. I thought I was going to get her, but she really sprinted at the end."

After wearing socks with her spikes for the first time, Shanley joked after the race that she’d do the same in future races for good luck. "I’m very superstitious," she said with a laugh. "I’ll probably even wear the same socks. But I’ll wash them first."

Dennis-Yarmouth’s Megan Barry finished with the fastest time of the day (18:54.6) in winning the Div. 2 race. Defending champion Ali Simeone of Stoneham sprinted hard the last 300 yards but couldn’t put a dent into Barry’s advantage. Simeone still clocked a 19:07.4 for second, nearly 90 seconds faster than 2006.

Barry wasn’t taking any chances with the lead she had so late in the race.
"I wasn’t sure how far behind she was, so I pushed really hard," she said. ‘
Barry and Simeone were together in the lead at the mile in 5:34. Simeone said after that she was looking to break 19 minutes but was ecstatic with her 34-second improvement on her personal best at Franklin Park.

"I was hoping to win, but I ran as best as I could," said Simeone. "Time-wise, there’s no comparison to last year."

Wellesley captured four of the top eight places to run away with the team title. Blake Districk (third, 19:41.3), Jessica Kaliski (fourth, 19:47), Anna Lacker (seventh, 20:09.5) and Faith Richardson (eighth, 20:21.9) were key in the victory.

Whitman-Hanson’s Tyler Sullivan outkicked Ben Halpin of St. John’s Prep to win the Div. 1 freshman race in 10:38 over the 1.85-mile course. Halprin chased Sullivan across the finish for second in 10:40.5. Plymouth North’s Dan Gordan clocked a 10:55.1 for third.

Sullivan and Halpin passed the mile in 5:15 before the young Panther harrier took a slight lead over Halpin on the backside of Bear Cage Hill. "I wanted to get top three," said Sullivan. "Going up the hill we were neck and neck. I made a move going down Bear Cage."

Abington’s John McKeon had an easier time of things in the Div. 2 race. McKeon, who was running in Franklin Park for the first time, switched gears after a conservative 5:35 first mile and pulled away from a the four-runner pack. It was all McKeon from there on as he cruised to an 11:07 win. Derek Tata of Blackstone-Millville was a distant second in 11:21.6, followed by Bishop Stang’s Ian Costanza at 11:21.8.

"When I was at the top of Bear Cage Hill, I took a peek and was happy with the lead," said McKeon. "I’m going to try to run my own race (at the Coaches Invitational) and go faster as it goes on. It (the win) feels pretty good. I’ve been looking at this race for a month and it all worked out."

North Quincy/Quincy’s Erica Brady followed up her victory in the Bay State Invitational by taking the all-division freshman girls’ race in 12:07.7. Brady turned a 10-yard lead at the mile mark into more than 100 yards by the time she crossed the finish line. Central Catholic’s Beverly Wang was second in 12:41.5, followed by Cathedral’s Elizabeth Footit in 12:48.4.