Philbrook runs to title at NCAA championship

The former Hopkinton High cross-country and track captain's time of 35 minutes 24.78 seconds set the record at host Marietta College's Drumm Stadium, and was just 8 seconds shy of her personal best, recorded last month at the Penn Relays, the best 10K time this season in Division 3.

"It was a great way to end my college career, just awesome," said the top-seeded Philbrook, who earned All-America honors in four events, based on her win at Marietta, a 19th-place finish at the national cross-country meet last fall, and eighth places in the 5K at both the indoor and outdoor national meets. "I had hopes of taking first in the 5K indoors, so this time I tried not to put that kind of pressure on myself, and just aimed for the top three and ran my race."

With her father, Dana, there to root her on, Philbrook took the lead for good with about 2.5 miles to go in last week's 10K finals, and outdistanced the second-place finisher by 24 seconds.

"Lauren obviously worked very hard with our distance coaches and she had run very well at Penn," said Williams head coach Fletcher Brooks. "But there was still work to be done to win a national championship, which she put in while working on her senior thesis. She learned quite a bit from her experience at the indoor nationals and she looked in control the entire outdoor race in hot weather."

Yet the 6-foot-3, 190-pound lefthander from Belmont stepped right into the starting rotation at Trinity College, the defending NCAA Division 3 national champion, and was a valuable contributor for coach Bill Decker this spring.

In the Bantams' run to the Division 3 national tournament, Ramsey made 12 appearances (nine starts), compiling a dazzling 7-1 mark with a 3.61 earned-run average. Trinity finished 33-7, bowing out of the NCAA tournament with back-to-back losses to Kean University (by an 8-5 score) and Carthage College (10-1) last weekend.

Ramsey was the winning pitcher in Trinity's victory over Wesleyan to open the New England Small College Athletic Conference tournament. Five days later, the freshman registered another win, allowing just two earned runs in six innings against Westfield State in the first game of the NCAA regionals.

In his next start, against top-seeded Eastern Connecticut, he allowed one earned run in four innings and kept Trinity in a game that it would eventually win to advance to the nationals.

"Jimmy was given an opportunity early this season, and he's made the most of it," Decker said of Ramsey, who won his first start against Worcester Polytechnic Institute. "The biggest thing is that he's shown tremendous poise and he's stayed in the rotation because he's earned it. It's no surprise because of how hard he works and because he takes nothing for granted. He keeps hitters off balance and he's done everything we've asked him to do."

Ed Gallagher, Belmont Hill's head baseball coach, said Ramsey battled back his senior year from an arm injury and was a designated hitter for most of the season. "But he came back at the end of the season to beat two of the best teams in the league: Thayer and Buckingham, Browne & Nichols. He proved he was one of the best pitchers in the ISL and I'm pleased that he's proven he can pitch for an elite D-3 college team."

Assumption's team MVPs for the year included basketball guard Greg Twomey, a grad student from Groton (Groton-Dunstable Regional); women's lacrosse senior forward Shannon Howard of Norfolk (King Philip Regional); and, in men's tennis, senior Steve Tlumacki of Holliston.

Marvin Pave can be reached at 508820-4223 or marvin.pave@rcn.com.