Tam Gavenas makes history as national cross country champion

For the fourth time in the 45-year history of the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, the national title goes to Massachusetts.

After taking the lead on the grueling climb at the 2.5-mile mark of the race, Phillips Academy Andover senior Tam Gavenas raced down the backstretch to win the national championship in 15 minutes, 23.9 seconds at Balboa Park in San Diego.

Two other Massachusetts runners placed in the top 10 of 40 runners, with Westford Academy senior Jack Graffeo finishing third (15:34.5) and Bishop Guertin (NH) senior Matthew Giardina, a Tyngsborough resident , seventh (15:44.1). ). Falmouth junior Silas Gartner, the only other Bay State runner to qualify, placed 36th (16:31.2).

Previous Massachusetts national champions were English High’s Abdirizak Mohamud, who won the title in 1996 and 1997, and Northbridge’s Sydney Masciarelli, who won the girls’ race in 2018 while running for Marianapolis Prep School (Conn.).

“It feels good,” Gavenas said. “I was really nervous, like most of the competitors, and I thought [I’d be in a good position] as long as I stayed with the lead pack and followed my plan. I had a plan before the race and I executed it.

Gavenas was the only runner in Saturday’s field to have qualified for nationals three times, having finished 30th (15:49.8) as a sophomore in 2022 and third (15:16.5) as a junior.

This season, he set course records in victories at the Manchester Invitational, Black Bear Invitational and NEPSTA Division 1 championships before placing second at the Foot Locker Regionals at Franklin Park – only Graffeo finished ahead of him.

But even though Gavenas was battling plantar fasciitis, which had limited him since mid-October, his goal remained to return to San Diego and win the national crown on a difficult course.

“I got injured in the middle of the season, and just coming back, I just wanted to be here and just qualify for regionals,” Gavenas said. “And then I came here and thought I had a chance, and with 0.5 [miles] to go there, I said to myself: “Okay, this is my chance. »

Massachusetts was the only state to have three runners in the men’s top 10 and one of two states, along with California, to have at least four runners qualify for the competition.

Graffeo found himself at the front of the pack for the first kilometer of the race, eventually falling behind Gavenas and the other leaders halfway before a strong finish on the final climb dropped him back to third place.

“I wanted to sit down [behind] ” said Graffeo.

Even though the result wasn’t exactly what Graffeo hoped for, his result still capped off one of the great MIAA cross country seasons of all time: after missing the first month of this fall due to From injury, he was undefeated heading into Saturday, with a dominant showing. wins the Twilight Invitational, Division 1 All-States and Foot Locker regional tournaments.

Graffeo’s third-place effort made him the only Bay State runner, other than Gavenas, to place in the top three at the Foot Locker Nationals since Mohamud won national titles in 1997.

“When I saw that there was someone in front of me, I just said to myself: ‘You wanted to win, at least you can [finish top three]“, Graffeo said. “So I just kicked it.”

On the girls’ side, with no qualifiers from Massachusetts, junior Elizabeth Leachman of San Antonio, Texas, built a commanding lead in the second half of the race to win her second consecutive national title (17:39 ,9).

Top finishers from the Northeast region were Zariel Macchia of Shirley, New York, in third place (17:49.6), and Virginia Kraus of Bethelham, Pa., in eighth place (18:04.6) .