Cuozzo enjoying the 3-sport life
Norfolk's Allie Cuozzo is running from one season to the next as a freshman student-athlete at Union College -- and savoring every moment.
Less than after 24 hours after legging out a seventh-place finish in the 800 meters at last Saturday's NCAA Division 3 Track & Field Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., Cuozzo was back on campus in Schenectady, N.Y., cheering on her lacrosse teammates in their season-opener against Bates.
"I was a bit antsy. I got back on campus about 10 minutes before the game started," said Cuozzo, who said she was "a little sore" after logging her first lacrosse practice session on Monday.
"Hopefully, I can work my way into the starting lineup at some point."
The former King Philip Regional three-sport standout has already made quite an impact in her first year at Union, both as a middle-distance runner this winter and a defender on the women's soccer team last fall.
On the track team, she shattered five school records, earned five Liberty League Rookie of the Week honors, and became the college's first female to qualify for the NCAA track and field championships, either indoor or outdoor.
Her seventh-place finish last weekend earned her All-America status, also a first for the program.
Coach Larry Cottrell "asked me before the season what my goals were, and I said 'to qualify for nationals,' " said Cuozzo. "Right from the beginning, I was able to do it."
In her senior year at King Philip, Cuozzo said, she was "overwhelmed" when she ran the 800 at the national high school indoor championships in New York City. "I just didn't run a good race," she recalled.
But last weekend, she felt much more at ease, and that confidence was reflected in her performance.
"I just felt that I was just as good as anyone else, and track is so much more mental" than other sports, she said.
She also altered her approach, realizing that her strong finishing kick might not be enough to catch the competition in this race. "So I went out fast and then hung on at the end," said Cuozzo, who logged a personal-best minutes 15.25 seconds in the preliminaries and a 2:15.57 finish in the final.
"It ended up working out pretty well, and I guess you could say I was surprised," said Cuozzo. "That was pretty neat, and it was fun to get back on campus and be congratulated."
Now, her attention shifts to the lacrosse field, where she will once again team up with her sister Caitlin, an All-American junior forward for the Dutchwomen. Last fall, the Cuozzos played pivotal roles for the women's soccer team, which went 14-3-3 and reached the first round of the NCAA tournament. Allie made 18 starts at right back and Caitlin was again an All-America selection at forward.
"If my sister wasn't here, I wouldn't have come to Union. I wouldn't have known about the place," said Cuozzo. "We're good friends and pretty close."
But the opportunity to compete in her three high school sports at the collegiate level was also a big attraction. "It's a big reason why I came here, because I didn't have to choose one sport over the other," said Cuozzo.
Needham coach leaves as he led, with class
Jackson Foster wrapped up his long and distinguished high school coaching career at Needham High with the Rockets' 61-42 loss to Central Catholic in Monday's Division 1 state girls' basketball semifinal at the TD Banknorth Garden.
But in defeat, as in victory, Foster was all class -- even though the loss was the first of the season after an historic 22-0 start.
First, he pointed to his senior leaders, Colleen Hart and Cerie Mosgrove.
"Colleen and Cerie were once-in-a-lifetime type players for any coach," said Foster, who completed his sixth year in his third stint as girls' basketball coach. "And to have the two of them together on the same team, in my final season, was really like a dream come true. They really revitalized the program over the last four years, and they pulled the rest of the girls in the program with them. I don't think people realize how much work that Colleen and Cerie put into the game of basketball."
Then Foster lauded the town's support.
"School spirit is not what it was 20 years ago, but to have the support we had in the tournament, and the crowd here tonight made us all proud to be from Needham," he said. And while the games were always fun, Foster said, he will miss practices more. "It's the daily contact with the kids, 12 to 14 kids working hard, and having fun."
His cocoach the last two seasons, Janet Hourihan Brooks, whose ties with Foster go back to her junior season as a Rocket player in 1980-81, says working with her mentor has been "unbelievable."
"He's old school, and I'm old school," said Brooks. "He was a class act and he always did the right thing. In this day and age, it's important to teach those lessons and he did that."
Around campus
Framingham native Arch Mitchell is coming off another outstanding season for the Newbury College men's basketball team. The junior guard averaged a team-leading 16 points per game to power the Nighthawks to a 15-12 mark, the program's best since becoming a member of the NCAA. Newbury placed third in the Association of Division 3 Independents tournament. Already the program's all-time leading scorer, Mitchell shot 41 percent from beyond the 3-point arc and netted a season-high 29 points in the Brandeis Tip-Off Tournament....
A tip of the cap to Dave Caligaris, a former Holliston High basketball star who went on to a Hall of Fame career at Northeastern University. Earlier this month, the Sudbury resident was honored at the Colonial Athletic Association's awards banquet as Northeastern's CAA Legend. The program honors former players who achieved recognition on the basketball court as student-athletes and have attained success in the business world after earning their degrees. A two-time Academic All-America selection, Caligaris departed NU as the program's career leader in points (1,672) and games played (101). He went on to earn his MBA from Harvard and is the chief operating officer for the Green Cos., a real estate developer based in Newton....
Lindsay Gardel of Wayland made a big splash at last week's NCAA Division 3 swimming and diving championships in Houston. The Tufts University freshman earned All-America honors with her eighth-place finish in the 1-meter dive. She also earned honorable mention All-America for her 11th-place finish on the 3-meter board....
Newton's Stephanie Brenman, a sophomore defender on the MIT women's hockey team, earned ECAC East honorable mention. With 7 goals and 7 assists, Brenman finished third on the team in scoring. She prepped at the Winsor School in Boston....
School ties
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High's 4x800 relay team of Emily Mepham, Molly Binder, Dana Jamieson and Jessica Griffin put up an impressive showing at the national high school track & field championships in New York City, placing fourth overall with a time of 9:11.79. Newton South High's Bridget Dahlberg was fourth in the mile with a clocking of 4:51.75.... The Lincoln-Sudbury boys' basketball team and the Keefe Tech girls' basketball team received MIAA Sportsmanship Awards during yesterday's state finals at the DCU Center in Worcester.... Former St. John's of Shrewsbury soccer standout Jon Brunelle (class of 2000) has returned to his alma mater as head coach, replacing former mentor Brian Murphy, who retired for the second time after last season. Brunelle, who played at Colgate, was an assistant coach at Holy Cross last fall.
Craig Larson can be reached at clarson@globe.com or 508-820-4234. 
