NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — It was another week, another race of a lifetime for Marblehead High’s Nate Assa in the New England Outdoor Track and Field Championships, held Saturday at Veterans Stadium Willowbrook Park.
Against the best of the best, Assa captured first place in the 3,200-meter race with a time of 9:04.57, defeating Portsmouth’s Sean Gray (9:05.27) by a split-second.
The victory comes after the prior weekend’s MIAA Meet of Champions, in which do-it-all Assa recorded first place in the 2-mile (9:14.52) and fourth in the mile (4:13.55).
“It’s been such an incredible journey watching Nate this year. There have been 900 2-mile runners logged this spring season in Massachusetts, and there have been over 2,000 2-milers logged across New England this spring. Yet, Nate Assa is the best of them all,” said Marblehead Coach Nolan Raimo. “He had the entire high school talking about distance running when he attended Nationals in indoor. I had dozens of non-track athletes ask how fast they could run a mile . . . What if they really trained? He made distance running cool.”
