When you’re an elite talent like Abbie McNulty, a runner that’s focused and determined to achieve great things each time she steps foot on the line, one race is not going to break you.
Putting aside a heartbreaker at the MIAA All-State Meet two weeks ago, the Bishop Feehan (Mass.) senior and Cumberland (R.I.) resident earned a trip to the west coast on Saturday by placing second at the Northeast Regionals of the Nike Cross-Country (NXN) Nationals.
On a tough and hilly course in upstate New York, McNulty finished the five-kilometer distance at Wappingers Falls’ Bowdoin Park in a time of 18 minutes, 3.5 seconds. She was five seconds from individual winner Courtney Smith, a senior from Unionville High in Pennsylvania, who was timed in 17:58.59.
Smith, a national-ranked runner like McNulty and her state’s recent Division I champion, put on a surge the final 200 meters of the race to hold off her rival.
“Abbie was leading for like 3.05 miles,” Bishop Feehan coach Bob L’Homme said. “It was a great race. Abbie ran really smart.”
McNulty’s time this past weekend was the second fastest of the day. It also ranks her No. 15 all-time, a half a second ahead of recent 12K world-record holder Molly Huddle.
L’Homme knew his star runner could rebound from her DNF at the All-State meet on Nov. 12 where McNulty led the Div. 1 race for more than two miles before collapsing to the ground, apparently due to a lightning-fast pace in the early stages of the race.
“The Wednesday after the state meet she had a pretty good workout so that made me pretty confident,” L’Homme said. “Last Saturday, it didn’t look good. She didn’t quite finish the workout. It made me a little nervous. But she is really so focused and has that ability to zone everything off.”
McNulty got a little extra motivation for the Nike meet midway into the week. Shalane Flanagan, one of the top distance runners in the U.S. and a former three-time Mass. Div. 2 titlist, sent the Shamrock runner a few words of encouragement. It was an arrangement that was set up by a personal friend of the Flanagan family and L’Homme, Rhode Runner Sports (R.I.) owner Bob Bishoff.
Flanagan, an American record-holder and bronze medalist in the 10,000-meter run at the 2008 Olympics, suffered a few heartbreaking experiences herself while at Marblehead High. In the regionals of the Foot Locker Nationals her junior year, she collapsed near the finish and never crossed the line. The following year, a blistering pace at the regionals did her in again and she missed qualifying for the nationals the second straight year.
“The note she sent to Abbie,” L’Homme said, “was something to the effect of keep your chin up and good things will happen.”
McNulty will fly out to Portland, Oregon this week for the NXN, which will be held at Portland Meadows on Saturday. She’ll be joined by four more New Englanders, sophomore Emma McMillan of Barrington (R.I.), senior Autumn Eastman of Champlain Valley (Vt.), senior Christian Stafford of Pembroke (Mass.) and senior Trevor Hopper of Ridgefield (Conn.).
Eastman, a two-time qualifier, solidified her spot by taking third overall in 18:27.6. McMillan finished fourth in her race with a time of 18:31.1.
“I never doubt anything Emma does,” said Barrington coach Anne Marie Marino. “She’s a hard working kid and she just goes for it. I think she knew she had a chance. It was just in her head that she was going to do it.”
McMillan, who captured her second straight R.I. state title in early November and was sixth at the New England Championship, ran a gusty race from the gun.
“She was with the leaders most of the way,” Marino said. “She was in the lead at one point, probably about 1 ¼, which was right before a big hill. It might have been too aggressive, but she was trying to go for it.”
McMillan becomes the second Eagle runner to make it to the nationals in the last few years. In 2009, then-junior Abby Jones earned the trip.
“It will be interesting to see what she might do,” Marino said. “I think she’ll have fun with it."
As expected, Unionville (85 points) and fellow in-state rival Pennsbury (101 points) took the top two positions to qualify as a team for the national meet. Coe-Brown of New Hampshire (129 points), the New England champion, was third and received an at-large berth to Oregon.
Bishop Feehan placed a respectable fourth with 184 points and Barrington was fifth with 204.
“We were all really pleased,” L’Homme said. ”We were actually in the hunt for a while. If you look at the regional rankings, Unionville and Pennsbury were supposed to finish one and two and Coe Brown was third. Barrington and La Salle (seventh, 256 points) were predicted to finish ahead of us. I am really happy. The girls really ran tough.”
“We figured we would be anywhere between third and sixth,” Marino admitted. “Honestly, fourth, fifth or sixth is where we probably belonged, but we were hoping for third.”
After winning the state title the previous two years and capturing the New England crown last year, Barrington capped off another solid fall campaign with its finish at the regionals.
“We had a strong start of the season as far as training,” Marino said. “We hit kind of a low a little bit, but came on strong towards the competitive part of the season – the state meet, the New England meet and the regionals. I am proud at how they did.”
Pembroke’s Stafford was the top New England finisher in the boys’ championship race, taking fourth overall with a time of 15:50.9. Ridgefield’s Hopper, the Connecticut and New England champion, was fifth with a 15:53.5 clocking.
Mass. Div. 2 champion Nick Carleo of Newburyport (Mass.) was tenth in 16:01.4. Finishing 11th overall was Bishop Hendricken senior and R.I. state titlist Colin Tierney with a time of 16:01.8.
Ridgefield placed third as a team with 151 points. La Salle was eighth with 224 points and Hendricken was ninth with 319 points. Christian Brothers Academy (N.J.), the country’s top-ranked team, won its fourth straight team title by amassing 85 points.
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The Foot Locker Northeast Regionals, also held this past Saturday, had four New England runners qualify for the nationals at San Diego’s Balboa Park on Dec. 14.
In the girls’ race, Phillip Andover (Mass.) senior Anoush Shehadah, a 2012 finalist, finished second at New York’s historic Van Cortlandt Park with a time of 17:37.3. Staples (Conn.) sophomore Hannah DeBalsi placed third overall with a 17:39.4 clocking.
The Nutmeg State had two more athletes qualify for the nationals. Returning finalist Christian Alvarado of Fairfield Prep was the runner-up in the boys’ race with a time of 15:21.5. Just a few strides behind in third was Darien junior Alexander Ostberg at 15:22.5.