This week was a quick turn-around from last – a DCL meet last Wednesday, a weekend that turned into a 3-day affair because of a snow day, and then right into another DCL meet, with a big relay meet coming this Saturday.
If that sounds busy, think about Acton-Boxborough, who ran on Friday/Saturday at the Dartmouth relays. The coaches didn’t think we had a shot at winning against AB on the boys side, but the guys outperformed the expectations and won the meet 55-40, which is a fairly tight score. The girls won 70-25, by a more comfortable margin.
The meet was also scored against Boston Latin, with the girls winning 82-13 and the boys 86-8.
Girls first, this time:
Azeezah Gray took 2nd in her heat of the hurdles with a time of 9.43. Mary-Kate Cronin, and Rachel Rubinstein both PR’ed in the hurdles with times of 10.33 and 10.98. One of Rachel’s goals was to get into the “10’s” in the hurdles and she finally got it!
In the dash, for the both the boys and the girls, and, in fact, for all runners from all schools, the times were slow. I’m still trying to figure this out, but I’m tempted to say that it was the 3 days off.
In the JV mile, Claire O’Brien ripped a PR of 5:46.7, qualifying for States. Jessa Rubin narrowly missed the qualifying mark, running a PR of 5:48.7 (5:48.24 is qualifying in the girls mile).
In the 4x200m JV relay, the girls finally got the baton around the track without a major incident, running in 2:01.8.
In a big comeback, Hannah Westbrook stepped onto the track for the first time this year and ran an 11:51, qualifying her for states, now in both the mile and deuce. Melanie Fineman and Sarah Chari ran 12:02 and 12:09 – hot times in any league.
Dani Pensak ran a gutsy race in the 300, taking 2nd to Boston Latin’s Meisha Brooks. Dani ran it in 43.1, which I think is a PR for her. Frosh Andrea Braver ran a 45.9 and Madeline Frieze ran a 46.2 – great times for the first year out.
In the 600, the coaches moved Bridget Dahlberg down from the 1,2 mile – maybe to get some speed for a big race coming up? Anyway, she delivered in her heat with a 1:39.6. Kyle Remy second with a 1:43.8. It looks like the LS coach is also giving the members of his girls’ 4x800m relay a speed workout, running them in the 300m and 600m, with some hot times. Also: KarenNallen of Westford Academy ran a 42.3 in her heat of the 300m, edging out LS’s Jess Griffin.
NS took 1-2 in the 1000, with Diana Braver and Julia Frieze. Both moved up to this distance. Diana tends to do the 600 more, and Julia the 300 – but both did great.
Juliet Ryan-Davis blasted a 5:16.9 mile, almost entirely on her own. She took out the lead in the beginning and held on to it. To my eyes, she looked like she had gas in the tank at the end. This is one of the top state marks this year.
Diana Braver and Elizabeth Ellis took 1-2 against AB in the high jump with 4-11 and 4-09.
In the long jump, Sarah Marquis took 1st overall!!! With a jump of 15-02. Cool beans, Sarah.
The 4x4 team of Juliet Ryan-Davis, Diana Braver, Julia Frieze and Bridget Dahlberg were untouchable in their heat, running a 4:10.2. Bridget held off a fast closing Casey Hsiung from AB. Casey’s a major sprint talent for AB. LS ran in the other heat, and this time made it around without a problem, running a scorching 4:03. For you fans of relay splits (an esoteric subject, as Jon Frieze will attest) Juliet 63.1, Diana 62.8, Julia 62.6, Bridget 61.6.
You may recall the saga of Chloe Milliman, who twice fell in the 4x200 meter relay at nearly the exact same place. The JV 200 has been replaced with the JV 300, and Chloe ran this, making it around the whole way, and winning her heat! Jessica He also ran a fast time. Jessica came in at 48, Chloe in 49.
Saving the best for last, here – Liz Jeyaraj threw the shot in 34-09, which I think is a big PR, and certainly a league leader – one of the top in the State.
Now, turning to the boys side: Before the meet, I ran into the ubiquitous Jack Benjamin, from AB, who seemed in good spirits. He said he was trying to take down the AB school record in the 1000, which is 2:34.6 or so (from memory). I wished him well, he’s getting close – he ran a 2:40 in the first DCL meet, but ran the mile in the second one.
The JV mile was basically a parade of NS boys, led by Igal Bubar in 5:00.4, then Kyle Olson in 5:06.6, Cliff Bargar, the Olia brothers, back-to-back, then Alex Pearce. There were so many NS kids in the JV mile, that the officials wanted us to fill out a special 3x5 card with their names on it.
LS hurdler and fellow Dyestater, Bryant Wang was running with the JV 4x200m. I was a bit surprised, and said “Hey, Bryant, what are you doing in a JV race?” He said that the LS coach wanted to try out a 4x2 in advance of the upcoming Div I relay meet. Evidently, Boston Latin had the same idea. LS ran a 1:36.6, and BL ran a 1:37.6 which is probably two of the fastest JV 4x2’s I’ve heard of. AB and NS came in around 1:45, which sounds about right for a JV 4x2.
In the two mile, we saw the first appearance of Andrew Wortham, who is coming back from a hip injury from the cross-country season. Hip injuries are nasty – I had one, and it took me away from running for the better part of a year. Andrew looked great, and dueled with Bedford’s Jon Gault for the entire race. Jon had it in the end, but just barely, maybe a second ahead of Andrew, who finished in a very fast 9:57.4.
Yong Cho raised eyebrows in the 55m hurdles. He won handily, running in 7.96, which is now the league leader and something like fifth fastest in the state! Yong is turning into a big point scorer for NS, also taking 2nd overall in the long jump 19-11.25.
The 300 saw a duel between Boston Latin’s Peter Rice, who dropped down from the 600, and Gerald Arneaud. Gerald took 2nd in 37.1. Georgiy Kupovykh took 9th in 38.5. Sam Sewall has the flu – get better soon!
Alex Long and John Mitkevicius went 1-2 in their heat of the 600 – 1:29.5 and 1:31.3 for big points for NS.
Jack Benjamin from AB took out the 1000 hard. Will Cha tried to hang on him for two laps, but the pace was pretty ferocious and Will fell off a bit. Jack won in 2:36, which is just two seconds off the AB record. Will took second with a 2:45.5, Aden Forrow took fourth in 2:51.
You might recall that Chris Kim was DQ’ed for jewelry in the previous DCL meet. This time, he left off the necklace, and threw 42’ to take second overall, giving us big points.
Speaking of jewelry rules, in the news was Jaushaunna Kelly from Theodore Roosevelt HS in DC was dq’ed for a uniform violation:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_re_us/school_athlete_muslim_clothing
Seen from afar, this might sound abrupt, but we’ve seen dq’es for much smaller uniform violations.
In the boys JV 600, Ben Olins took first in 1:35.
At this point in the meet, the score with AB seemed pretty close. Matt Capstick and I added up the scores without the long jump, and it was 43 to 38 in favor of NS. I then went over to some of the kids in the stands who were watching the long jump and asked how that went. One said “I think Yong came in ahead of the AB guy”. Turns out Yong jumped only one inch further than AB’s DJ Brock. Putting that into the score, NS was up 48 to 39, out of range of possible disaster in the 4x4.
But, the 4x4 runners didn’t know that. Sasha Long, Will Cha, James Huth and Gerald Arneaud were running. It was tight for the first three legs, with James getting boxed in. Gerald got the handoff and ran neck and neck with AB’s Jack Benjamin for a while, finally pulling ahead for the win. Splits were Sasha 55.4, Will 54.6, James 53.8, Gerald 52.1, for 3:35.9.
So, that was the meet! The atmosphere in the infield after the meet was distinctly more relaxed than the week before. AB’s coach Brian Cunningham was there, joking around. Jack Benjamin was there. I told him he’d get the school record in the 1000 easily by the end of the season. I told Brian that I expected some hot relay times from AB this Saturday at the relays.
The crowd began to filter out and I started to warm up for my masters workout, seeing some of my running buddies showing up. I was stretching near the high jump pit. LS’es “fab four” (Molly Binder, Jess Griffin, Emily Mepham, and Dana Jamieson) were lounging on top of the pit itself. One of my running buddies, Carroll Blake (who can run a 55 400m at age 57!) came by, and I told him about the girls, saying “they can run in the low 9-minute range in the 4x8”. One of them perked up and said “We’re going to break 9 this year.” So, there you go. There’s even talk on the streets of Lincoln and Sudbury of them taking down the national record, which is 8:54, indoors. That’s a pretty all order. Can they get there? Show up for this weekend’s Div. I relay meet and see what they’re packing and what NS has to offer. Races kick off at 9:30, with….the 4x800 going first.
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