photo by Chris Mazzurco
10/15/11 –
The NYA Boys cross-country team defended its title as champion of the Western Maine Conference small school division on Saturday. With 6 of the top 13 runners and a mere 36 points, NYA easily bested Fryeburg Academy (65), Waynflete (65), Merriconeag (96), Yarmouth (137), Sacopee Valley (154), and Wells (189). Among all schools in the WMC, NYA finished 2nd overall with 86 points, behind only state ranked #1 Falmouth (61), but ahead of Class B powerhouses such as Greely (122), Freeport (123), York (124), and Cape Elizabeth (141).
photo by Chris Mazzurco
Because of the bad weather, the race was moved to St. Joseph’s College in Standish, whose rolling, wooded trails provided a fair but challenging 5000m (3.1 mile) test. Times proved to be slower for many runners but NYA saw some outstanding performances on the day.
Leading the way for the squad was Cam Regan ’12 (17:20 / 2nd place in Div 2 / 4th overall), who barely held off a last-minute charge from Waynflete’s top runner to the line. Rudy Guliani ’12 also provided a dramatic finish as he beat Freeport’s top runner by less than a second (18:01 / 5th / 12th). Evan Kendall ’12 ran a characteristically strong race (18:14 / 7th / 17th) and the team was pleased to welcome Alex Coffin ’12 back from injury as our 4th man (18:24 / 9th /22nd ). Freshman Matt Malcom was the big surprise of the day, smashing his personal record and leaping several spots up the varsity roster with his impressive 18:34 (12th / 31st). Rounding out the varsity seven were Grant McPherson ’12 (18:49 / 13th / 36th) and Brian Trelegan ’12 (19:59 / 16th / 51st).
photo by Chris Mazzurco
This dominant performance by the team catapulted it back to #3 in the state-wide coaches’ poll – that is out of all schools in all classes in Maine.
NYA’s JV runners also put on a show at the meet. Sweeping the top three spots, they dominated the Division 2 JV race and won the D2 JV title with an incredibly low 20 points. Leading the way was Jake Burns ’13 (19:19 / 1st in D2 / 2nd overall) who went out fast and then steadily moved up the field. Robert Field ’12 took second place in D2 (20:24) and John LeBlanc ’15 took third (20:48). Also scoring for the JV squad were Nick Rayder ’12 (22:56 / 7th) and Aldis Gamble ’13 (23:32 / 9th). Both Phong Ho’12 (23:40 / 10th) and Ethan Liu ’12 (23:42 / 11th) displaced second-place Fryeburg’s number 4 and 5 runners. Oscar Zou ’13 (25:03 / 16th) and Kevin Schwarm ’12 (27:03 / 20th) also ran well in the race.
You can watch the video of the Varsity race here. The JV race video is here.