Lake Braddock\'s Kelly Swain and West Springfield\'s Jeff Day used similar racing strategies to take home wins at Monroe Parker, which was, grab the lead early with a quick pace and then hold onto it. A mile and a half into the girls\' race, Swain had built a sizable lead of about fifteen seconds on James Robinson\'s Joanna Rodgers as Rodgers as well had broken away from the rest of the field. The gap never really closed as both Swain (18:39) and Rodgers (18:56) looked strong finishing as they covered the course in swift times. Rodgers\' teammate, Sam Ference, was the next finisher at 19:14 as a pack of runners soon followed to put fourteen runners under twenty minutes at the meet.
In the pack, a battle was waged between James Robinson and Lake Braddock runners as the Lady Bruins of Lake Braddock were giving the #21 nationally ranked Lady Rams of Robinson a big scare. Both teams fit four runners in the top fifteen as Robinson had Rodgers, Ference, Caroline Coster (10th, 19:44), and Susan Brooks (15th, 20:07), while Lake Braddock countered with Swain, Abbey McGrath (7th, 19:32), Kelsey Snowden (11th, 19:50), and Becca Hoogland (14th, 19:57). The team score through four between the two Northern Region powerhouses at that point was a nail-bitting 30-33 in favor of Robinson, as it setup for an anxious wait for the all important number fiver runners to come in. Well the balance was tipped in the Lady Rams\' favor as their fifth runner came in at 30th place, while Lake Braddock\'s fifth runner was not too far back at 36th place. While James Robinson (60 pts) took home the trophy at Monroe Parker over Lake Braddock (69 pts), it will not be the last of many great battles these teams will have this season.
The Hayfield girls were a pleasant surprise as they finished third behind Robinson and Lake Braddock with 78 points as the tandem of Morgan Phelan (5th, 19:24) and Melissa Dewey (6th, 19:29) lead the charge.
West Springfield senior Jeff Day, like Swain, ran a gutsy race by setting a blistering early pace to break away with the lead and then continued to power his way to victory (15:26). \"Going up after the mile and a half mark, after running ragged mountain and in the mountains, those hills were nothing. It was easy. I felt strong the whole way. We\'ve been running hills like crazy and my plan was just to break those guys up those hills. But the main thing is I just had fun today,\" commented Day after his win. Westfield\'s Bryan Buckland (15:44) and Lake Braddock\'s Steve Hoogland (15:48) also had exceptional runs to finish second and third respectively. \"The race wasn\'t too bad. My legs felt like crap the whole time, but other than it was pretty good I must say. Congratulations to Jeff Day, he ran an awesome race,\" Hoogland added after his third place finish. While Buckland took the runner-up honors from Hoogland in the individual race, it was Hoogland\'s Bruins (107 pts) who upset Bucklan\'ds #5 AAA ranked, Westfield squad (109 pts) in a very close contest. The Jeff Day led West Springfield squad finished third with 137 points.
The runners on hand might have had a little more motivation to run hard today as Alan Webb made an appearance as the awards\' presenter to the top fifteen individuals and top three teams in each race. It is just amazing to imagine two falls ago, Webb torched this very same course\'s record with a 13:57 clocking.