Lisa Welch Brady Peabody High School class of 1981. For those of you who don’t know, Lisa is the twin sister of Lesley Welch Lehane an MSTCA Athlete Hall of Fame member who was inducted in 2006. I was just starting as the chairperson of this committee back then, and if I had done my homework, I should have inducted Lisa at the same time as her sister, she was just as deserving then as she is now. Lisa, I apologize for the longer wait. Lisa and her twin sister were the dominant duo in the late 70’s. For those of you who are not familiar with the high school running scene at that time, it may not be unusual for twins to dominate the running scene, what was unusual was that these twins were female. As it was at this time, high school girls had only been running cross country for a few years and the three mile long race was fairly new. In the early days, the girls were only allowed to run I think 2 miles in any given race. But run they did and did so in dominant fashion. In 1978 Lisa would finish 2nd at the Eastern Mass Division I cross country meet, she would finish 3rd in her junior year and again would finish 2nd in her senior year. Lisa and her sister simply buried the field which included some of the most potent opposition in the area such as Cambridge R&L's Thayer Plante, Newton North's and an MSTCA Hall of Famer, Liz Natale and Randolph's Kathy Good. A week later at the All State meet the girls race was almost a carbon copy of the EMass Division 1 race, with Lisa and her sister again taking command at the outset and running to a one-two finish, Lisa ran 17:31. As a result of her success the Boston Globe chose Lisa as an all-star. Here is what the paper said about Lisa: The other half of the most devastating 1-2 punch in high school distance running in the United States, Lisa and her twin sister Lesley are a familiar sight at the front of the pack in Franklin Park. The two of them run right to the front at the gun and usually see no other competitors for the remainder of the race. Like Lesley, Lisa is making an unprecedented third-straight appearance as a member of The Globe's All-Scholastic team. She ran second to her sister in both the EMass Division 1 championships and the All-State meet and is the only runner ever within hailing distance of Lesley. She showed that she is of national-caliber as well by placing second at the TAC National Junior Cross-Country Championships last Saturday. When it came to track in the spring of her junior year the distance-running Welch sisters split up their act. Lisa would concentrate on the mile. She kicked off the season by outrunning a strong field at the State Coaches Meet that included Arlington's Ann MacEleanney and Westwood's Chrissy Kelly with Lisa running 5:01.7. Later that spring she would break the State Class A mile record with a victory in 5:02.6, knocking off the mark of 5:03.7 set in 1979 by Falmouth's Nancy Buguey. As a result of her outstanding season, Lisa was again selected to The Boston Globe's All-Scholastic team. In her senior indoor season Lisa set a Class A meet record when she ran a devastating pace and crossed the finish line in 4:49.70. Also at the end of her senior year Lisa would run an outstanding 35:10.2 for 10,000m which is still the 8th fastest time ever by a high school girl. With such an outstanding high school career to her name she and her sister won full scholarships to the University of Virginia. It was there that she would become part of NCAA history. Just like I said earlier with girls and running distance it would be in Lisa’s freshman year that the NCAA would hold its first ever national Championships for women. Lisa was an integral part of the Cavaliers two first ever national Championships for women. However even with such success, a little home sickness drove Lisa to transfer to Boston University for her remaining two seasons. And what seasons they were. When a two-time All-American transfers in from Virginia, it was no surprise that the arrival of Lisa Welch coincided with a rebirth in Terrier women's track and field glory days during the mid-1980's. While at B.U., she excelled in the indoor 3,000 meters (9:18), two-mile (10:16.5), and 5,000 meters (16:36.84), as well as the outdoor 10,000 meters (32:41.9). She captured eight individual titles at indoor and outdoor Greater Boston and New England Championships in 1985 and 1986, while aiding the club to the overall team title on five occasions. At the 1985 Indoor Greater Boston Championships, Welsh established a meet record in the two-mile run, and later added her name to the list of meet bests in the 1,500 and 3,000 meter at the New England Championships, before concluding the indoor campaign by finishing the 1,500 meters in a school-record 4:25.51 at the Easterns. When the action moved outdoors, Welch maintained her stellar stride, with a school-record and NCAA-qualifying performance in the 5,000 meters at the Penn Relays. The following year, Welch competed on the cross country circuit, and after outdistancing the field at the Greater Boston Championships, she became the University's second-ever All-American, by finishing twelfth at the NCAA Championships. An abbreviated indoor campaign witnessed her capture the New England title in the 3,000 and qualified her for the Eastern and National Championships. However, as if saving her best for last, Welch concluded her collegiate career with a stellar spring season, highlighted by All-America recognition in the 10,000 meters. In addition, she pocketed the New England titles in the 1,500 and 3,000 and the 5,000 meter prize at the Greater Boston Championships. In recognition of her efforts, she was presented with the Gretchen Schuyler Award as the University's Outstanding Female Scholar-Athlete. When I asked Lisa to reflect on her outstanding running career she said that the most memorable moments from high school, were less about her individual accomplishments and more about the excitement of winning the high school State Cross Country Championships as a team in 1978. She said that her twin sister, Lesley, though two minutes younger, always seemed to manage to make it to the finish line ahead of me. When track season rolled around, it was a chance for me to run a different event so that I would have a better chance of winning an individual event. In my senior year of high school, my sister won the TAC National high school Cross Country Championships and I came in third place. I usually ran the mile and won the indoor and outdoor State Championships. In my senior year at Peabody High School, my sister and I traveled out to California to compete in the Outdoor Track and Field National Championships and we both came in third place overall in our events, I ran the 1500 meters and Lesley ran the 3,000 meters. For Lisa Welch Brady, running was a gift and one that kept on giving.
Class: 1982 Inducted: 2013