Matson & Berry-Gaviria Advance to Nationals
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 | NAME | HIGH SCHOOL | PLACE | TIME |
1979 | Todd Hews | Waterville | 10 | 15:33.0 |
1985 | Susannah Beck | Waynflete | 5 | 17:20.6 |
1986 | Laura Duffy | Kennebunk | 14 | 17:55.0 |
1993 | Molly Dinan | Greely | 18 | 18:18.0 |
1994 | Gladys Ganiel | Narraguagus | 6 | 17:25.9 |
1995 | Matt Lane | Yarmouth | 4 | 15:26.5 |
1996 | Parker Pruett | Sumner | 29 | 16:38.0 |
1997 | Louie Luchini | Ellsworth | 11 | 15:59.0 |
1998 | Louie Luchini | Ellsworth | 2 | 15:23.8 |
2002 | Ben True | Greely | 9 | 15:16.1 |
2003 | Ben True | Greely | 5 | 15:02.0 |
2009 | Abbey Leonardi | Kennebunk | 22 | 18:11 |
2009 | Emily Durgin | Cheverus | 37 | 18:41 |
2010 | Abbey Leonardi | Kennebunk | 16 | 17:57 |
2011 | Matt McClintock | Madison | 15 | 15:31.3 |
2011 | Abbey Leonardi | Kennebunk | 4 | 17:35.3 |
2013 | Josef Holt-Andrews | Telstar | 10 | 15:29.1 |
2013 | Dan Curts | Ellsworth | 19 | 15:43.5 |
2013 | Kirstin Sandreuter | Greely | 20 | 18:07.2 |
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
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1st 2nd
PLACE PTS NAME YR TEAM TIME 2.5K 2.5K
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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