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Phillips Andover’s Tam Gavenas makes history as third national Foot Locker Cross-Country champion from Massachusetts
For the fourth time in the 45-year history of the Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships, the national title is coming home to Massachusetts.
After vaulting into the lead on the grueling uphill stretch at the race’s 2.5-mile mark, Phillips Academy Andover senior Tam Gavenas cruised down the backstretch to claim the national championship in 15 minutes, 23.9 seconds at Balboa Park in San Diego.
Two other Massachusetts runners placed in the top 10 of the 40-runner field, with Westford Academy senior Jack Graffeo finishing third (15:34.5), and Bishop Guertin (N.H.) senior Matthew Giardina, a Tyngsborough resident, claiming seventh (15:44.1). Falmouth junior Silas Gartner, the only other Bay State runner to qualify, placed 36th (16:31.2).
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Massachusetts’ previous national champions were English High’s Abdirizak Mohamud, who won the title in 1996 and 1997, and Sydney Masciarelli, of Northbridge, who won the girls’ race in 2018 while racing for Marianapolis Prep School (Conn.).
“It feels pretty good,” Gavenas said. “I was really nervous, as most competitors are, and I thought [I’d be in a good position] as long as I stuck with the lead pack and followed my plan. I had a plan before the race, and I executed it.”
Gavenas was the only runner in Saturday’s field to have qualified for nationals three times, having finished in 30th (15:49.8) as a sophomore in 2022 and third (15:16.5) as a junior.
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This season, he set course records in his victories at the Manchester Invitational, Black Bear Invitational, and NEPSTA Division 1 championship before placing second at Foot Locker Regionals at Franklin Park — only Graffeo finished ahead of him.
But even as Gavenas battled plantar fasciitis, which limited him since mid-October, his focus remained on returning to San Diego and capturing the national crown on a challenging course.
“I got injured in the middle of the season, and just getting back, I just wanted to be here and basically only qualify in regionals,” Gavenas said. “And then I came here and I thought I had a shot, and with 0.5 [miles] to go, I was like, ‘OK, this is my chance.’”
Massachusetts was the only state with three runners in the boys’ top 10, and was one of two states, along with California, to have at least four runners qualify for the meet.
Graffeo ended up at the front of the pack for the race’s first mile, ultimately falling behind Gavenas and the other leaders at the halfway point before a strong finish on the final uphill climb vaulted him back to third.
“I wanted to sit [behind] the lead pack, but I found myself kind of in the front, and I think that probably wastes a little more energy than I wanted to, but at the end of the day, I put myself in a position where I could win it,” Graffeo said.
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While the result wasn’t exactly as Graffeo hoped, his finish still capped off one of the great MIAA cross-country seasons of all time: After missing the first month of this fall with an injury, he was undefeated prior to Saturday, with dominant wins at the Twilight Invitational, Division 1 All-States, and Foot Locker Regionals.
Graffeo’s third-place effort made him the only Bay State runner, other than Gavenas, to place in the top three of Foot Locker Nationals since Mohamud won the national titles in 1997.
“When I saw that there was someone in front of me, I was just telling myself that, ‘You wanted to win, at the very least, you can [finish top three],’ ” Graffeo said. “So I just kicked.”
On the girls’ side, while there were no qualifiers from Massachusetts, junior Elizabeth Leachman of San Antonio, Texas, took a commanding lead in the second half of the race to win her second straight national title (17:39.9).
The highest finishers from the Northeast region were Zariel Macchia of Shirley, N.Y., in third place (17:49.6), and Virginia Kraus of Bethelham, Pa., in eighth place (18:04.6).
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