Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Preparation

Putting the work in gets results in distance running. This is the time to be getting in the miles. You can't do much in a few weeks. Distance capacity takes a long time to attain and is slow to lose.
A few years ago there was a junior who loved running and the team yet took it a little too low key. After his junior year he decided to try to take off a little baby fat and set up a summer running program. When he came back for XC his senior year he looked different. Was this that 19+ minute JV guy? Correspondent Sam Donovan is interviewing and researching. Look for the story after July 4th.

Monday, June 28, 2010

looking back

I was asked when this blog started. It was just photos and here is the 1st up:
From Newton Running Times

21 April 2007
I do have photos going further back. Are there any alum who actually look at this blog who want some posted?

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

just thinking about the Nationals

Kathy ran 3:28.95 for 1200 meters in the distance medley relay. At an even pace that's passing 1000 meters in 2:54.13!
Mel ran 4:54.14 for 1600 meters. That would be 4:55.86 for the mile (1609.344 meters).

Some fun Newton Centre Athletics facts:
NCA has earned All American honors in 8 National T & F meets in a row!
That is 37 All American honors from Indoor 07 to the present in 9 relays and Bridget's mile
NCA has set the New England records indoors in the 4 x 800 and 4 x Mile (set this twice)
NCA has set the New England records in the spring in the 4 x 1600, 4 x Mile (set this twice) and the DMR
NCA has set the Ma. state records in all of the above and also the SMR Bridget also holds the All State meet record in the mile

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

more news of Nationals and other stuff

Jennifer Reed just sent photos she took at T&F Nationals in North Carolina.
Click here for photos



Newton Mayor Setti Warren honored both Newton North and South girls teams for taking 1st and 2nd place in the all state meet. The Mayor also presented each girl wth an official certificate honoring the event.

Friday, June 18, 2010

New Balance Nationals in Greensboro NC

New Balance Nationals - 6/17/2010 to 6/19/2010
North Carolina A+T University, Greensboro, NC
I'll be posting videos from flotrack as they are posted.

Click here for results

NS results for Friday 18th:
Girls 1600 Sprint Medley Championship
9 Newton Centre Athletics 4:01.64
1) Katherine Sandson 10, 26.9
2) Ezra Banks 10, 24.9
3) Kayla Burton 13, 60.3
4) Katherine O'Keefe 11, officially 2:09.28
Click here for flotrack video
Ajee Wilson, a 10th grader from Shore AC ran a 2:00.59 800 meters coming from way back to win. Watch the video!
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Girls Triple Jump Championship
15 Ezra Banks 10 Newton, MA 11.50m (2.0) 37-08.75
10.95m(0.1) FOUL(2.0) 11.50m(2.0)
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Saturday 19th
Girls 2000 Steeplechase Championship
Madeleine Reed, Newton Centre Athletics 28th, 7:48.92
clock - place in heat (2 heats) - split
1:20.52 (7) 1:20.52
2:55.38 (14) 1:34.87
4:33.29 (14) 1:37.91
6:14.35 (14) 1:41.06
7:48.92 (14) 1:34.58
Click here for flotrack video
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Girls Distance Medley Relay Championship
5 Newton Centre Athletics 11:44.77
clock - place in heat (2 heats) - split - runner
3:28.95 (2) 3:28.95 Kathy O'Keefe
4:29.22 (3) 1:00.27 Katie Sandson
6:50.63 (6) 2:21.41 Kayla Burton
11:44.77 (5) 4:54.14 Melanie Fineman
Great time in the fast heat!
Click here for flotrack video

OK track fans. The girls mile turned into a kickers race. (no NS runner). The leaders took it out real slow through 800 meters, the runners tripping over each other packed so close. Exciting finish.
Click here for the girls mile championship video
In the boys 2 mile, Lukas Verzbicas a soph from Orland Hills, IL is determined to go for the national record (8:34) putting everything on the line through a mile in about 4:17.
Click here for boys 2 mile championship video

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Adrian Martinez Classic - Meet of Miles

The Adrian Martinez Classic was held in cool damp "mile" weather.
Click here for results

The Newton South boys trio of Xulio 4:31, David 4:31 and Yugi 4:39 defended the scholastic team prize. Xulio took it out in 29 at 200 meters and 64 at the quarter. I'm afraid it was down hill from there as far as their goal of all three breaking the school record of 4:22 but they recovered for a nice kick down the final straight with Xulio getting by David.
A NS girls team ran of Lauren G, Maddie W. and Mazie H.
Ben Finch, CMU 2114, NS 2009, ran a 4:48 in the open heat. H. Finch, NS '67 ran a turtle pace 6:08 in the masters race. A friend, Mary Harada, turned 75 today and ran in the masters heat. She ran an 8:11 which is a world record for the 75 - 80 year category.
The women's invitational heat was won by Stephanie Reilly in 4:37. Three vied for the win on the last lap. There was a $1000 bonus prize for a women breaking 4:30 or a man breaking 4:00.
Before the meet I met Tim Ritchie who just graduated from BC. He assured me Bridget Dahlberg, BC soph to be and NS '09, is doing great. He went on to win the invitational mile in 4:10 by stalking the leaders and blowing by on the back straight of the last lap. He plans on showing up in a few weeks for the NSRP at Cold Spring park.
Women's Andro Mile flotrack Video:
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/play/342040-womens-adro-mile-6-17-10
Men's Andro Mile flotrack video:
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/play/342032-mens-adro-mile-6-17-10

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

NSRP photo

Wednesday 16 June group,
Room for more.
From Newton Summer Running Project 2010

schools represented:
Newton North (2)
Brandeis (3)
Carnegie-Mellon (2)
Bates (2)
Northeastern
U of Rochester
U of Penn.
Kenyon
Reed

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

NSRP is happening already

NSRP = Newton Summer Running Project
An informal group of runners from high school, college and beyond are meeting Mondays and Wednesdays at Cold Spring Park in Newton off Beacon Street for various length, various pace runs. Meet at 6:15 p.m. Get running at 6:30. This was started by former Newton North distance coach, present Concord Academy coach and CSU runner Jon Waldron.
See his info note at:
http://nnhsxc.blogspot.com/2010/06/nsrp-begins-this-wednesday.html

Monday, June 14, 2010

Adrian Martinez Classic - Meet of Miles

From CC coach Steve Lane:
Date: Thursday June 17, races start at 5pm
Location: The track at Emerson Playground, Concord MA
Mile races for all age groups and all ability levels - from elites to
first-timers. (prizes - shirts and gift cards - in each age division)
Prize money in the open races goes 5 deep, plus $1000 bonus for first
male sub 4:00 and / or first female sub 4:30
Prize money for top age-graded performance on the day
Proceeds to benefit The Adrian Martinez Memorial Scholarship, and the CCHS T&F program

Visit us on the web! www.martinezclassic.com

Also, I know the boys from Newton South are coming back to defend
their title in the Scholastic Team Challenge... should be
interesting...

Thanks!!

best,
Steve Lane
CCHS
------
I think I'll take off those bicycling shoes and try the masters mile.
Wouldn't it be great to have a mile event for the community at the new Newton South track?

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Newton Highlands Village day 5K fun run

A number of NS grads and current students ran the Newton Highlands Village day 5K fun run. Fun because no times were kept.
There were also a number of middle school runners testing their stuff. I look forward to their joining the NS or NN programs.
Click here for run photos
From Newton Highlands Village Day 3 mile run

Saturday, June 12, 2010

New England Championships in New Britain CT

Click here for full results

4 x 100 meters, girls
12 Newton So MA seed 49.61; 51.17
1) Kyra Visnick FR 2) Katie Sandson SR 3) Christie Lee SR 4) Madeline Frieze JR 5) Andrea Braver JR 6) Ezra Banks SR
(I don't know who actually ran.)
pole vault, girls
3 Steph Brown SO Newton North J10-09.00 3.27m
8 Cora Visnick SR Newton South 10-03.00 3.12m
4 x 800 meters, boys
10 Newton So MA 8:03.12
1) Yuji Wakimoto SR, 2) David Melly JR, 3) Kyle Olson SR, 4) Xhulio Uruci SR, alt) Connor O'Brien JR, alt) Joe Hickey SO
pole vault, boys
-- Ross McDonald SR Newton South DQ
long jump, boys
7 Ross McDonald SR Newton South 22-03.25 6.78m
discus, boys
10 Conor Ebbs SR Newton North 149-05 45.54m

Thursday, June 10, 2010

New England Championships

The NE championships are Saturday, 12 June
65TH NEW ENGLAND INTERSCHOLASTIC - 6/12/2010
TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP MEET
VETERANS STADIUM NEW BRITAIN, CT
Click here for general info
Click here for PDF of full info packet about meet
Click here for performance list

Newton North and Newton South entries:
girls
- 800 meters
2 Margo Gillis JR Newton North 2:14.70
- 4x100 meters
7 Newton So MA 49.61
1) Kyra Visnick FR 2) Katie Sandson SR 3) Christie Lee SR 4) Madeline Frieze JR 5) Andrea Braver JR 6) Ezra Banks SR
- 4x400 meters
2 Newton NO MA 3:56.31
1) Jaya Tripath SR 2) Ari Tabatabaie SR 3) Madi Nadeau FR 4) Margo Gillis JR 5) Carla Forbes FR 6) Meghan Bellerose FR
- pole vault
4 Steph Brown SO Newton North 11-00.00
10 Cora Visnick SR Newton South 10-06.00
- long jump
3 Carla Forbes FR Newton North 18-10.00
- triple jump
1 Carla Forbes FR Newton North 41-01.50

boys
- 4x800 meters
9 Newton So MA 8:00.83
1) Yuji Wakimoto SR 2) Xhulio Uruci SR 3) Kyle Olson SR 4) Connor O'Brien JR 5) David Melly JR 6) Joe Hickey SO
- pole vault
2 Ross McDonald SR Newton South 15-00.00
- long jump
3 Ross McDonald SR Newton South 22-06.75
- discus
4 Conor Ebbs SR Newton North 162-06

Monday, June 7, 2010

awards

awards session will be at 6:00 p.m. on Wed. at the Visnick house

Sunday, June 6, 2010

All State Track & Field @ Westfield State

A whole lot more info has been added to this post including split times of the 4x800 from Steven and a link to FLOTRACK video of all running events. See below.



I couldn't be there missing a great meet. (It looked like there were some good downpours.)
Newton North girls are state champs with 40 points and Newton South 2nd with 35.
Newton South boys were tied for 9th with 20 points and Newton North tied for 32nd with 8.
66 boys teams scored. 78 girls teams scored. Most schools don't even have any qualifiers for this meet. There are about 373 schools in the MIAA.
Newton = track & field
Ross McDonald is the MA all state pole vault champion jumping 15'-0" for a meet record and school record. He also took 3rd in the long jump at 22'-6.75" scoring an impressive 16 points for the boys team.
David Melly passed up running in the mile (11th seed) to have a better team time in the 4x800. Their 8:00:83 is the 3rd fastest NS time to the record 7:55.06 last year.
Click here for full results
Click here for photos by Dave Fineman
Click here for video of whole meet by FLOTRACK


100 meters
6 Ezra Banks SR Newton South 12.58
1 mile
2 Kathy O'Keefe JR Newton South 4:56.78
Kathy's time ranks #16 in the nation and #2 All Time on the Newton South list.
She ran the 1st 800 in 2:36 following and then took the lead and ran 72/68 last lap for the largest negative split time in NS history with a 2:20 last 800. Not easy to do.
2 mile
7 Melanie Fineman SR Newton South 11:08.47
4x800 meter relay
2 Newton South High School 'A' 9:20.37
1) Kayla Burton SR 2) Melanie Fineman SR 3) Madeliene Reed SR 4) Kathy O'Keefe JR
The splits were:
Kayla 2:19.98 PR
Melanie 2:20.99
Madeleine 2:26.18 PR
Kathy 2:12.98
4 x 100 meter relay
4 Newton South High School 'A' 49.61
1) Katie Sandson SR 2) Christie Lee SR ? 3) Kyra Visnick FR 4) Madeline Frieze JR
pole vault
5 Cora Visnick SR Newton South J10-06.00
triple jump
4 Ezra Banks SR Newton South 37-09.75
------
4 x 800 meters
5 Newton South High School 'A' 8:00.83
1) Yuji Wakimoto SR 2) David Melly JR 3) Kyle Olson SR 4) Xhulio Uruci SR
The splits were:
Yuji 1:56.44 PR
David 1:59.90 PR
Kyle 2:04.73
Xhulio 1:59.56
pole vault
1 Ross McDonald SR Newton South 15-00.00 Meet Record
long jump
3 Ross McDonald SR Newton South 22-06.75

Friday, June 4, 2010

Note from Steve M about middle school championship meet

from Steve McChesney:

Hi All,

I write this note as I am preparing to go to bed prior to our All State Championship bid tomorrow.
Today the four middle schools of Newton held the first meet on our new track and field facility in fine fashion. Some would have wanted the first meet on the track to be a Newton South meet, but I say that our program begins with the great work done at our two great middle school programs and them holding the first meet makes perfect sense. I also salute the wonderful teams that feed into Newton North as they are also stellar. It was a full day of high energy, wonderful performances and a great spirit among the kids, coaches and parents.

As a coach I have our own state championship on my mind and I did not intend to stay until the end of the meet today. But I could not help myself as the meet was so exciting in terms of kids having a great day and dedicated coaches making it happen. The quality of the performances have Matt and myself grinning from ear to ear. We were both truly impressed with the strength of both Oak Hill and Brown, Brown and Oak Hill (I do this with my twin boys names all of the time). We have had to travel away from South to practice and have not gotten to see these two teams practice or compete all that much. These two teams are both sending a strong class of kids to South next year and combined they will make their mark and have a lot of fun doing it.

But it was not the athletic achievements that I enjoyed the most. These teams are very full of delightful kids. Normally I move about the City meet talking with kids and even though some know who I am and what I do I feel like a bit like a stranger coming into their world. In the past we have held clinics for the middle school teams and we get to more of their meets. I had not been able to do any of that and still I had a lot of delightful conversations from boys and girls from both Brown and Oak Hill, Oak Hill and Brown. I found myself sitting on the turf or standing with groups of middle school kids having a nice chat often. A lot of kids told me how much they were looking forward to working with us in high school. This rarely happens as most kids that age are engaged in the moment. I have gone to middle school meets for 28 years now and this group of kids seemed to be able to focus on the moment and also be excited about the future in a way I have rarely seen before. So I could not leave. Each new conversation that I enjoyed made me more interested in what they were doing on the day. They pulled me into the meet as a person and not as a coach and I enjoyed that a great deal.

In short the social grace of these kids and their maturity was as fine of a tribute to their teams as was their exciting athletic achievments.

Hats off to the staffs of both teams. You have coached two wonderful teams that achieve as fine young people and as athletes. You must have had a lot of fun as these kids are so delightful.

Now I am excited to do my part at All State

Steven McChesney

Thursday, June 3, 2010

All State T&F at Westfield

All-State Meet
Saturday, June 5 at Westfield State College
Field Events begin at 3:00 pm - Track Events at 4:00pm
MIAA info page:
http://miaa.ezstream.net/index.cfm?itemid=6281
The seeds have been posted at:
http://miaa.ezstream.net/index.cfm?itemid=6297
Scoring is eight deep:
10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1

Based on the seedings for the all state meet:
1) Newton South 35
2) Mansfield 34
3) Newton North 32
4) Lincoln-Sudbury 31
5) Andover 26.3
6) Triton 23.5
7) Westborough 19
8) Beverly 18
9) Wachusett 17
10) Seeconk 16.3
11) Franklin 16
11) Pembroke 16
11) Tewksbury 16
14) Ipswich 15
15) Hopkinton 14.3
This means the top 4 to 6 teams are very much in the hunt. The meet is very close with really no clear favorite. Many of the seed times are so close that a fraction of a second one way or another could be the difference between 1st or 8th.

Newton South runners in the meet:
GIRLS:
100 meters
7 Ezra Banks SR Newton South 12.56
1 mile
1 Kathy O'Keefe JR Newton South 4:58.55
2 mile
3 Melanie Fineman SR Newton South 10:59.22
14 Madeliene Reed SR Newton South X11:24.94
4 x 800 relay
3 Newton South High School 'A' 9:26.08
4 x 100
5 Newton South High School 'A' 50.11
pole vault
8 Cora Visnick SR Newton South 10-06.00
triple jump
4 Ezra Banks SR Newton South 38-02.50
BOYS:
boys mile
11 David Melly JR Newton South 4:26.58
4 x 800
3 Newton South High School 'A' 8:05.11
pole vault
7 Ross McDonald SR Newton South 13-00.00
long jump
12 Ross McDonald SR Newton South 21-08.25

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

NS alum report

NCAA Dic 1 First Round in Greensboro, NC
5000 meters, women
18 Kelsey Karys FR Cornell 16:38.05
From the Cornell website:
Later, in the women's 5000, freshman Kelsey Karys ran a terrific race but was beset by bad luck as well. In third place and running strong with only 1100 meters to go, she was tripped and fell but still managed to get up and finish, running 16:38.05 to place 11th in her heat and 18th overall (after coming in as the 35th seed).
------
NCAA Division II Championships
Hosted by Johnson C. Smith University
Irwin Belk Track Complex, Charlotte, NC - 5/27/2010 to 5/29/2010

heptathlon, women
3 Maddy Outman 5392; 13.77 1.58m 10.04m 24.37 5.62m 33.79m 2:13.90

long jump, women
8 Maddy Outman SR Indiana (Pa.) 5.80m +0.0 19-00.50

100 meter hurdles, women
7 Maddy Outman SR Indiana (Pa.) 13.88

400 meter hurdles, women
5 Maddy Outman SR Indiana (Pa.) 58.98

From IUP website:
Maddy Outman completed an outstanding two-year career at IUP by placing in both the 100 and 400 meter hurdles to earn All-American accolades in four events, and Leander Toney finished fourth in the high jump on the final day of the NCAA outdoor track and field championships Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.

Outman finished fifth in the 400 hurdles, lowering her own school record and breaking the PSAC mark with a time of 58.98. She also took seventh in the 100 hurdles with a time of 13.88 to add to her third place finish in the heptathlon and eighth place showing in the long jump to make her a six-time All-American during her time as a graduate student at IUP.

Including her undergraduate career at Williams College, Outman was an All-American a total of 13 times and is the holder of 12 IUP school records covering indoor and outdoor track and field. She also holds four PSAC records, including both outdoor hurdles and heptathlon and the indoor pentathlon.