NORTHFIELD — Spread out. Gangway. Pentucket's Alanna Poretta is coming through.
On Saturday at Northfield's Mountain Recreation Center, Pentucket's cross country shooting star took the 2009 MIAA All State Meet by storm, winning the Division II girls competition and claiming her first state championship in her final cross country season.
With 147 girls and 16 qualified teams, Poretta was one of a handful of runners who were representing their school as a single athlete. However, the reality for Poretta was even more isolated — she was the lone female qualifier from the entire River Rival Region, a distinction she captured when she placed 5th at the Eastern MA Divisionals held at Boston's Franklin Park.
"That showing at the Divisionals was really out of her hands," said Pentucket girls coach Todd Ruland. "The weather was just horrible, and I think that race may have focused her even more for All-States."
When the gun sounded and the runners fled into the trails and up Northfield's initial hill, Poretta and two other runners (Swampscott's Lindsay Walsh and Bishop Feehan's Viviana Hanley) distanced themselves from the pack.
Step for step the girls raced, until the last hill emerged and Walsh sprinted ahead, doing her best to cruise up the concluding hill and finally separate from a chasing Poretta. But it would not be for the Swampscott senior.
Poretta, still on Walsh's heels, outran her on the downside, using her notorious speed — Poretta has a personal record 1-mile run timed at 4:57.83 — to catapult her into state champion pedigree.
Poretta's official time was clocked in at 19:08.8 with a pace of 6:09.8. Walsh placed second with a time of 19:11.8, and Hanley placed third in 19:19.3.
With family, friends and Ruland there for support, Poretta's intense training regimen, a schedule that orbited around 60-70 miles per week, clearly paid dividends. Poretta said she felt as strong as she had all year.
"I felt really good throughout the whole race, just in control," said Poretta. "There wasn't any point in the race where I thought that I had it won, because there is such good competition and any number of things could happen. All I could do was run as hard and as fast as I possibly could with every of ounce of strength in my body. You just have to finish as hard as you can."
Poretta's cross country progression has been quite the up-hill journey. Never placing higher than 4th at the Cape Ann League Open, Poretta blasted all local competition in her senior year — placing first nearly a minute ahead of the next finisher. Never placing higher than 15th at All-States, a race she's qualified for since her freshman year, Poretta made the jump from middle of the pack to alpha runner in impressive fashion. The only setback Poretta has encountered all season had nothing to do with her abilities — Hurricane Ida was obligated to share the wealth that particular weekend. The fifth-place finish was still a disappointment for Poretta.
"Last week's weather was really discouraging but my team and my coaches kept me in a good state of mind," said Poretta. "That's what we tried to do throughout the season: to keep each other positive. It was very nice to have so many supporters."
Cited by Poretta as being "a great coach" who knew how to keep a team upbeat, Ruland wasn't surprised by Poretta's performance, but stated that despite the 17-year-old's terrific times, she's a hard one to predict.
"She has been dominant all year long," said Ruland, who had to implement boosted speed training for Poretta, simply because three-mile practice routines weren't enough of a challenge. "She knows exactly what she needs to do, and even though the entire girls team was amazing this year, Alanna set an example with wanting to go that extra mile.
"She's very independent about her running," said Ruland. "She never lost her focus, and it was clear that she entered this year with a goal in mind. Well, she just got it."
Also competing at All-States was the Newburyport boys cross country team — the lone River Rival Region team to qualify. Going undefeated in the CAL large at 12-0 and obliterating all-comers in the CAL Open, the Clippers were unable to improve upon an impressive second place showing at divisionals, and ended their season in Northfield placing eighth out of 16 teams with 196 points (1:31:05.61) and an average time of 18:13.12.
Running hard for the Clippers were sophomore Chris Suprin (40th; 17:43.3), junior Brian Morse (62nd; 18:05.3), junior Ryan Clark (70th; 18:23.3), junior Chris Jayne (71st; 18:25.4), senior Greg Englehart (74th; 18:28.3), and sophomore Keith Conway (90th; 18:38.1).
An unfortunate incident occurred when senior stalwart Sean Hickman collapsed a mile in.
"It was definitely kind of strange," said Hickman. "My body just shut down, and I lost some sensation in my legs. I wasn't able to finish the race, so obviously that was pretty unfortunate."
Regardless of the eighth-place finish, Hickman knows the season was anything but a failure.
"We came in wanting to win the state championship so we knew we had to take care of the CAL first," said Hickman. "We took it a dual meet at a time and we had a great time. Going 12-0 was really enjoyable, as was winning the CAL Open. It was nice to get another title for Coach Hennigar, as well."
Clipper senior captain Englehart admitted his disappointment, but acknowledged that his team came away with some great memories.
"It was very frustrating to not achieve the goal we started the season with, but we definitely understand that what we did this season, not many teams get to experience what we went through," said Englehart. "It was a great experience."
