Report from Steven:
We had a lot of fine results in the Auberbach 9th/10th meet on Saturday.
I am going to mention the varsity caliber marks for print as others will make their marks as they continue to grow and mature.
In the 600 Alekhya Chaparala was in one of the most exciting races of the day. Elizabeth Gulino of Attleboro was the favorite going in with a 1:40 mark earlier in the season. Going in I felt this was a good chance for Alekhya to lower her PR. Little did I know how tight this race would be.
Gulino won the race in 1:42.10 and Alekhya was 4th in a PR of 1:42.75. Five girls broke 1:45.
The entire race was bunched and there was a bit of bumping and shifting for postion which is such a great learning experience. With 100 to go Alekhya was in a tight bunch with 3 others and she went wide half way through the curve to try to pass. The extra distance running on the outside cost her some time, but she finished in a blanket with 3 others. She was .01 out of 3rd as the race was that close. It was a nice PR and a better seed for States.
The seeded heat of the 1000 in which Anna Rhatigan placed 6th actually raced about 1250 meters. They crowded too many racers into the seeded heat and in the first start a girl fell within 20 meters of the start and they recalled that race well.
In the 2nd start of the race Anna fell about 80 meters into it and they did not recall it until all of the girls had run almost 200 meters which made running heats on time very unfair to the girls in the fastest heat since they had to go right away again (Anna had to get up and sprint to catch up to the leaders because of the lateness of the recall). The starter tried to put the girls right back on line to start it again. The correct thing to do in this situation is to put another race on the track and allow the girls to collect themselves and recover from the two starts and the extra distance run. I was trying to get through the crowd to the start to insist on this, but other coaches beat me to it and the girls were allowed to let a few heats of the boys run before going again.
Anna had a nice race as she ran a bit back of the pack and kicked home in a rush. This was the first race this season that she felt healthy and she looked better than her time indicated with such a strong finish.
Our 4 x 400 placed 7th in 4:29.81 which was 2 seconds out of the the top 4 and ran another state time. Alekhya ran 63 for the opening leg, Sonya Nair (9th) ran a strong 67 on the 2nd leg. Sophomore Sophia Cen did a great job filling in for Caroline Delheim whom we moved to the 4 x 200 to cover a missing leg there. I felt really good for this relay as two legs ran it for the first time and it was at a state level meet. I work to teach a lot of our girls that we need a lot of kids to be ready at any time to fill in for relays and to be prepared. Caroline, Sonya and Sophia all were really good examples of how we teach to prepare for relays.
It has been a good week for our team coming out of the break. We did not miss a beat, but rather have made nice gains.
No comments:
Post a Comment