NS vs Acton-Boxboro vs Weston vs Tyngsboro

THE 1st MEET AT NEWTON SOUTH IN 5 YEARS!!

Boys:
NS 127 Tyngsborough 16.5
NS 117 Weston 28
NS 94 Acton-Boxboro 51

Girls:
NS 137.5 Tyngsborough 5.5
NS 123 Weston 20
NS 114 Acton-Boxboro 30

Photos and story to come.

Heartbreak Hill Youth Race

Today was the running of the 16th annual Heartbreak Hill International Youth Race. A pretty good sized chunk of the team came out to help, some of us showing up as early as 7:30. I personally got there around 7:50, at which point there were already 10 or so others. We helped with the construction of the balloon arch, which was surprisingly fun. Afterwards we hung around city hall for a while, eating free food and playing (or watching others play) football. By the time the first race went off, there was a large contingent of (past and present) Newton South athletes present assisting the race directors. There were some great performances by young runners during the day, but here are some notable ones:

Future NS athletes:
9 07:16 7:16 9 01-98 9 F 160 Haruka Wakimoto (Yuji's sister)
14 07:20 7:20 14 01-98 14 F 128 Leda Olia(the youngest Olia)
5 06:27 6:27 5 01-98 5 M 269 Parker Olson(the youngest Olson)

Current team members:
2 05:33 5:33 2 01-98 2 M 166 Tony Wang
5 06:17 6:17 4 01-98 4 M 334 Max Ezekiel
7 06:43 6:43 6 01-98 6 M 321 Adam Scherlis

And, of course, Coaches:
3 05:47 5:47 3 01-98 3 M 75 John Huth

Rt. 228 Frosh/Soph meet at Hingham

Photo: Some of the ladies and their "for-sure" team championship plaque.

click here for PHOTOS by M. Hergrueter
click here for PHOTOS by S. Chari

The frosh/soph meet is a great chance for the underclasspersons (if that's the proper word now) to shine. Shine, they did, along with the sun.

Matt Capstick had to staff the Marathon Sports booth at the Boston Marathon Expo this weekend and Steven asked me if I'd go with him to the frosh/soph meet. I agreed, but Matt and Steven neglected the part about the 7 AM bus departure.

Steven and I worked on Friday afternoon with the relay squads, not entirely sure who was competing and who wasn't because of all of the confusion of vacations and schedules. A lot of kids were running relays for the first time, and some were running some distances for the first time (e.g. Dan Connolly in the 400m).

I bought a tee shirt that said "Newton South Athletics" and figured that if I wore that and had a stop watch around my neck, and a clipboard by my side, people would mistake me for a coach.

Fast forward to Saturday morning: the sun was barely peaking over the trees. None of the kids getting onto the bus looked particularly awake. I know I wasn't, and even the quadruple espresso from Starbucks couldn't cut through the general grogginess. A key runner didn't show up, but we had to get the bus going down to Hingham - reworking the relay line-ups while driving down 128. I lost track of how many relay substitutions were made for this meet, but I can see that we clearly don't pay our coaches enough.

When we arrived at Notre Dame Academy, Steven held a brief meeting of the team, saying that the main goal for the meet was for the kids to have fun, and even had them give a pledge "I [state your name] promise that I will have fun at the meet today."

We met Rick Kates, the meet director and head coach at Notre Dame Academy. Rick had recently been elected to the MSTCA coaching hall of fame, and Steven organized the team to make a nice card for him as a way of congratulations. Rick said that there were 1440 athletes competing that day from 22 schools.

Since we were nearly one of the first teams to show up, we were able to secure a defensible position on a hill next to the track.

I accompanied Kayla Jackson, our lone javelin thrower, to the throwing field. Kayla warmed up, but was in the third flight - so we watched the first two flights compete. Kayla's really coming along - her form is getting there, and she understands the basic principles behind a good jav throw. The first two flights weren't the hottest I've seen, but the throwers were just starting out, I guess. The third flight was the seeded one and had a girl that looked like a guy from Brookline named Nika. Nika dominated the competition with seeming ease, although her voice was kinda low, too, and even the official seemed baffled. But, there were Nika supporters in the hill next to the competition who cheered her throws, so she must be legit. Kayla threw a great 83'7" to take third, which is out of about 35 competitors from 12 schools. She seemed pretty happy about that, but wanted to hustle back to see the running events.

The two mile had already run by the time I got back to the oval. Sara Chari and Madeleine Reed took 1-2 with times of 11:45 and 11:50.

Word filtered back that Cora Visnik and Katie Sandson took 1-2 in the pole vault with jumps of 9-00 and 8'6" - which both broke the previous meet record.

By this time, heats were being run in the 100m, 100m hurdles, and 110m hurdles. Katie Sandson easily won her heat to advance, as did Willi Iacobucci. Dan Connolly advanced in the hurdles.

In the mile, Kathy O'Keefe went out a little fast, and basically ran the seeded heat all alone from in front. She split a 2:30 first half-mile, but held on and ran a 5:16.34, to take first, which is a near-PR for her.

The results from the boys high jump was encouraging, with Newton South taking places 4-6-7, Gus Hergrueter leading in 5'6", Andre Scott in 5'4" and Alex Karys in 5'2" - pretty darn good!

In the boys mile, Yujii Wakimoto ran in a very tight duel, following close behind a runner from Archbishop Feehan until trying to put a move on him during the last turn. The Feehan runner responded, but Yujii still had more in the locker, and notched it up with a kick in the straightaway, taking first in 4:43.39. As the mile was running, Steven and I were working frantically with Cora Visnik to get relay steps down to Katie Sandson. Cora was replacing our missing runner in the 4x1, and the only time we could practice was during the mile. That was pretty frantic.

Next up was the 400m dash. Andrea Braver ran a spectacular 1:01.24 to take second, closely dueling with a Waltham runner on the backstretch.

In the boys pole vault Chris Chueng took 2nd in 10-00. There was some bad news, however, Hai Jin Chung rolled his ankle in the triple jump. He was our third leg on the boys 4x100m relay. The alternate, Andre Scott, was scheduled for the 200m dash, and hadn't practiced handoffs at all - in fact, didn't really know the sprint handoffs. So I told him to run his heat of the 200 and we'd teach him the hand-off afterward.

Kwame Francis-John ran a great race and took first in the 200m dash!!

After that, we rapidly assembled the 4x100m squad, with Andre out of breath, and tried to go through the sprint-handoff drill as fast as we could, while the loudspeaker was already making calls for the relays. He could barely catch his breath after the trial runs through the handoffs, and I had to apologize, saying "Look, I know this isn't the best of circumstances, but we have not choice at this point." Anyway, we got one decent trial and called it Good Enuf for Government Work. I sent them off to check in, and then ran around the infield trying to make sure the relays were checking in properly - which wasn't always the case.

Walking over to the Newton South encampment, I heard a loud boombox blaring, and asked around whether anyone had heard the calls for the relays. I was met with puzzled stares. Of course they didn't hear the calls for the relays - the friggin music was too loud!! I got them to turn it down. It did seem like a fun party - but ya gotta take care of business, first. Maybe they took Steven's "fun pledge" at total face value?

In the 100m dash finals Katie Sandson took 4th in 12.25, Will Iacobucci took 8th. Dan Connolly took sixth in the hurdle finals.

In the 4x100 meter relays - the heat assignments were a bit rushed by some of the officials who probably had BBQ's that afternoon. For a moment, it looked like our girls 4x1 team would run all alone in the last heat - then, finally a couple of other teams showed up. People were milling around on the track, and Katie Sandon's view of incoming Cora Visnik was obscured by the millers-around - the handoff wasn't the cleanest, but they got it around for 7th overall.

In the boys 4x100 meter relay, the handoffs looked surprisingly good, given how little practice they had. It was Ben Weissman to Gus Hergrueter to Andre to Willi Iacobucci - running in 48.6 which was good for 4th place.

The girls' 4x400m relay with Kathy O'Keefe (66) to Andrea Braver (61.4) to Amrita Rao (69) to Madeleine Reed (65) ran a 4:23.8 to take 2nd overall to Pinkerton (NH). Note that three of the four girls running were distance runners - including a two miler. Not bad at all!

The boys 4x400m relay had Yuji (57) to Luke (59.9) to Dan (58.5) to Kwame (55.2) to take fourth overall in 3:51.5.

I was pretty happy with all the relays, particularly given that we had runners who had never done a 400m before (Dan, Madeleine) and a bunch of rushed substitutions (Cora, Andre) that very day. They performed magnificently.

Walking over to the boys 4x400m team, who were walking through the infield, I was about to debrief them, when Rick Kates, the organizer of the event, came running up to me and said "You won the team award!" He then handed me the plaque. I looked at the boys, who seemed about ready to burst, and then at Rick and said. "Newton South - you sure about this?" He said "yeah, I'm totally sure. Congratulations." And then he ran back to the scorers table. The boys looked at me, and said "wow, we won the team competition..." and then were off to our encampment to celebrate and take a victory lap. I have to say that I was kind of surprised, but I know we'd taken a couple of firsts and a bunch of seconds, thirds and fourths. So, what the heck? Carpe Diem.

The girls results weren't final at that point - the long jump was still being contested, with Christie Lee and Andrea Braver making it into the finals. The whole team was sitting on the sidelines of the runway. I recall one moment when Andrea was getting ready for her jump, and I started to do the "long jump clap" - Andrea shot me a look, and I stopped. This was good for a laugh all around. Christie jumped a 15'7 1/2" - good for 2nd place and qualifies for states. Andrea took 6th in a 15' 0.5".

With a bunch of firsts - 2 mile, mile, pole vaule and some good relays and other places it looked like we had good scoring - and indeed, it was good enough for the team trophy. So, some of the girls all took a victory lap on that one. The rest of the team was on the bus and we got everyone out for some photos of the double-team win with both plaques. The mood was very happy on the bus! It was a beautiful sunny day, and a huge number of people ran or competed much better than expected.

I got home and was firing up the BBQ myself, and started to page through the coolrunning summary of the events - if nothing else, than to get the full name of the jav thrower from Brookline. I noticed at the bottom of the boys score that it had New Bedford first in the team scoring for the boys. At that moment, my heart sunk. I looked through the results and saw that New Bedford took first in the high jump, long jump, hurdles and 100m dash, in addition to some high places in the relays and other events, like the 300m hurdles.

A quick calculation showed to me that NB had definitely outscored us. So, as of this writing, I'm scratching my head. It looks like the girls indeed won the team title outright, but the boys result remains a mystery to me. Why did Rick run over to me on the infield to give me the plaque? In retrospect, I suppose I could have asked to see the scoring, but I'd been so busy worrying about getting kids checked in, boom boxes turned down etc, it didn't occur to me to recheck Rick's results.

Stay tuned - I guess we'll find out what happened.

Still it was tremendous performance by both the NS girls AND boys - the future of track at NS looks very bright - AND the kids did have fun. I'll send an update when I find out what happened with the boys results.

Go Lions!

John Huth

Postscript - I ran the Heartbreak Hill Fun Run today - a large number of the NS team were out, helping out. It was a fun to have the tables turned and be the one running while they looked on. I took third in the old-guys age group - but in an odd twist of fate - the trophy for third place was missing.

CC NS Wayland meet report -JH

(Photo links below story- 3 links)

I don't have the final scores in the CC-NS-Wayland meet from yesterday, but it wasn't exactly a nail-biter. NS scored heavily in most, if not all of the running events.

I can't cover directly a lot of the running events because I was off helping coach and organize the javelin throwing - at a field maybe half a mile away.

Anyway....from my point of view. First - logistics were the usual nightmare. The was a snafu with the buses, and, as of Tuesday afternoon, it looked like we could only bring a skeleton crew of varsity. Out network of parents rallied to the cause, and we had our usual armada tuned up to haul all the kids up to CC. Fortunately Scott Perrin rustled up a total of three buses, to allow all the kids to be on the bus.

The weather was close to perfect for an outdoor meet, unlike many where warmth and dryness were elusive. At the end of the meet, I saw some of the CC parents and kids firing up a BBQ in the park where the meet was held.

First stop was the throwing fields, where I helped the throwers decamp from the bus and get setup. Matt Capstick has me on javelin crew because we've never done particularly well in that event - his comment was "I'm tired of showing up at meets and saying to the opposing team 'hi, here's nine points..'". The javelin is an interesting event, and is used in books on biomechanics as an example of a highly complex activity. The best analogy I can come up with is that the best throwers turn their bodies into a whip, with a running start, they initiate a twist that is unleashed when one foot basically blocks all of the forward momentum. To the point - we're getting there, but not all the way there, yet. Wayland has an amazing javelin crew on both the boys and girls side. To give you some idea of distances - qualifying for states for girls is 93', and for boys 152'. Liz Ogletree from Wayland unleashed a 125 foot boomer, which impressed the heck out of me. The best boys throw was J. Spinelli from Wayland, 147'2". In the end, we didn't give away nine points - only eight on the boys side, with John Mitkevicious throwing 132'8" for third - not bad! Chris Kim, who we lured from lacrosse kept hooking his javelin to the right and out-of-bounds in all three tosses. I have to admire the precise reproducibility of the result - it seemed like the jav landed within three inches of the "inbounds" line every time. We fared a bit better on the girls end with Nalis Mbianda throwing 106' to qualify for states, and take 1st against CC, and 3rd against Wayland. Kayla Jackson threw 86'10" to take third against CC. There's a lot of "upside" as the throwers have a lot of talent - they just have to put all the pieces together. In other throwing events, Liz Jeyaraj threw 33' to take first in both dual competitions and Nalis threw 31'6" - both qualifying for states.

At that point, I hustled over to the running events, where the 400m dash was just winding up. According to my many informants at the track, the events were mostly a sea of royal blue runners. I'd heard that Bridget Dalhberg had nearly lapped one of the runners in the mile. I can't keep track of all the kids who qualified for states in this first meet, but it was pretty impressive. In point of fact, by far we took our worst beating in the javelin.

I don't have as many results as I'd like because I was over at the throwing field, but I'll try to capture some of the highlights.

Gerald Arneaud took first in the 400m with a smoking 49.7 - his first official sub-50 mark. Diana Braver took first in the 400m in 61, with Julia Frieze taking second. I don't have the time for Julia in front of me, but I'm pretty sure all three qualified for states. In the 100m dash, James Huth took 1st in 11.2 - one tenth off his PR and qualifies for states. Pebbles Banks took first in the 100m dash, in 12.7, also state-qualifying, followed closely by Katie Sandson.

In the two mile - holy cow - Kelsey Karys cruised in with a 10:50.2 school record. This would be a jaw dropping time in a State Championship, but Kelsey looked so smooth that you'd think she was just taking a stroll in the park. Sara Chari and Sonya Freeman took 2-3, against the lone Wayland runner, who had been lapped so many times, that I think she had two laps to go after Sonya crossed the finish line (that's how I feel when I do my swimming workouts at the Y).

In the 4x100meter relays - we have the makings of hot squads for the boys and girls. The boys team (James Huth to Yong Cho to Georgy K. to Kwame F-J) ran a hot 44.8 (state qualifying is a pokey-slow 46.2) despite some ugly baton handoffs. James said of his handoff to Yong: "I just couldn't hold my hand steady enough to get it into his hand.", pulling off to the side and banging his fist against the turf. Anyway, they got it around, and legit, too.

The girls - Pebbles to Katie to Ashley to Candace also ran a fast race, again with an early season - ugly handoff. Candace came from behind against CC, with a time of 52.3 - (state qualifying is 55.6).

In the boys 4x4, (John Beck to Sasha to Tal to Gerald) the A squad had to come from behind against our B squad and also Wayland - getting the baton to Gerald within striking distance of Wayland's anchor, he just chewed them up. I think the winning time was 3:35 or so - anyway, again, good enough for States.

In the girls 4x4 - again a dominant performance, Julia (63) to Diana (62) to Juliet (62) to Bridget (62.5) for 4:10 - again, as State qualifier (4:30 is the mark). I incurred Diana's wrath when I didn't quite get her split right - I was trying to time both the A and B squad. The B squad of Kathy O'Keefe, Andrea Braver, Amrita Rao and Madeline Frieze - nearly qualified for States in their own right - a 3/4 freshman squad!

That's all I got to see on the oval, but relying on reports, here is some more info on the meet. Bridget D. ran a 5:06 mile - that's up there with some of her faster indoor times this season. Kathy O'Keefe ran a 5:24. The varsity distance runners have been doing some amazing workouts on the track this season - so I'm expecting great times as the weather improves.

Candace Bailey ran a 27.2 to take the 200 (needless to say, both qualify for states). The Ellis sisters took 1-2 in the high jump, with Ellie clearing 5'2" and Kathy in 5'0" - just picking up where they left off in indoor. Azeezah Gray took first in the hurdles with 16.9. Yong Cho ran a incredibly fast 110m hurdles - 14.8. Pebbles Banks triple jumped 34'5", Candace jumped 16" 6.5". Everyone I'm mentioned above qualified for states.

Cameron Fen took 1st in the 2-mail, followed by Ben Finch (10:07 and 10:12). John Beck took 1st in the mile - 4:44. Sasha long 1st in the 800 - around 2:04, I don't have the final score, but just by looking at the results of the races, it must be pretty lopsided.

Sorry if I don't have more details on the early races contested - but I was off javelining.

In other news around the DCL - things are really heating up. Westford Academy beat both Acton-Boxborough and Lincoln-Sudbury, with some amazing performances by Marc Boutin and Max Enos. Marc ran a 4:31 mile, Max ran an 11.0 100m and triple jumped 40'1", and there was a jav thrower who went 158'. I believe Westford also beat LS and AB on the girls side - so watch out - Westford is kicking off the season as a real powerhouse.

Other notes - the rumor mill has it that LS'es star Dana Jamieson is *not* competing in the outdoor season, which may explain how they got nipped by WA - not to take anything away from WA's team, which is awesome this year. Coming up - lessee, here....vacation week, but not for all.

On Saturday is the Freshman-Sophomore meet at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham. If you want directions, let me know and I'll send them around. I'll probably be accompanying the Fresh/Soph team, along with Steven. It's a great meet, where I hope some of our up-and-coming fresh/soph's can really shine.

Toward the end of next week is the Penn Relays. Forget that silly road race that they have down Commonwealth Ave - the Penn Relays is the big time.

At Penn: LS has a girls 4x8 running, Brookline has a distance medley relay team running, Woburn has their crack 4x400m squad running. Emily Jones from Bromfield will be running the 3k, and *isn't* seeded first. Yeooo! Omar Aden from Charlestown is running in the boys open mile. As if that isn't enough - it seems like the entire population of Jamaica comes up to Philadelphia for the big party at Penn. So far the leading boys team is St. Jago, anchored by the amazing Yohan Blake. St. Jago has already run a 3:08 4x400m relay, and a 39.8 4x100m relay - times that most colleges would be proud of. Then, there's lil ole me, running in a masters 4x400m relay, and perhaps also a 4x100m relay. My goal: beat the time set by the girls in the 4x4 at CC - which would be 4:10 - the time to beat. Watch out! So, that'll be fun.

The first meet after vacation is Weston/Tyngsborough/A-B AT NEWTON SOUTH!!! But....the track - egads - it's already unraveling. But...Jon Frieze is on it, and is trying to get it patched before the meet on April 30th.

A-B has a tremendous team - so they'll provide very stiff competition. Let's hope for good weather for that, and enjoy something that seems to happen only once every four years or so: a home meet at Newton South (who would've thought?).

NS vs Concord-Carlisle vs Wayland @ CC-PHOTOS

A very beautiful afternoon. Some very fast times for a 1st meet.

click here for photos by George

click here for photos by S. Chari

click here for photos by M. Hergrueter

NS vs Concord-Carlisle vs Wayland @ CC

Wednesday, 16 April. I think the actual meet starts at 4 pm but have to verify this.
Looking forward to that 1st meet. It will be at CC and drivers might be needed because the team can only get 2 busses.
Outdoor track means everyone can take decent photos. Hopefully, many parents will take and post pictures.

NOTE FROM JOHN HUTH:
So - tomorrow's the big kick-off meet for outdoor season - Concord Carlisle and Wayland and NS at Concord Carlisle.

Note - the CC track is near the center of Concord, not next to the high school. Throwing events are next to the high school, however.

We are shorthanded on the transportation and need some people who can supply rides from NS to CC and back. The departure time would be at 2:15 from NS, behind the field house.

Please let me know if you can give rides to/from NS - preferably both ways, but if only one way, I can probably pair up rides.

Thanks!!!
John H.

Masters' Indoor Nationals -JH

While we're waiting on outdoor season to commence, here's a brief report on the Masters' Indoor Nationals.

Since about a year ago, when I decided I was going to try to run in some shorter races, I've had maybe four hamstring pulls, a couple of bouts of tendinitis and chemical burns in both eyes as a result of training. But, hanging in there, I ran the 800m and 4x400m relay in the M50 category.

The 800m is a kind of way-station for me to drop down to the 400m - it's a good workout with a bit less speed required - although that last 200m can have hell to pay. After about 3 months off to let various injuries heal, I ended up taking 2nd in my heat of the 800m, PR'ing by about 4 seconds. Then we threw together a "B" 4x400m relay (pictured above) and took 2nd overall for a silver medal. Great fun!

The Mass Velocity track club took 2nd overall in the scoring in the Nationals. First went to the So Cal Track Club.

The next big even is the Penn Relays, where I hope to run a 4x400, and am now an alternate for a 4x100m.

Newton North and Newton South to Merge

As reported in the tab and the always reliable NNHS Track and Cross-Country Blog the Newton South and Newton North track teams will merge so Newton does not have to have a tax override. Also, with such a strong team it is felt that the city will be able to get quite a few lucrative endorsement contracts. There are negotiations going on now for naming rights to the track. Steve McChesney and Jim Blackburn have agreed to have all athletes wear "Miss Spiros Spectacular Spikes at all major meets. The North long jump squad will be a team in the new Fox reality show, "XXXXX...........