Globe South Sports

In Mansfield, runners

are racing to the track

Practice started last week for Mansfield’s Division 1 championship team, which drew 80 boys to tryouts. (Photos By Rose Lincoln for The Boston Globe)

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / August 30, 2009

The numbers, Julie Collins admits, are a bit overwhelming.

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Just how popular is the Mansfield High boys’ cross-country team? Eighty runners have come out for the squad this season, the defending Division 1 state champions. So Collins, starting her fourth season as coach, was a bit relieved when 11 of her team’s top runners missed the first few days of practice last week to attend a prestigious running camp in New Hampshire.

“That helps for the first two days, it helps me at least learn the names of the freshmen and newcomers and put names with faces and hopefully have it by the weekend,’’ said Collins. “I won’t be calling the kids ‘Hey you.’ ’’

“It allows me to pay a little more attention to the second-tier kids. We have 11 freshmen signed up and a bunch of new sophomores doing cross-country for the first time. I get a better look at those kids.’’

Senior captains Patrick McGowan, Brendan Boyle, and Matt Hernon were among the 11 who attended the two-week Foss Running Camp in Strafford, N.H. Their absence gave junior Shayne Collins, the coach’s son, and others the opportunity to step into a leadership role for a few days.

“It kind of teaches us how to be leaders for next year when we are going to be the captains,’’ said Shayne Collins, who registered a team-best seventh-place finish at the all-state meet last fall.

And while the underclassmen had a chance to settle in before the arrival of the top runners, the return of the captains provides a needed jolt.

“When the guys from camp come back everyone is excited about it and everyone is like ‘alright, the season has officially begun,’ ’’ said McGowan, who finished 13th at the all-states.

His finish (16 minutes, 36 seconds) remarkably followed an injury that sidelined him for nearly a month. After finishing 10th at the Brown Invitational, McGowan suffered tendonitis that caused his knee to balloon. Unable to run for three weeks, he could only jog in a pool and hop on an elliptical machine.

“I still had my base,’’ McGowan said, citing his fitness level upon his return, and credited aqua jogging, though grudgingly. “During the race I told myself ‘I didn’t do all this work just to give up.’

“Running is a love-hate relationship; I say aqua jogging is a hate-hate relationship.’’

With McGowan not at full strength, Shayne Collins recorded the team’s top time (16:27) at the all-state meet, pacing Mansfield’s average time (16:51.18) for the afternoon.

“You have to run with the upperclassmen every day and it hurts because you’re not in shape with them and you don’t have the experience,’’ Shayne Collins said. “You just have to run with them every day and make it hurt every day.’’

One likely, yet unlikely, candidate for the team’s fifth slot is senior Jeff Boyle, twin of Brendan Boyle.

Brendan persuaded his brother, who played two seasons of football and is on the varsity basketball team, to run spring track last year. Jeff’s 4:50 mile made him want to test his legs at longer distances.

“He has natural talent,’’ said Brendan.

Jeff Boyle has held his own this summer during captain’s workouts, which averaged 25 runners per session Monday through Friday.

Mansfield graduated just three of its top seven runners, each of whom will compete collegiately this fall: Kevin Meagher (Nova Southeastern University); Patrick Grimes (Amherst); and Josh Brodin (Worcester Poly Tech).

Mansfield will no longer be the underdog.

“We knew we couldn’t continue sort of being the chasers and hunters,’’ Julie Collins said. “This year we’re definitely prey. So it’s a different pressure. I actually think it’s a tougher position. We’ll see how they can do. We have lots of leadership.’’

Luckily for the coach, that leadership started chasing this year’s state championship the moment after they won last year’s.

“As soon as he finished the race last year Brendan Boyle immediately started talking about the state meet this year,’’ she said. “They are a very bright and smart, focused group of kids.’’

In the meantime, the coach is just trying to figure out how to handle 80 runners. Last season, after her numbers grew from 30 to 50, she hired retired Boston University cross-country coach Peter Schuder, a Mansfield resident, as an assistant.

“Peter enjoys giving the kids nicknames because he can’t remember names,’’ Julie Collins said. “Everyone gets a nickname after the first week of practice.’’

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.