There's an old expression in the cross-country community that says, "Champions are made when no one is watching." While that may not be entirely true when it comes to the Hendricken Cross Country program (which is practically legendary), we here at The Network aim to give as many people as possible the opportunity to watch - or at least follow along more frequently - when those champions are being made.
The past three weekends have been very strong for the XC Hawks, as their performances in New Hampshire, North Carolina, and now most recently at the Manhattan Invitational speak for themselves. This past weekend in Manhattan the Hawks were once again one of the best performing teams in the entire field, as our varsity, JV, sophomore, and freshman teams consistently crossed the finish line with all the top groups in the competition.
Our varsity runners were the "E" race winners with 74 points, followed by St. Anthony's and Lowell. The Hawks were led senior Colin Tierney's outstanding performance, as he registered the second-fastest time ever run by a Hendricken athlete on the Manhattan course. The varsity squad, in fact, recorded the fastest average time of all the varsity races, with the exception of the Eastern States Championships. Our top JV team finished second in their race and were led by senior Patrick Gower.
The younger guys also acquitted themselves very nicely. The sophomore team finished second, behind only Highland Valley. Domenic Parlato came in third in the race with a fantastic time of 13:48, and he was followed by Tom McMahon at 14:03. On the freshmen front, the "A" team came in 4th in their race with a total of 158 points, and the "B" team finished 11th in the 18-team field and were led by Dario Smith.
Next up for the cross country teams is the championship competitions, as the freshman will be competing in the state championships on October 21st, and the varsity runners will be competing in the Class A championships on October 26th. It's a pretty good bet that we'll have more hardware coming our way by the end of the month.
#GOHAWKS
