Saturday, December 29, 2007

NS v Wayland v CC photos from George


Had a problem with focus so only have a few photos.
click the link for 35 shots:
NS vs CC vs Wayland

Saturday, December 22, 2007

First DCL meet report...by John H.

The meet started early for me - I got to the track around 1:30 to do a workout, and was soon doing intervals, dodging runners from the Boston schools. After the meet was over, I carpooled some boys back to Newton South. For two of them, it was their first exposure to indoor track in Eastern Mass....I asked them "So, what do you think?" One said "Well, it seemed pretty chaotic." Welcome to Reggie Lewis, the three ring circus of track and field.

A lot of alums and parents were there. I saw Sam Donovan, Brad Pruente, Alana O'Brien and a bunch of others. I keep bumping into returning NS runners everywhere around town- a real reunion. Karen and I saw Rachel Rothstein at an X-mas party last night. She's back from Carlton on holiday - is running cross country and track for them, and enjoying it hugely.

It was a pretty solid meet - still a bunch of kinks to work out, and there's a lot of promise out there. The coaches didn't run totally full squads, as the season's young and there's still adjustments to be made.

Both the boys and girls teams did real well, boys taking Concord-Carlisle 68-27, and Wayland 69-26. The girls won 80-15 against CC, and 82-13 against Wayland. The two other powerhouse teams of the DCL, Lincoln Sudbury, and Acton-Boxborough also had dominant wins in their match-ups. Full results can be found at CoolRunning - here's the girls:

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/07/ma/Dec21_DualCo_set1.shtml

You can click at the top for team scores and to flip to the boys results.

WARNING - I've already found some errors in the CoolRunning report, so if something doesn't seem right, it may be one of those errors - let me know.

Below, I report times, and compare some to State qualifying times. Caveat emptor- this is just my reconstruction - I could have made errors!

In the girls' JV mile, we had Sara Chari, Jessa Rubin and Claire O'Brien running 2-3-4, in 5:52, 5:54 and 5:56.

In the boys' JV mile, Aden Forrow had a big PR, dipping under 5:00 with a 4:56. Igal Bubar was next in 5:01. (note the Cool Running listing for Aden is incorrect)

The JV 4x200....for the girls - yikes....a tough introduction to Reggie Lewis - lots of tumbles, difficult handoffs, but they got up from their falls, made it around and crossed the finish line - showing lots of guts and promise.

The JV boys ran well, with a 1:44 - it looked like they enjoyed it.

In the girls 2-mile - here was a case of the officials needing to work out the kinks. Kelsy Karys was flying, and took the race in 11:05, which is an amazing time for this early in the season. In last year's Weston twilight meet, we had three of the best runners in Mass facing off in the 2-mile, with times between 10:30 and 11:00, so this is a pretty phenomenal showing. The problem with the officials: they seemed to have lost track of the fact that Kelsy was the leader, and rang the "one-lap-to-go" bell when Melanie Fineman and LS'es Jen Gossels crossed with two laps to go. Melanie kicked at that point, and crossed the finish line, slowing down, with a bunch of us shouting at her to run one more lap. Melanie ran an 11:43, but probably would've run a faster time, were it not for the foul-up.

Because of the screw-up, the placings had to be reconstructed by hand by the coaches.

Sonya Freeman ran an amazing race, sitting on AB's Kate Warwick's shoulder until about a half a mile to go, and then pushed past her to finish 4th in 12:03. An impressive performance all around!


The qualifying time for States in the 2-mile is 12:40, so we have three qualified there already in the first meet.

In the boys' two mile - a tough one - Jon Gault from Bedford is running really well this season. He took out the race from the start, in the lead, and just kept inching up the speed, dropping runners. John Beck ran a 10:24 for 4th, sticking with the lead pack of four for quite some time.

In the 300, Dani Pensack took second in her heat, with a 44.5. This was only a few tenths off of LS-'es Jess Griffin's time in another heat, showing real strength for the LS matchup. Qualifying time for States is 45.94, so she's in.

Gerald Arneaud had a huge day, taking first in the 300 overall, with a 37.3. Gerald also anchored the boys' 4x4 in 51 seconds. Gerald qualified for States with this.

In the girls' 55m dash, Pebbles Banks ran a 7.68, in a near dead-heat with CC's Kathy Dreher - time had to be resolved by thousandths. This qualifies Pebbles for States.

In the girls' 55m hurdles, Azeezah Gray competed in this event for the first time, running a 9.86, way out in front in her heat.

In the boys' 55m hurdles, Yong Cho won his heat in 8.52, which is a great time. Will Burgess was right behind him in his heat. They took 2,3 overall in the hurdles - an excellent kick-off to the season.

Will Cha ran a hot 600, taking first overall in 1:29.50.

The coaches moved Juliet Ryan-Davis down to the 600 and 4x400m relay. She ran a 1:42.8 (state qualifying time is 1:48.2) with a huge kick at the end. Julia Frieze was right there, in 1:42.8, both qualifying for States. Juliet and Julia teamed up with Diana Braver and Bridget Dahlberg in the 4x400m relay, winning in 4:12.5 (state qualifying is 4:34.8).

About this time in the meet, I began to wonder if I wasn't watching a Division 1 college team competing, not a high school team. I think most coaches would love to have a team as strong as our JV squad.

The 1000 had some hot times in it. Nina Slote ran 3:20, to qualify for States.

Alex Long and Ben Finch took 3,4 overall, in 2:46 and 2:48. Acton Boxborough's Jack Benjamin ran a dominant heat, taking first in 2:40.

In the girls mile, NS finished 1-2-3 with Bridget Dahlberg, Kathy O'Keefe and Hannah Westbrook running 5:22, 5:31 and 5:32 respectively. State qualifying is 5:48....someone help me keep up with the qualifying, OK?

Elizabeth Jeyaraj, always dominant in the shot, took first in 33-0. State qualifying is 30-6. Phew...and that only touches the surface - sorry I can't report everything in here.

Everyone competed really well. I think a lot of people surprised themselves with their performances. It's a great way to start a season.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Newton South vs Concord Carlisle & Wayland 21 Dec. 07

Newton South boys and girls win both contests. Kelsey Karys runs spectacular 11:05 2 mile. There were many other very good performances for so early in the the season.
Results: (which have many incorrect entries):
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/07/ma/Dec21_DualCo_set1.shtml
Photos to come.