WRENTHAM — There was a pretty clear message being shared after Michael Mohoric crossed the Wrentham Development Center finish line and was congratulated by his Newburyport coaches.
“Step 1, done!”
And this time, it was even more emphatic than last year.
On Saturday afternoon, Mohoric opened the stretch of playoff cross country meets by defending his CAL Open individual title. The two-time Daily News MVP won by nearly 20 seconds a year ago on the same course (15:41.79), and basically posted a similar time with a 15:45.70 this year to earn the crown back by 40 seconds.
Now, you could argue that winning every single regular season meet to lead the Newburyport boys to their eighth straight CAL Kinney title — while breaking two course records in the process — was “Step 1” of the plan for the entire season. But after now handling business to go back-to-back at the CAL Open, Mohoric has his sights set on winning the upcoming Division 2B Sectional followed by D2 All-States.
“He’s a talented kid,” began Newburyport coach Don Hennigar on Mohoric. “and he did a good job like he always does.”
And on Saturday, he certainly wasn’t alone.
Both the Newburyport boys and girls placed second overall as teams — behind Hamilton-Wenham — at the CAL Open. For the boys the Clippers just narrowly missed out on the team title, finishing with 51 points to the Generals’ 49, while on the girls’ side the Generals took the crown with 48 points while the Clippers came home with 60.
But the boys put together an excellent race.
In particular, Nordeen Fadil kicked hard at the end to nearly earn himself a bronze medal, but still surprised to take fourth overall out of the 73 competing runners in 16:33.70. The exciting rookie already broke the Maudslay State Park freshman record earlier in the year, and now adds a top-5 in his first ever league meet. Then to round out the scoring for the Clippers, Jack DeJordy was right behind in sixth (16:44.20), Finn Deveney was 16th (17:24.90) and Nolan Winters was 24th (17:50.10).
“We knew it would be close overall for the team championship, and it was, but we had a good day,” said Hennigar. “Nordeen Fadil had a great day for us. A couple of guys didn’t run quite as well as they could of, but nobody bombed. It’s not like anybody really had a bad day. So I’m happy with it.”
Then for the girls, some elite depth nearly won the day.
A quick glance at the leaderboard would show you that Lydia Boddy in 10th place (20:48.90) was the “only” Clipper inside of the top-10 on the day. But just below her, you would see an absolute clump of Clippers with Meilia Simone in 12th (21:17.80), Abby Porto in 13th (21:19.10), Isla Trail in 14th (21:23.20), Lauren LaRosa in 16th (21:40.10), Morgan Boddy in 18th (21:44.50) and Riley Boddy in 23rd (22:19.70).
“We’ve had that big pack that all stride together for the girls,” said Hennigar. “All-in-all, we had a really good day, no complaints at all.”
So now, both Newburyport teams will gear up for the Division 2B Sectional way out in Northfield on Nov. 8th. A top-7 finish as a team out there will earn the Clippers a spot in the State Meet, but indivdual runners can still qualify based on their time.
“Our section is loaded,” said Hennigar. “We can do it, but it’s not going to be easy.”
AMESBURY: Jezowski, Fugate earn medals inside top-10
The fall isn’t over quite yet.
But it’s safe to say that Josiah Fugate has already improved upon his Daily News All-Star season from a year ago.
The Amesbury junior once again placed inside of the top-10 at the CAL Open, crossing the finish line in 16:45.90 to earn seventh and improve upon both his placing and time from last year (9th, 17:07.39). He led the Redhawk boys to a fifth-place overall team finish with 116 points, and was followed by Harrison Sullivan in 19th (17:27.10), Ty Giangregorio in 20th (17:40.50) and Landon Mitchell in 32nd (18:13.20).
Then for the Amesbury girls, Haley Jezowski went out with a top-10.
The senior put together an excellent race on Saturday, finishing eighth in 20:29.00 to lead the Redhawks to a sixth-place team finish (135 points). Behind her were teammates Anna Kirby in 21st (22.15.70), Abby Morin in 25th (22:48.90), Gemma Peacock in 42nd (24.11.80) and Juliette Cordes in 47th (24:59.80).
PENTUCKET: Shikes paces boys to sixth
The Pentucket boys took sixth as a team at the CAL Open with 136 points, with its top-5 runners all finishing within 12 spots of each other.
Leading the clump was junior Grayson Shikes, who placed 21st in 17:43.60. Then behind him was Zack Hannula in 23rd (17:46.20), Nicholas Hunter in 29th (18:11.30), Benjamin Pierce in 30th (18:11.40) and Owen McDonald in 33rd (18:17.30).
TRITON: All-Star runners Jaworski, McBee get the job done
The upwards trend for Mia Jaworski is easy for anyone to see.
The Daily News All-Star out of Triton placed in the 20s at the CAL Open two years ago as a freshman, then leaped up to 10th last year as a sophomore (20:52.56). But on Saturday, the junior shaved nearly 40 seconds off her time from a year ago and placed sixth out of 61 runners in 20:11.30.
Jaworski was our top local female runner from the Daily News area.
Then a similar picture can be painted when it comes to Cassidy McBee in the boys’ race.
As a freshman in 2023: 14th, 18:13.10.
As a sophomore in 2024: 5th, 16:39.93.
And now as a junior this fall, McBee just kept improving his CAL Open record and took third on Saturday with a time of 16:33.40. The two-time Daily News All-Star helped the Vikings finish fourth as a team with 108 points. He was then followed by Josh Ferris in 12th (17:12.70), Clay Erickson in 13th (17:17.50), Ezra Carlson in 34th (18:24.20) and Casey Wallwork in 46th (19:01.50).