Weston Twilight Meet Report

I was driving to the Weston Twilight meet with my 10 year old daughter, Charlotte, and her friend, Lucy, in the back. Char went to the meet last year and had such a good time that she brought Lucy along. She was excited because her big brother was running. She was also bragging to Lucy, “and in school, we ran a third of a mile, and I ran it in one minute, twenty two seconds. My dad said it can’t be a third of a mile, because I’d be running a 61 second quarter mile, but I think it’s for real. He says that I’d even qualify for states if I really ran that time.”

Exaggerating performances must be a genetic trait that I’ve passed on to my daughter.

Anyway…the meet was great. I brought a huge pot of warmed-over spaghetti from the team dinner the night before, thinking that no one would eat it – but by the end of that chilly evening, there was nothing left.

Once the sun went down, it was very cold for those of us shuffling around, but we enjoyed it all.

We came close to qualifying James Huth and Senyo Agawu in the 100 and 200, both running well in the heats. Gerald Arneaud ran a PR of 51.41 to take 5th in the 400m. The 400m featured a show-down between Newton North’s Avery Mitchell and Lincoln Sudbury’s Nick Colantuono. Nick caught Avery at the tape for first. Their times were both in the 49’s.

Sam Donovan ran a near PR of 4:27.5 in the mile. John Beck PR’ed by about 3 seconds in 4:36.6. Andrew Wortham is back under 10 minutes in the 2-mile, running 9:57.7. Brad Pruente is on a major roll! He too 2nd in the 110m hurdles and 2nd in the 300m hurdles. Bryant Wang, the enfant terrible from LS had the fastest qualifying time, but is a marked man with the officials, watching him like hawks for his habit of kicking down hurdles. Brad edged out Bryant in the finals. Brad took 3rd in the high jump!

Ross McDonald tied for 2nd in the pole vault, with 11-06, and Roy Ribitsky tied for 4th. Ross also took 6th in the long-jump. Boye Akinwande took 5th in the triple jump.

At the very last event of the evening, the boys’ 4x400m relay (Arneaud. Agawu, Huth and Albert) took first place. It was an exciting race, where this ex-400 meter runner was nearly jumping out of his skin. I'm glad the guys brought home some hardware!

For the girls, Candace Bailey took 4th in the 100m with a 12. 83. Freshman Maddie Reed led a squadron of five NS girls in the mile run, taking 7th in 5:25.

The much advertised thriller race in the girls’ 2 mile was intense. The four girls: Colleen Wetherbee (Dennis Yarmouth), Jess Barton (Newton South), Emily Jones (Bromfield) and NS’s own Bridget Dahlberg were lined up. The four went out in a large bunch, with the lead changing hands a number of times in the first mile. Colleen was the first to drop off the pace. A little after the first mile, Emily Jones cranked up the pace a notch, and Bridget fell off, but was still running a blistering pace on her own. Jess Barton hung in there behind Emily, but Emily just kept bumping up the pace, until her last lap, she was really moving. Emily’s winning time of 10:34.8 is the 5th fastest in the country right now. Jess Barton was pulled along for an amazing 10:37.1. These shouldn’t overshadow Bridget’s time of 10:52.2, which is a new school record!!! This eclipses Emily Johnson’s 1991 record of 11:01 for the outdoor 2-mile, and is a big 10-second PR for Bridget! I think we’re up to four new records this year – two alone from Bridget in the indoor mile and now the outdoor 2-mile. There’s Sam Donovan’s indoor mile and Candace Bailey’s 55m dash. Wow.

Diana Braver took 5th in the high jump. Cora Visnick took 3rd in the pole vault, and the girls 4x400 meter relay took 2nd in 4:12. As each of the girls went around on their leg of the relay, I pointed them out to my daughter Charlotte, and asked her “do you *really* think you can run that fast?”. She calmly replied “OK, dad, get me out on the track and time me for a lap” So, after the boys 4x400 meter relay, Char and Lucy got on the track. For the record, Charlotte actually made it all the way around. Her time was 1:46 seconds.

Boys results

100m
8 Huth, James 11 Newton South 11.58
7 16 Iancovici, Tom 12 Newton South 11.87 5

200m
7 Agawu, Senyo 10 Newton South 23.46 5

400m
5 Arneaud, Gerald 11 Newton South 51.41 5
16 Albert, Justin 12 Newton South 54.00 5

800m
15 Inbar, Tal 10 Newton South 2:07.48

1 mile
7 Donovan, Sam 12 Newton South 4:27.47
15 Beck, John 10 Newton South 4:36.61

2 mile
8 Wortham, Andrew 10 Newton South 9:57.71
11 Vance, James 12 Newton South 10:15.17
16 Fen, Cameron 10 Newton South 10:22.22

110m hurdles
2 Pruente, Brad 12 Newton South 15.49

300m hurdles
2 Pruente, Brad 12 Newton South 41.40 4

4x100m relay
7 Newton South 'A' 46.19 2

4x400m relay (!!)
1 Newton South 'A' 3:32.28

4x800m relay
4 Newton South 'A' 8:47.04

High jump
3 Pruente, Brad 12 Newton South 6-02.00

Pole vault
2 McDonald, Ross 09 Newton South 11-06.00
4 Ribitzky, Roy 11 Newton South 11-00.00

Long jump
6 McDonald, Ross 09 Newton South 20-05.00

Triple jump
5 Akinwande, Boye 12 Newton South 42-02.00

Discus
12 Treff, Joe 12 Newton South 107-02

Shotput
7 Treff, Joe 12 Newton South 44-11.25

Girls:
100m
4 Bailey, Candace 11 Newton South 12.83

400m
20 Norris, Ann 12 Newton South 1:04.75 3

800m
10 Braver, Diana 11 Newton South 2:27.78
11 O' Brien, Alana 12 Newton South 2:28.17
19 Frieze, Julia 11 Newton South 2:32.08

1 mile
7 Reed, Maddie 09 Newton South 5:25.21
10 Ryan-Davis, Juliet 10 Newton South 5:28.58
14 Rudie, Emma 11 Newton South 5:34.33
15 Slote, Nina 11 Newton South 5:34.73
31 Freeman, Sonya 11 Newton South 5:49.78

2 mile
3 Dahlberg, Bridget 10 Newton South 10:52.23
7 Karys, Kelsey 10 Newton South 11:40.70
11 Westbrook, Hannah 11 Newton South 12:01.10

300m hurdles
15 Cronin, Mary Kate 09 Newton South 54.18 2

4x100m relay
8 Newton South 'A' 53.01 3

4x400m relay
2 Newton South 'A' 4:12.31

4x800m relay
2 5 Newton South 'A' 10:27.97

High jump
5 Braver, Diana 11 Newton South 4-10.00
11 Ellis, Kathryn 11 Newton South 4-06.00

Pole Vault
3 Visnick, Cora 09 Newton South 8-00.00

Long jump
10 Bailey, Candace 11 Newton South 15-03.75
21 Lee, Christie 09 Newton South 14-02.00

Discus
14 Jeraraja, Elisabeth 11 Newton South 78-04

Shot put
7 Jeraraja, Elisabeth 11 Newton South 30-02.50