Sports
Shrewsbury Runner Qualifies for State Tournament
With a great showing in Gardner this weekend, the boys' and girls' cross country teams will be sending runners to the state championships next week.
It was a great day for the boys and girls cross country teams on Saturday morning.
The Colonials had a strong showing in the Central Massachusetts Cross Country District Meet at the Gardner Municipal Golf Course.
The Shrewsbury boys' team finished second while the girls placed fourth.
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"All things considered I'm happy with the way things went today," said Shrewsbury girls coach Ryan McCaffrey. "There's always room for improvement, but I think we're going to be in good shape for next year. We had some strong running today."
The top three teams in each division qualify for the state meet back in Gardner next Saturday.
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The top 10 individual finishers who are not part of those three qualifying teams also receive an invite.
On the boys side, Colonial senior John Murray took home first place with a time of 14:15, shattering the previous meet record set back in 1998 of 14:24.
"It's a good feeling to set the meet record," said Murray after his completion of the 2.9-mile course. "The first mile felt good, and I was on the course record pace, but I was fading a little towards the end of the second mile. I wanted to try and save a little bit just in case anyone was moving up on me."
According to Murray, he was leading the whole way and was never really threatened. The Shrewsbury senior finished a whopping 17 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Jonathan Green of St. John's. Green turned in a time of 14:32.
Other Shrewsbury runners who finished the race include: junior Tobin Dancy, who placed seventh with a time of 15:00, sophomore CJ Williams (15:21) and senior Curtis Beals (15:21.7) placed 14th and 15th respectively. Junior Mike Bodden finished 31st with a time of 15:48.9. Sophomore Dan Mortimer (16:13.8) and senior Brandon Kraemer (16:29.4) finished 48th and 57th respectively.
On the girls side, junior Rebecca Tiernan qualified for states, placing 15th overall with a time of 18:52. Senior Nicole Ross also qualified with a time of 18:54, good enough for 19th place. Junior Liliana Urso just missed qualifying by three seconds, placing 21st with a time of 19:03. Junior Steph Kalinowski (19:48) and senior Erin Manning (20:12) placed 32nd and 43rd respectively.
