By Jack McCluskey, Globe Correspondent | November 25, 2007
Two teams from Massachusetts will compete in the finals of the Nike Team Nationals next week, giving the state a chance to boast the best cross-country team in both genders. The Brookline boys, competing out of MIAA season as the Brookline Track Club, and the Lincoln-Sudbury girls, running as Wicked TC, each won their NTN Northeast Regional meet at Wappingers Falls, N.Y., yesterday, to earn a trip to Portland, Ore., for the final.
Brookline's 86 points barely edged Danbury RC's 87, and Lincoln-Sudbury pushed past Hunterdon (Voorhees, N.J.), 69 to 73. This was the first year regional finalists were determined by a qualifying race.
Brookline placed three runners in the top 10, including first- and third-place finishes by Robert Gibson and David Wilson, respectively. Gibson, a senior, just eked out first, checking in at 16 minutes even, one second ahead of Max Kaulbach of Germantown Friends RC Team A, from Philadelphia.
"We knew we were one of the teams that had a shot," said Brookline coach Michael Glennon, explaining that the top two teams in each region advance to the finals. "Even after the race, we didn't know we had won."
Brookline got strong showings from Michael Burnstein (10th, 16:30), Elliot Lehane (18th, 16:42), and Brendan Grove (54th, 17:34).
Lincoln-Sudbury claimed five of the top 25 spots and two of the top 10. Andrea Keklak led the Warriors at 19:16, good for fourth place, and Dana Jamieson ran a 19:23, good for eighth.
Rounding out LS's top five were Ellie Hylton (14th, 19:38), Emily Mepham (20th, 19:54), and Claire Arthur (23d, 20:01).
Jones places second
Donn Cabral of Glastonbury, Conn., and Neely Spence of Shippensburg, Pa., won the Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships Northeast Regional at Van Cortlandt Part in the Bronx.
Cabral broke the meet record of 15:14 with his clocking of 15:09, and Spence posted a time of 17:37.
Emily Jones, a junior at Bromfield High School in Harvard, took second place in 17:41, and senior Keely Maguire of Georgetown and Triton Regional was fifth in 17:46.
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