Hockomock Championship

Boys

This race proved one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt. That is : I NEED HELP!

I'm a girls' coach and I follow the girls' results. The boys – not so much. Sure I'm tuned into who wins and who loses. But, I miss all the nuances, the trends, the ebb and flow. The short of it is, I'm more clueless than the average parent.

I only threw out a top 12 guess because I don't want to ignore them. But from now on could someone who actually knows something volunteer to help me?

Here's the wrap-up as I see it.

Mansfield – a yawner! But they decided not to approach it as a yawner. I thought they might “run thru” this meet. That didn't happen. Maybe Ryan coasted (he only won by 56 seconds!), but John Lutkevich and Andrew Irwin wanted to send a message. That message was, “Coach Estey, shame on you for doubting us!” The only real surprise for me was Mike Bolea grabbing the 12 th spot ahead of teammates Brendan Barca and Kevin Meagher. Their 32 points as a winning total wasn't a record, but a fifty-point victory over 2 nd place Oliver Ames was pretty convincing.

Oliver Ames grabbed the #2 team spot. Not because of any big surprises. They were and are a solid team. Austin Strange ran a great race for them placing in the top 10. I'm sure everyone had Mike Moverman pegged between 2 nd and 4 th – so his 3 rd was as expected.

The biggest jolt to me was sent by Sharon. Boy, did I ever underestimate them. I didn't think they had a very good meet at NA and that was my primary analysis of this team. Three guys in the top-12 shocked me! If the meet was decided by the top 3 instead of the top 5, Sharon would have placed 2 nd . The score based on three runners was.

Mansfield 7

Sharon   28

Oliver Ames 33

King Philip 41

Franklin 46

North Attleboro 51

I wasn't ready for Casey Howards (9th) to be sitting on Ben Mattocks (8 th ) all the way to the finish. Mr. XC – Itai Stein grabbed the 12 th .

Franklin was another team that I underestimated. Shame on me! Even though it is Coach Travato's first year at the helm I should have known he'd have them ready. His boys had to perform well – or feel the wrath! I always thought that boys' teams responded better to fire and brimstone, girls to logic and reason.

When I ignored Frank May from my top 11 prediction it was evident just how little I knew about the boys. Seemed like every other coach there thought he would be a top-tenner. 5 th place – outstanding! How did Franklin place 3 rd ? Because their 4 th and 5 th places knew how to get the job done.   Kudos to Ryan Cornellus and Steve Holt.

King Philip's Paul Matz was a big reason they got 4 th place. Usually the single digits don't matter when you get to this team placement. But the 5's for Franklin, KP, Sharon and NA were all OK. Nobody fell off the chart. It was a great battle – 5 points separating teams 3 rd and 6 th . KP needed every lower point they could get. If Matz places 9 th they tie NA who then wins on the tie-breaker.

The result wasn't what the NA boys were looking for. They had their best dual meet season in over a decade.   Today it didn't add up. Wasn't a poor performance by any means. During the dual meet season they got just the little bumps they needed.   Even though #4 Billy Card had an inspired performance   (2 nd best #4 on the day) North found themselves 6 th , just 5 points out of third.

Foxboro's Derek Ricci came through as expected grabbing an automatic All-Hock spot in 7 th .