Matson & Berry-Gaviria Advance to Nationals


Matson & Berry-Gaviria Advance to Nationals

Watch Matson's Race

Two time Class A state champion Sofie Matson of Falmouth punched her ticket to the Footlocker National championship on Saturday afternoon at the historic Van Cortlandt Park in New York.

Matson who finished 14th a year ago in her rookie campaign moved up six spots to garner one of the the ten automatic qualifying spots to compete in the Footlocker National Championships in two week in San Diego, California.

Sofie covered the 5k layout at Van Cortlandt in a strong 18:11.30 improving her time from a year ago by 35 seconds.

Matson got off to a strong start as she put herself in the top ten at the mile before heading into the woods. She moved up to seventh as she crossed over the bridge heading into to the back hills of the course a spot she would hold as they came back out of the woods.

She held her position well in the long straight to the finish line as she was safely in the top ten earning eight h place. With her qualification she becomes the eighth Maine high school girl to make the Footlocker National Championship

She told the Portland Press Herald "I wasn't feeling super great but it went better than I thought it would."


Footlocker National Qualifiers



Maine Athlete History at Footlocker National Championships

YEAR

NAMEHIGH SCHOOL

PLACE

TIME

1979

Todd HewsWaterville

10

15:33.0

1985

Susannah BeckWaynflete

5

17:20.6

1986

Laura DuffyKennebunk

14

17:55.0

1993

Molly DinanGreely

18

18:18.0

1994

Gladys GanielNarraguagus

6

17:25.9

1995

Matt LaneYarmouth

4

15:26.5

1996

Parker PruettSumner

29

16:38.0

1997

Louie LuchiniEllsworth

11

15:59.0

1998

Louie LuchiniEllsworth

2

15:23.8

2002

Ben TrueGreely

9

15:16.1

2003

Ben TrueGreely

5

15:02.0

2009

Abbey LeonardiKennebunk

22

18:11

2009

Emily DurginCheverus

37

18:41

2010

Abbey LeonardiKennebunk

16

17:57

2011

Matt McClintockMadison1515:31.3

2011

Abbey LeonardiKennebunk417:35.3

2013

Josef Holt-AndrewsTelstar10 15:29.1

2013

Dan CurtsEllsworth1915:43.5 

2013

Kirstin SandreuterGreely 2018:07.2




Over at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, NY Lisandro Berry-Gaviria of Mt Ararat was competing in the Nike North East Regional for a bid to compete in the NXN National Championship in Oregon next weekend.

The two time Class A state champion found himself in the middle of the pack at the mile, but then started his move on the tough hills where he found himself right behind the leaders of the race Ryan Oosting and Zachary Kinne.

Once he caught up to the leaders he realized that if he held his position he would qualify for Nationals.

"I was like holy crap, holy crap if I hold this I'm in." Berry-Gaviria commented after the race.

Despite his legs searing in pain he did hold it and finished third in 16:11.8

Berry-Gaviria told MileSplit after the race,"I thought it was a long shot that I could qualify, but I laid it all out there, and it went better than I could have hoped."

With his qualifying finish Lisandro becomes the first Maine athlete to qualify for the Nike XC Nationals.


Boys 5K Run Championship
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                               1st      2nd
PLACE  PTS NAME                YR TEAM                               TIME      2.5K     2.5K
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    1    1 Ryan Oosting        SR Arlington Track Club              15:50.1   7:57.9   7:52.2 
    2    2 Zachary Kinne       SR Wexford Flats                     16:06.8   8:00.6   8:06.2 
    3      Lisandro Berry-Gavi JR UNA-ME-Berry-Gaviria              16:11.8   8:00.8   8:11.0 
    4      John McGovern       SR Trojan XC                         16:13.8   8:01.4   8:12.4 
    5    3 Jack McMahon        SR Hawks TC                          16:14.6   8:13.2   8:01.4 
    6    4 Tim McInerney       SR Brothers Track Club               16:14.8   8:05.7   8:09.1 
    7    5 Luke Reid           SR Brothers Track Club               16:15.4   8:09.0   8:06.4 
    8    6 Alex Ehrenthal      SR Patriot Athletics                 16:16.8   8:16.8   8:00.0 
    9    7 Shaw Powell         JR Brothers Track Club               16:18.5   8:08.9   8:09.6 
   10    8 Max Dimuccio        JR LSA Running Club                  16:19.0   8:04.1   8:14.9