NETT men's, women's team win Andover XC titles

New England Track & Trail had a banner day at the Andover Country Club 6K XC Race this weekend, claiming both the Men's and Women's team titles at Andover for the first time.

It was a day for superlatives. The NETT Ponyettes came out in full force, fielding what is likely the strongest women's team ever assembled. While the women's race only scored top three, NETT would have taken the title if they scored top seven in this puppy! Finishing for NETT's women's team were: Karen Ringheiser, newcomer Mary Smith, Tina Wang, Adrienne Cyrulik, Jennifer Shultis, Laura Wieland, Deb Robertson, and Karen Miller-Medzon. Congrats on a well-run race ladies! VERY impressive turnout, running and scoring all around. It's a team win!


On the men's side, it was also a numbers game with NETT putting out a full squad with very good XC running from its runners. Up front Paul Miller ran a very strong race finishing second overall, setting NETT up nicely. Crazy Dave dropped the ball and let three guys scoot past in the last mile to score, but our 3-4-5 combination of always steady Paul Young, Dave Mingori and Jerry De Zutter sealed the deal with tight pack running (these three Woostah guys have been running races together like this for years and are a huge advantage in team scoring!) Big Ben Winther put out a great effort and Frank KJ toughed out an off-day but was there if we needed him to go all out. And Laura's boyfriend Kevin (sorry Kevin--didn't get your last name), laced 'em up and came out for the NETT squad as well. Again, a true team win.



Karen Miller-Medzon's two sons, Noah and Daniel, were also on the NETT team and represented us very well, both running strong with Daniel taking the Under 19 age category!

Special thanks to  Janos (aka the Hungarian Landshark), and Deb's mom (aka Mrs Roberston, I presume?)! And of course, our team photographer Nicholas again did a fantastic job of capturing the moment! Thanks again.

It's a long way from the early days of NETT, when we could barely assemble a five-man team at the 2002 Andover race (it was Dave, Paul Miller and three guys borrowed from Wheelworks, who we barley knew--at least then!) It was the first race we entered as NETT and we've been back to Andover every year since.

(Big Ben screams "Hey, who wants another BEER? I'm BUYIN'")

UPDATE: For those of you asking about the BET between the men's and women's team, as I had planned it, the bet was based on PLACING as a team--so since we were BOTH first place in our respective divisions, it's a TIE and will roll over to the Melrose Race. (If you score the first three runners on each team, it would be the men's team winning, I think, but that wasn't the bet as I understood it).

So it's onto the Melrose race in two weeks for the breakfast bet. Three people score on each team.