We’ve just finished the month of February and that means it’s championship season for many trackletes nationwide. Tons of fast times were thrown down this weekend between D1 Conference Meets, high school regional meets, and last chance invitationals. The New England running scene highlighted a very good chunk of that action. The LVL couldn’t make it to any meets this weekend, but we have the results and some New England athletes are worthy of a late season shoutout:

BU Last Chance Meet

• Dejen Gebremeskel (Adidas) smashes the facility record with a stellar showing in the 3k. His 7’38.03 bested the rest of the field by a good 28 seconds, with NE10 Mile/3k champ Leakey Kipkosgei 2nd in 8’06. Five women crept under the 10 minute mark, including BAA studs Elaina Balouris (9’09.18), her teammate Emily Lipari (9’14.28), and Heartbreaker Rosa Moriello (9’37.98).
• Nacho Hernando (Unattached/Southern NH University) takes the W in the 5k via 14’43.71 with Penman teammate Tyler McLaren 2nd in his first sub-15 trip (14’58.46). NE Distance athlete Katrina Spratford broke the tape on the women’s side with a 16’45.09.
• Bryce Basting paced the mile with a 3’59.91, narrowly edging out Flynn Running’s Kevin Greene, who must be dying to find out the true thousandths of a second timing of his 4’00.00 performance (they round up in F.A.T). On the women’s end, three broke the 4’30 barrier. Canada’s Sheila Reid (4’27.57) lead New England natives Rachel Schneider (4’28.50) and Morgan Uceny (4’29.08).

CNESSPA Championships (High School New Englands)

• DJ Principe cranks out a sub-9 2 mile to win the show and break the meet record with his 8’59.05. His La Salle teammate Jack Salisbury won the title in the 1k (2’28.40).
• NH State XC Champ Maegen Doody (Oyster River, NH) narrowly misses a meet record in the 1k with her 2’49.31.
• BU Legend Mark Kimball’s running genes are clearly passed down to his son Liam, who placed 2nd in the boy’s mile (4’18.14)

For many New England post-collegians, that was the end to a fantastic indoor campaign. Some of the big gun will move on to compete at USATF Nationals. But the vast majority of us will be hitting the roads for the An Ras Mor 5k. And all of us will be keeping things #onthelvl