Boys Cross Country

HEAD COACH: Ned Gallagher (19th year)
ASSISTANT COACHES: Scott A. Mattoon and Scott Kelley

DATE	OPPONENT/MEET	TIME	SITE	SCORES (low score wins)
DATE	OPPONENT/MEET	TIME	SITE	CHOATE	OPPONENT
9/4/06	New Haven Road Race 5K	8:30	New Haven, CT	No team score in this event.
9/16/06	Choate Invitational	2:00	CRH	No team score in this event.
WALLINGFORD, CT--In this year's edition of the Choate Invitational, several hundred participants christened a brand new 3-mile course over fields and woodland trails. (The construction of the school's new state-of-the art track & field facility precipitated the move of the cross country course to the undeveloped northeast quadrant of the campus; the venue will feature a new first mile in 2007 with the reconstruction of a bridge next summer.) Visiting coaches and runners gave the new Choate course rave reviews, while noting its challenging nature. The home team performed well in its first crack at the course, with Wild Boar harriers leading the way in both veteran and novice divisions, setting new course, school, and form records in the process. Though no team scores were calculated in the Invitational, the Blue and Gold coaches were quite pleased by the races their charges ran.
9/27/06	Kent School	3:30	CRH	18	44
WALLINGFORD, CT--The Wild Boars prevailed in their home opener against a solid Lions squad. Though a number of team members did not race, forty-two of the Choate finishers set their PR marks on the home course.
9/30/06	Kingswood-Oxford School	3:00	Watertown, CT	20	39
	Taft School			30	27
	Trinity-Pawling School			34	22
WATERTOWN, CT--The Wild Boars dropped two of three results in its annual four-team showdown--the first time in a decade the Choate team has lost to either Taft or Trinity-Pawling. Both League rivals brought to the line experienced varsity squads from their 2005 campaigns; the Choate competitors--while talented--collectively boast precious little varsity experience among them (only two runners in the line-up had suited up for our starting seven before today). TPS ran an impressive race as a team, cementing a solid win with savvy pack running. The Taft loss was quite close; the presence of Choate's #1 runner--away on a college visit--would have swung the outcome in the other direction. Coach Ned Gallagher's comments: "The meet was competitive and our opponents worked hard for their success, so we can't help but feel it was a productive outing, even if it didn't turn out the way we had hoped. Chris Krokus '08 was the standard-bearer for us, leading the entire field for a while at the midway point of the 2.73-mile course, but could only hold on for a fourth place finish in the end. It was hard to find fault with the performances our guys summoned; we didn't run particularly badly, but we weren't quite in a position to deliver victory. Full credit to great Taft and Trinity-Pawling performances. This was a different start to the dual meet season than we're accustomed to, but we've gotten used to seeing Choate teams post remarkable improvement in late October and November, so we remain bullish on our squad's chances to contend in the season-ending championship meets."
10/7/06	Phillips Academy	2:30	CRH	46	17
WALLINGFORD, CT--Heading into the dual meet against Andover without its top runners in the line-up, the Choate squad expected this would be a challenging day. Given the Massachusetts team's typical early season readiness, the Wild Boars knew Andover again would be ahead on the developmental curve in early October (though the gap between the teams generally is eliminated by November). Focusing on their own improvement, the CRH boys let the speedy visitors pull them along to a spate of record times on the new home course. In spite of the one-sided loss, the hosts took pride in their progress at the end of a grueling week of training. The coaches were particularly pleased to see strong efforts on the second half of the course from Messrs. Craft, Sherman, and Kikkawa, each of whom slipped past opponents in the closing stages of the race to improve their finish placement.
10/14/06	Deerfield Academy	4:00	Deerfield, MA	18	37
10/14/06	Loomis Chaffee School	4:00	Deerfield, MA	26	29
DEERFIELD, MA--After two meets in which they took some lumps, the Wild Boars approached this weekend's showdown eager to demonstrate they could resume their winning ways. The Choate coaches sensed that the brutal workout on the home course the preceding Tuesday was an important turning point for the squad, both in terms of attitude and performance; they saw for the first time throughout the ranks the critical conversions in training indicators for which they had been waiting. Coach Ned Gallagher summarized the meet: "We aimed to post four wins today in the two races in order to re-establish our confidence as a team and the guys stepped up to the challenge brilliantly, sweeping the Big Green and the Pelicans in varsity and JV races. In the varsity competition, we narrowed our focus to Loomis, figuring we'd beat the struggling Deerfield team comfortably if we could fend off the boys from Windsor. The 1-2 punch of LaChance and Krokus at the front of the pack took some pressure off the rest of our squad, as Loomis and Choate roughly split the top eleven finish places with five apiece (in addition to a lone green-clad harrier in the mix). Andy Holden ran heroically on a tender ankle to a top eight finish right behind teammate Sam Craft, ensuring the Wild Boars win. The 26-29 victory margin was close--a hard-earned win, for sure. While LC could have reversed the result in a couple of key places, it's also true that we could have doubled the scoring gap just as easily. Fifth man Corey Sherman was just seconds behind two Pelicans, for instance. This was a satisfying win, just when we needed it most. We feel as though we have turned a corner as a team, but there are significant challenges ahead. We'll face improved Hotchkiss and NMH teams in our two remaining dual meets and then we head into the championship meets in November. The hard work will continue, but it seems the boys are appreciating the connection between their efforts during the week and the improvement they realize on race day."
10/21/06	Hotchkiss School	3:30
10/21/06	Hotchkiss School	3:30	Lakeville, CT	24	35
LAKEVILLE, CT--The boys in Blue and Gold approached this race in Lakeville expecting a bit more drama than they have seen in this meet in recent years. Though Choate has dominated the rivalry since the end of the 1980s, posting a 14-2 head-to-head varsity record, the 2006 Bearcats are an improved bunch, and on this day the visitors would be fielding a varsity squad without two of its top three runners in the mix. (Hotchkiss rested its #1 harrier, as well.) Some careful calculations beforehand gave each CRH runner a specific mission in the race and every one of them met or exceeded his particular goal. Even against a Bearcat squad at full strength, the brilliant team performance by the short-handed Wild Boars would have been too much to overcome. Though Hotchkiss was well positioned at the one-mile mark, the home team could not keep up with the Choate attack in the second mile. Chris Krokus won the race comfortably and third form wunderkind Sam Craft took third. After the two schools split the first six finish slots, a half-dozen more Blue and Gold singlets streamed in, all displacing the remaining Bearcat scorers. (In fact, including the leaders in the JV race, Choate put no fewer than sixteen finishers across the line ahead of the Hotchkiss varsity #5.) The CRH coaches were especially happy to see how well their charges competed and executed strategy in this meet. In the days ahead, the Wild Boars will tackle a series of workouts notorious enough to have earned names (e.g., The Combination, The Big Mac, St. Crispin's Day, The Dozen) in preparation for their final dual meet of the season on the home course.
10/28/06	Northfield Mt. Hermon School	4:00	CRH
11/5/06	Founders League Cross Country Championships	1:00	Watertown, CT
11/11/06	New England Cross Country Championships	1:30	Exeter, NH
11/12/06	USATF Junior Olympic Cross Country Connecticut Championships	2:00	Litchfield, CT	No team score in this event.
11/17/06	49th Annual Mark Tuttle Cake Race	3:30	CRH	No team score in this event.
11/19/06	USATF Junior Olympic Region I Cross Country Championships	1:30	Queensbury, NY	No team score in this event.
11/25/06	Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Northeast Regional Qualifier Meet	8:30	Van Cortlandt Park New York, NY	No team score in this event.
12/9/06	USATF Junior Olympic Cross Country National Championships	8:30	Spokane, WA	No team score in this event.

DATE	OPPONENT/MEET	TIME	SITE	SCORES (low score wins)
DATE	OPPONENT/MEET	TIME	SITE	CHOATE	OPPONENT
9/4/06	New Haven Road Race	8:30	New Haven, CT	No team score in this event.
9/16/06	Choate Invitational	2:00	CRH	No team score in this event.
9/27/06	Kent School	3:30	Kent, CT	15	50
9/30/06	Kingswood-Oxford School	4:00	Watertown, CT	15	50
	Taft School			15	50
	Trinity-Pawling School			20	39
WATERTOWN, CT--The JV competition in this meet was as satisfying as the varsity outcome was frustrating. The assembled rivals seemed a bit overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the Choate contingent at the starting line, but it was the quality of the racing, rather than the quantity of entrants, that determined the result. Robbie Cholnoky '09 led the way across the finish line, followed by Nick Greenway '08. Choaties snared seven of the top ten finish places to keep an upset out of reach of the three opposing squads. Two shutouts and another lopsided victory were testament to a good day's work. The CRH coaches were especially happy to observe ample evidence of emerging mental toughness on the part of their many neophyte racers.
10/7/06	Phillips Academy	3:30	CRH	37	19
WALLINGFORD, CT--The junior varsity event was more competitive than the varsity race, but the Andover team preserved enough of an advantage in the scoring order to seal another comfortable victory. But the Choate boys demonstrated some savvy pack running and the JV leaders effectively closed the margin with the back of their varsity squad; this dynamic is expected to produce stronger performances on both levels in the weeks ahead.
10/14/06	Deerfield Academy	5:00	Deerfield, MA	15	48
10/14/06	Loomis Chaffee School	5:00	Deerfield, MA	20	37
DEERFIELD, MA--The Blue and Gold dominated the JV race in this three-team meet; Choate captured five of the first seven finish positions and ten of the top twenty. The fast Deerfield course produced some blazing times. In fact, among the varsity and JV harriers today, all but two clocked their best-ever mile splits (one of the two who didn't had spent the past week in a sick bed and the other was but a second off his PR mark). The pair of one-sided wins suggests the Wild Boars' training program is kicking into high gear right on schedule.
10/21/06	Hotchkiss School	4:00	Lakeville, CT	15	50
LAKEVILLE, CT--Because Choate entered an enlarged roster of nine in the first race--and had three other varsity harriers on the sidelines--it was up to the "next generation" of junior varsity runners to step it up to preserve a Western New England winning streak dating back to the end of the 1995 season. This race was an ideal opportunity to shine the spotlight on some other team members, whose hard work and improvement surely merited some overdue attention. Jake Didden led the pack over the hilly three-mile course, perhaps emboldened by memories of his second-place finish in Lakeville in the 2005 League Championship JV race. The first nine slots went to the visitors, as Paul Ryder, Yidi Ge, Brian McDermott, Sam Cabot, Ellis Reilly, Cyril Pietrafesa, David Hollister, and Bowen Kelley also swept in ahead of the fastest Bearcat finisher. The quartet of Derek Lubetkin, Ben Gettinger, Will Hedley, and Paul Lintilhac made it 13 of the first 14 for Choate. Throughout the ranks, the Wild Boars pushed themselves hard through the hills, effectively teaming up in pairs and groups. It was a wonderful display of depth and teamwork on a crisp autumn afternoon.
10/28/06	Northfield Mt. Hermon School	5:00	CRH
11/5/06	Founders League Cross Country Championships	2:10	Watertown, CT
11/11/06	New England Cross Country Championships	1:30	Exeter, NH
11/17/06	49th Annual Mark Tuttle Cake Race	3:30	CRH	No team score in this event.
11/25/06	Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Northeast Regional Qualifier Meet	8:30	Van Cortlandt Park New York, NY	No team score in this event.

Schedules are subject to change.
Please call the Wild Boars Sports Hotline at 203-697-2136 for updates.