Mass. Division 1 championships, 30 May 2008

Quick synopsis of D1 meet by John Huth:
The girls won, overall - 74 points with LS 2nd in 53 points, Andover 3rd in 45

Some huge performances NS took 1-3 in the 2-mile with Kelsey and Madeleine
A 1-2 finish in the mile with Bridget (5:03.62) and a huge effort and PR from Kathy O'Keefe in 5:05.91 (5 second PR)
Pebbles finished very high in the 100m dash and triple jump
Nalis took 1st in the shot and 2nd in the jav
A 2nd place finish in the 4x8 with 9:31.63, I think it was a 4th in the 4x4 with 4:06.44

On the guys side - some ups and downs - Ross took first in the pole vault, jumping 14'-0", missing the record by an inch. Gerald took 3rd in the 400 - missed the call for the race, but ran in the unseeded heat. James didn't qualify for finals in the 100m - a bit disappointment, but he's had a great season. The guys 4x4 took 6th. Yong Cho pulled off a stunning upset of Bryant Wang from LS to take 1st in the hurdles. The boys 4x8 ran a huge effort to take 3rd in 8:09.76 - Sasha had a fantastic leadoff - all four runners did very well in that.
So...overall a good day for the Lions. There's still a last-hurrah for some in the All-States next week in Fall River at Durfee High School!

Go Lions!

John H.

photos to come and I'll bet a longer story from John.

State meet divisional championships are Fri. 30 May

The division 1 state meet will be at Lincoln Sudbury High School tomorrow starting at 2 pm.
The seeds can be found at:
Click here for Division 1 performance list
Click here for Dyestat MA div 1 discussion board

Division 1 is the most competitive meet being the largest schools in Eastern Mass. There are 4 divisions in eastern MA and there are separate central MA and western MA meets. The best from each of these go to the all state meet on Saturday 7 June at Durfee HS.

Since only very top performers score in the state meets, the team championships can often be different from league champions. A very good league champion would have good depth in most events. A divisional champion needs fewer but better/faster performances.

more later.

DCL Championships full report 21 May 2008

Click here for Coolrunning results
Click here for photos by M. Hergrueter
Click here for photos by George
Click here for photos by S. Chari

Story by John Huth:
The team was pumped up for this meet like no others so far this season- this meant the most - the Dual County League T+F Championship for the boys and girls. Any first place winner got to hear their name booming over the loudspeaker, saying "and.... the two-thousand and eight Dual County League Champion in the [name of event here] is [name of winner here]...." Even sixth place finishers would know that their one point counted for the team, and the spectators all knew that - cheering on the competitors. With their eyes even beyond the DCL's, the coaches held back Candace Bailey (cyst removed on her back) and Bridget Dahlberg (getting some more healing time for her injury) for the D1 States, even though Bridget and Candace were sure to score points in the mile, long jump, 200m and a couple of relays. Cora was back and vaulting, Ross M. was back and long-jumping and pole vaulting.
LS was showcasing their new track, and had a huge crew of parents selling burgers, hot dogs, pizza and other items. LS is also the site of the D1 State Championships, which is sure to be a thriller. A weak cold front was blowing through, producing sporadic showers all afternoon, and the threat of lightning, which, fortunately, didn't materialize.

In the girls jav, there were some familiar faces from previous meets - Elyse Ogletree and Katrina Kroll from Wayland, and Courtney Boland from AB. NS'es Kayla was within a couple of feet of qualifying for the states, and Nalis was looking to place highly against the Wayland throwers. In a real show of "doing it for the team", Katrina was throwing with a bad ankle, and hobbled after each throw. In Kayla's first throw, she ran too fast down the runway, and threw off the wrong foot. I asked her "are you nervous?." She said, "yeah, really nervous..." So, I urged her to relax and concentrate. She pulled herself together and delivered on her next one, with 95'2" - a 5 foot PR, and enough to qualify for states - in fact, good enough to snag 5th place and 2 points. Her pre-season goal was to throw 93', and qualify for states. She was very pumped and full of smiles. Nalis threw 109'9" and had to hustle over to the finals in the shot put. Courtney's throws showed amazing form, and even though she was of slight build, she managed to throw a 115' toss, good for 2nd place. Many of the NS javelineers were impressed with her throwing form. I mentioned this, and she said, "well, it had better be good, I've worked with a private trainer for over six months..." I said "well, it shows...' Only Elyse Ogletree topped her - with not-as-good form, but a substantial 122'. Nalis' throw was good for third place, edging out Katrina's throw. So, that was good for eight points for NS.

While the throws were going on, the trials in the 100m dash were in progress. James qualified for the finals, handily, easing up in the last 10 meters. Both Katie and Pebbles won their heats, too, advancing to the finals.
Next up was the 1-mile run on the oval. The guys went out in a pack, with John Beck, Yuji Wakimoto and Ben Finch in the hunt. The lead went back and forth a number of times. In the end, AB's Dan Grant took it, in 4:29.72, followed by LS'es Jake Shoemaker and CC'es Phil Divino. Then, we had three NS'ers crossing the line - John Beck (4:34.4), Ben Finch (4:35.7 - a five second PR), and Yuji Wakimoto (4:38.9) for 4,5,6. Cliff Bargar ran a 4:48 for 9th - but his best race was in the now-named "your chance to shine meet" on Saturday.

In the girls 1 mile, we saw Andrea Keklak hang behind Kathy O'Keefe for the better part of three and a half laps. Kathy did gradually kick up the pace, but Andrea had her famous kick at the end to take first. Kathy in second, then AB's Kate Warwick in third, and Melanie Fineman in fourth (5:25.2) Kathy's time of 5:11.9 is another PR for her. The prospect of having four milers in the 4:50-5:10 range is looking interesting. In the 300m hurdles - Tal Inbar took first in his heat for 6th, and Ben Seifer took 5th - again those points add up. LS'es hurdle guru, Bryant Want took first. Kyle Remy snagged 6th in the girls 300m hurdles.

The boys 800 - wow - it was real fast with three guys getting under 2:00 - Alex Linden (LS), Brett Stein (Wayland) and Jack Benjamin (AB). Sasha and Will took 4-5 in big PR's of 2:00.4 and 2:01.5. In the girls 800 - another fast race. Juliet Ryan-Davis got boxed in for a chunk of the race and was frustrated with that. Nonetheless, she ran a PR of 2:18.6 for third, and Julia Frieze ran a 2:22.76 for 5th. We had a some disappointment in the 200, with no one from NS advancing. On the girls side, Candace was out from surgery, and Kwame and Georgiy just missed qualifying by a hair. Georgiy ran a big PR of 23.54 - which qualifies him for States!!!

Both Yong Cho and Azeezah Gray advanced from the prelims of the hurdles into the semi's. Nalis Mbianda won the shot put with a 35'9". She said, afterward, "I feel like it's my job to win the shot...." perhaps reflecting her love of the javelin. Liz Jeyaraj took third in the shot, and 6th in the discus.
In a big surprise, Joe Needleman threw a huge PR of 129' in the discus to take third and qualify for the states. Now, into some big performances - Ross McDonald is back and competing a full line-up for him - pole vault and long jump. He took first in the long jump, with 20'-1.75", and Yong Cho was right behind him in second with 19’ - 7.5”. Ross only took one jump. There was a head wind for the jumps which probably accounted for the modest results. The pole vault competition was postponed until Thursday, due to bad weather.

We took 2-4 in the girls pole vault with Cora Visnick just back from her rolled ankle at the Weston Twilight, and Katie Sandson taking 4th.

In the girls long jump, we were missing Candace because of her surgery, but Christie Lee stepped up to the plate (well, literally, she ran up to the plate), and took 2nd in 15'-5.25" missing 1st by 1/4”- well off her PR, but the wind was unfavorable (unlike Andover, where they had a huge tail wind).

The Ellis sisters took 3&5 in the high jump. Will Burgess and Gus Hergrueter took 4-5 in the high jump. Will's finally back and bringing in points after a long bout of mono.

We had a huge day from Pebbles, who took 1st in the triple jump with 35'-9.5". Gerald Arneaud managed to sneak in a 6th place finish in the triple. Also adding a point to the board was Chris Kim in the jav, with 139'-3”. Chris was unhappy with his performance, but scored a point, and is looking for a return to his 153' throws in the D1 states this week.

In the guys 400, we had the ever dependable Gerald Arneaud run a dominant 49.71. John M. ran a big PR of 52.91 to take 4th overall, taking 1st in the unseeded heat, besting Westford's Greg Hartofelis who ran in the seeded heat! Without many of their high scoring seniors, who were off in DisneyWorld, Westford had an off-day. The rain started up around this time, and LS ran Molly Binder again, despite a stress fracture in her shin. She ran the open 400m, taking it in a dominant 58.6. I saw her limping off the track after that and she said "this time, I'm really finished for real". Molly's going to Wake Forest next year, and plans on running track. She's been a huge asset for LS, and it's a shame to see her out for the rest of the season. Dani Pensack and Andrea Braver took 3-4 in the 400 with 61.12 and 61.70.

Next up was the 100m finals. James seems to like the rain/inclement conditions because he feels it gives him an advantage. I wasn't expecting a fast time, but James ran very strong and finished a couple of stride lengths ahead of the rest of the pack for a win in 11.11. Brian Crossman came up to me afterward and congratulated me, saying "he looks very strong, all that training really paid off". The 11.11 is fully-automatic timed, and, is now the new school record, replacing the 10.9 hand timed ones. The next fastest time was 11.41. At this point, we had a brief lull in the rain, and a rainbow came out. Emily Mepham's dad, Bill, pointed it out to us. Over time, we've gotten to know many of the LS parents quite well, and even though the rivalry between NS and LS can be intense, there's a strong bond among us all - being nail-biting track parents.

Pebbles Banks won the 100m for the girls in 12.75, and Katie Sandson added a couple of points with a 5th place finish.

Yong Cho took 2nd in the hurdles, taking 2nd, in 14.78. Azeezah Gray took 3rd in 16.48.
In the girls 2-mile final, LS scratched Andrea Keklak into the 4x8 (more on this later). I don't know for certain, but this may have been because Molly Binder was originally slated for the 4x8 and couldn't run. We had Kelsey, Madeleine, Melanie, Hannah and Sara all entered for NS. The rain returned and was really pouring this time. Kelsey led the way. Rachel Potter was the lone LS runner trying to challenge NS. She tried to hang up there with the front runners, but slowly fell off, with each NS runner sequentially passing her. We got places 1-5 - 30 points total in one race. This really clinched it for the girls.

In the boys 2-mile we had the familiar duel from indoor between Andrew Wortham and Jon Gault. After running in the lead for most of the race, in the pouring rain, Jon made a move with about a lap and a half to go, and put in a gap. They took 1-2. I think it was Andrew's second best time of 9:42. Cameron took 4th, in a fast 9:54. Jon’s time of 9:35.38 was a big PR.
Next up were the relays - it was still pretty wet out, and the batons were slippery. First up was the boys 4x1 - James to Yong to Georgiy to Kwame. The race was a real battle between AB and NS, with the two top AB guys on the 2nd and 3rd leg - giving Kwame a gap to make up. It was too close to call at the finish, but most people gave it to NS. Unfortunately, AB's third exchange was well out of zone, and they were DQ'ed. In the boys 4x8, Sasha ran a strong leadoff of 2:02, staying approximately even with LS on the handoff to John Beck. By the time the baton got to Will Cha on the handoff, LS had a substantial lead. But, at first I thought my eyes were deceiving me - LS had the 200/400 specialist Sean Kleeman running anchor. I could only recall Gerald’s first attempt at the 800, and what happened to him at 600 meters. Sean took off, and Will ran smart, holding to pace, not closing the gap much, but not giving up a lot either. With Will still chasing, Sean hit the 600 meter mark, and the demons descended. Sean tied up, and Will passed him smoothly and opened up a substantial gap, going in for the win in 8:13.81 - their best ever.

In the guys 4x4, John M. ran a very strong leadoff of 52.9, followed by a strong leg from Tal (52.1) - Gerald had a small gap to close with the CC anchor, who went out real fast, and then Gerald caught him for the win in 3:30.2.
So, the boys swept the 3 relay events, adding huge points!!

For the girls, our 4x1 was missing Candace for anchor and struggled with tough handoffs, taking 5th. With the 4x800m relay - there's a story and a half. We knew that LS was loaded and it would be tough in this signature event for both schools. Andrea Keklak was scratched from the 2 mile to take Molly's place. Juliet was fired up for the relay after the 800. We ran very strong legs, including 2:20's by Diana, and Kathy, but Julia got the baton about 10 meters behind Emily Mepham, nonetheless. What do you do when you get the baton behind a 2:12 800 runner? Julia went out hard, but couldn't close much of a gap and definitely felt it with about 300 meters to go. So, LS took it.

But, there were a number of post-race surprises in store, which came out slowly over time. The first surprise was when we found out the LS 4x800m relay was disqualified for an "ineligible runner". This turned out to be Andrea Keklak, who was scratched from the 2 mile to replace Molly. Here's what I've been able to determine happened: this was the first year that the seed submissions were electronic. From what I understand, once the entries are closed, if an athlete scratches in an event, they are out of the rest of the competition. My speculation is that this is to keep coaches from doing last-minute shuffling to gain an advantage, but allow for legitimate scratches due to injury. In any case, the coaches weren't fully informed of this prior to the meet, although the meet referee made this a rule for the meet. In any case, they DQ'ed LS'es 4x8 because of this scratch. Curiously enough, they didn't DQ NS, but we had done the same thing - Diana was scheduled to run the 800m, but was scratched to run in the 4x800m and the 4x400m relays. Steven caught this later, and, out of a sense of fair play, he DQ'ed our 4x800m relay.

The 4x4 had Dani to Kyle Remy to Emily Epstein to Diana. Dani ran a strong leadoff leg of 61, and the girls took 2nd to AB with a time of 4:12.
The score reported at the end of the meet was NS 162 on the girls side and LS 2nd with 102.33 - this included the DQ on the 4x8 for LS, but not NS.

The score, minus the pole vault was 122.5 for NS boys and 112 for LS. The pole vault was held the next day at Wayland, during the JV meet. There, Ross McDonald took first, and Roy took 3rd, with CC in between. I believe that, at best, LS took 6th.
So, the final score for the boys was a big win in 138.5 to maybe 113 for LS!!

Final adjustments, if my math is correct is 144 for NS and 104.33 for LS. There were some two and one point additions for other schools, but I don't think it affected the standings. Assuming this is correct, we have

NS 138.5 - DCL Championship, boys
NS 144 - DCL Championship, girls

With very strong showing by LS, and AB.
Overall, it was a great performance, with a huge number of PR's, and everyone going for those extra 2 or one points, which made the difference. What a day. A record, a sweep of the boys relays, a 1-5 sweep of the 2 mile, and real solid performances up and down the line.

The 2008 DCL League Champions from Newton South High School:

Ezra Banks - triple jump, 100m dash
Ross MacDonald - pole vault, long jump
Nalis Mbianda - shot put
Kelsey Karys - 2 mile
Gerald Arneaud - 400m, 4x400m relay
James Huth - 100m (school record), 4x100m relay
Yong Cho - 4x100m relay
Georgiy - 4x100m relay
Kwame Francis-John - 4x100m relay
John M. - 4x400m relay
Tal Inbar - 4x400m relay
Ben Seifer - 4x400m relay
Sasha Long - 4x800m relay
John Beck - 4x800m relay
Will Cha - 4x800m relay
Yuji Wakimoto - 4x800m relay

New state qualifiers:
Joe Needleman - discus 129'
Georgiy - 200m - 23.54
Kayla Jackson - jav - 95'
John M. 400m - 52.91
Ben Finch - 1 mile - 4:35.65

Go Lions!

John Huth

Last Chance Meet in Hingham 24 May 2008

This is the last chance to qualify for the state meet Friday 30 May. The division 1 qualifying standard is set fairly high. Many of these runners, jumpers would qualify for the state division meet in the smaller divisions.
From Steve's letter:
Mary Kate Cronin ran 51.48 in the 300M hurdles. (qualifying = 51.74)
Lauren Gabriel ran a 2+ second PR in the 300M hurdles in 52.07. Very close!
Madison Willert who has had very limited training ran a 12:48 2 mile (qualifying 12:35).
Emily Epstein ran a 1 second PR in the 400M in 63.00 qualifying for states (63.74).
Chleo Millman triple jumped 30' - 7.5", an 8" PR. (Qualifying 33')
Kathleen Capstick threw the discuss 78'-00", a 5' PR
Hillary Bloom threw the discuss 74'-4".
Avery Forrow had to pull out early in the pole vault with a hamstring strain after clearing 6'-6".
Josh Sugarman ran a 24.16 200M.
Max Balter ran a strong even 54.44 PR in the 400M.
Cliff (SR) PR 4:41:51 and Igal (JR) PR 4:43.16 in the mile. Qualifying is 4:40. Good try guys.
Willl Burgess 5'-5" in the high jump.
Gus Hergrueter 5'-5" in the high jump.
Chris Cheung pole vaulted 9'- 6".
Click here for full results

DCL JV meet 22 May 2008

Could someone Email me some results from the JV meet?
from Cliffbar:
I was able to go for about an hour and I saw a lot of great performances - NS freshman David Melly PR'd to win the mile in 4:55; junior Alex Waltz also PR'd to join the sub-5:00 club, bringing our count for this season to 13 - a few other kids (I think from LS) were under 5 as well. And for the conclusion of the varsity meet, Ross told me that he came in at 12', cleared it in one attempt, and won the event - he's now won LJ and PV two years in a row.

Ann Onymous wrote:
May 28
Here are some (but definitely not all) results from the JV DCL meet:

Lauren Gabriel came in first for the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles (a PR in the 300H, I believe. Her time was 54.30. She got into Last Chance for the 300H), as well as tying for second in the high jump with Sarah Berman (@ 4ft).
Michelle Chin placed third in the 400.
Maddie Willert placed second in the mile (6:04).
Erika Eldrenkamp placed sixth in the mile (6:11) and fifth or sixth in the 100m dash.
Boys 4x100 came in first.
No girls relays.
Anastasia Lymar and Sarah Berman ran the 200m dash, I believe that both placed.
Naveen Sridhar ran his first 800m.
Kirby Howell placed in the girls 800m.
Amrita Rao threw 49ft in the javelin (didn't place, but was her first time throwing).
Chloe Milliman placed in the 100m dash (second or third) and did exceedingly well in triple jump (would have state qualified by a foot if she had hit the right board, got into Last Chance for it).
Belage ran his first 2 mile I think.
Hope this is good, not sure about some.

DCL JV League meet TODAY 22 May 2008

OK, Some of the regular photographers will not be at the league JV meet in Wayland. Let's get some new cameras rolling.

DCL results are very good for NS

Click here for Coolrunning results
Click here for photos by M. Hergrueter
Click here for photos by George
Click here for photos by S. Chari

Preliminary story by John Huth:
I'll try to write up a longer story for everyone, but here's a quick recap. Wow! is what summarizes this meet. The kids really stepped it up a notch.

The girls were without Bridget and Candace (minor surgery on a cyst - she'll be fine), but won, nonetheless with 162 to next place LS 102 points.
The guys currently lead the scoring with 122.5 to next place LS 112. The pole vault is being competed today at Wayland, during the JV meet, but LS has one vaulter, so it would appear that, mathematically, the guys have it (LS can only get 10 points max) - knock wood, barring anything unforseen.

Some highlights

Guys take 1-2 in the long jump (Ross, Yong)

Girls take 1-2-3-4-5 in the two mile (!) with Kelsey, Madeleine Reed, Melanie Fineman, Hannah Westbrook, and Sara Chari. Rachel Potter was the lone LS runner, and it was pouring rain during both 2 miles.
Nalis took first in the shotput and 3rd in the jav, Kayla PR'ed in the jav with a 95' throw - to qualify for states.

Pebbles took first in the 100m dash and the triple jump.

Gerald took first in the 400 - 49.7, John M PR'ed in 52.91, qualifying for states.

James took first in the 100m dash, with 11.11 (fully automatic timed) which sets a new school record, which was 0.3 seconds faster (roughly 3 meters) than the nearest competitor, in the pouring rain.

The guys went 4.5.6 in the mile - with PR's or close to PR's - qualifying in the mile is 4:40
4 Beck, John Newton South 4:34.37
5 Finch, Ben Newton South 4:35.65
6 Wakimoto, Yuji Newton South 4:38.94

Sasha and Wil ran a very strong 800m - nearly breaking the 2:00 mark - I'm pretty sure this is a PR for Sasha.
4 Long, Alex Newton South 2:00.69
5 Cha, Will Newton South 2:01.53

I'm pretty sure that Kathy O'Keefe's time in the mile is a PR for her (5:13 - good for second).
2 O'Keefe, Kathy Newton South 5:11.85
4 Fineman, Melanie Newton South 5:25.16
11 O'Brien, Claire Newton South 5:43.56
13 Freeman, Sonya Newton South 5:45.71

The boys won all three relays!!! 4x100 - looks like they nipped AB at the finish line by a smidge, but AB was DQ'ed for passing out of the zone - pretty far out, it wasn't a subtle call. 4x800 in 8:13 - Will Cha got the baton well behind Sean Kleeman of LS. Sam's a 200/400 guy, and went out blazing, only to run into the demons at 600 meters, and Will got him and put a substantial margin between him and Sam by the finish. 8:13 is their best time all year. The 4x4 - Gerald got the baton just a bit behind CC and barreled through for the win.

The girls took 2nd in the 4x400m relay. The 4x800 meter relay has a complicated story. It was hard fought, with outstanding legs by all runners, but LS had Emily Mepham in the anchor, and she was just too much to handle. Unfortunately, LS was disqualified because of a last minute swap of a runner out of the 2 mile into the relay - the runner wasn't listed as such in the submission from the coaches -another one of those frustrating "wins by technicality".
So, JV meet and last event of the DCL champs today at Wayland, and then the Last Chance meet on Saturday - then - the kids get geared up for next week's D1 Championships, again at LS.

So, a bunch of PR's, new qualifiers for states, a new school record, a sweep of the boys relays, and what looks like both a boys (knock wood) and a girls victory in the DCL championship meet. Not bad at all.

Go Lions!

DCL League meet preview 21 May 2008

by John Huth:

Hi, All -

The meet starts at 3 PM today - directions:

Two variations on directions -

Take Comm/Ave Rt. 30 west to Rt. 27. Follow 27 north, Rt. 126 merges from the left. When you get to the small town center, cross Rt. 20, and continue to follow 27, angling to the right. At the next major intersection (about 2.5 miles) - Concord Rd - this is just before the traffic light. Follow Concord Rd, approximately a mile, and take a right onto Lincoln Road. Lincoln-Sudbury Regional HS is on the left. The main parking lot is on the far side of the school - it's a bit of a walk to get to the track.

Alternatively, take Rt. 20 to the intersection with Rt. 27 and follow the same directions above. Rt. 20 can get busy during rush hour, so if you're driving out around 4 PM, you might want to consider Rt. 30 instead.

I don't have the order of events in front of me. I know that the 100m, 200m, 110m hurdles and 100m hurdles will have prelims and finals. Placing to the finals will be based on time. The track events will be fully automatic timed (yippee!).
Things to watch - we'll see who is back from injuries - which could help NS tremendously. Although Westford is missing a lot of seniors, they still have a strong team. Expect LS to continue to battle on - the boy and girls will have to be on top of their game for this one. People to watch on other DCL teams:

Alex Linden from LS in the 800
Jon Gault from Bedford in the 2 mile - one of those rematches that keeps coming up with Andrew (and now Cameron)
Andrea Keklak from LS - may be doubled again in the mile/2 mile. If we have Bridget and Kelsey in the mile/2 mile, this will be interesting. Remember Andrea K. has a very fast kick.
Elyse Ogletree and Katrina Kroll from Wayland are huge javelin throwers - Nalis may be able to slip in there.
A rematch of Yong Cho and Bryant Wang in the hurdles.
Karen Nallem from Westford will be strong in the 200/400
AB has some strong sprinters in the 100/200 - Stanley Ye and DJ Brock. Their 4x100m relay team took first in the D1 races on Saturday.
Bedford and LS both have strong 100m guys.
LS has senior Emily Mepham, who they might also double, although less likely.
NS will be running strong teams in all 6 relays - boys, girls in the 4x1, 4x4 and 4x8 - we're hoping to get points there. LS will be strong in the 4x100, and will probably load up their 4x800 for the girls, AB will be strong in the guys 4x1, and likely also in the 4x8 - so our teams will definitely feel the heat.

Remember that the top 6 places score - 10-8-6-4-2-1 are the points awarded for 1st, 2nd....etc.

See ya there,

Go Lions! (John Huth)

NS vs LS vs Bedford 14 May 2008

Scroll down to the NS v LS v Bedford results for more photos.

MSTCA Relays class A - 17 May 2008

Newton South had a spectacular day at the large schools division of the MSTCA Relays with the girls winning and the boys finishing strong (9th). There were 34 schools entered for boys and 30 for girls. Newton North finished 2nd for the girls and 3rd for the boys. I could only be at the meet for an hour in the beginning. Check back later for a story and more photos.
Here are the unofficial top team scores for the girls:
1) Newton South 60
2) Newton North 56
3) Lincoln-Sudbury 48
4) Weymouth 33
5) Acton-Boxboro 28
Results have been posted at:
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/ma.shtml
Scroll to MSTCA Div 1 Relays in Andover.
Click here for direct link to results

Click here for photos by S. Chari
Click here for photos by George
Click here for photos by D. Fineman

Story by John Huth:
Yesterday, the Mass Track and Field Coaches held relay meets around the State. The Emass Division 1 meet was at Andover, site of last week's Andover Invitational, where the NS ladies were vacuuming up points left and right. The relays saw some matchups with Newton North, who always show up with strong teams. We had some great performances for both the guys and girls.

The remnants of a low pressure system caused some drizzles in the morning, and a considerable wind, which the athletes definitely felt. Javelins were deflected from their intended course and some runners could really feel its impact. The wind, up to 20 mph at times, was blowing down the final straightaway. It made for some interesting 400 meter legs on the relays - runners would zip down the backstretch, aided by the wind from behind, and just about the time their legs were beginning to give out, they came off the last turn and ran into a brick wall of air, trying to push them back.
Around 11, the sun came out, and most folks were unprepared with sunblock, and we all got our farmer tans for the day.

In addition to the stresses of the wind, the juniors were in a semi-recovery mode after the semi-formal the night before, along with some of the seniors who were playing the game of assassin in their copious spare time.
In the morning, we had the guys relay, with the girls 4x 1 mile (I think it's really a 4x1600....a mile is 1609.344 meters) stuck in there. The girls field events went first and then, around 12:30 the order flipped to girls relays and guys field events.

The field events are scored with three athletes competing from each school. All three distances are added together. The results are reported in meters, probably because adding meters is easier than adding feet and inches - so some of us were off converting marks from metric to english throughout the day. We had Kathleen Capstick, Kayla Jackson, and Nalis Mbianda in the jav. While they were warming up, we found out that we were short-handed in the discus relay, and needed a third. Kayla, who hadn't thrown the discus this season, was drafted as our third, and Matt quickly gave her a clinic on discus throwing. Even with a last minute substitution, the team of Liz Jeyaraj, Kathleen C. and Kayla managed to snag 6th for a point.

The girls jav was good enough for 5th place. The distances in all jav events were not huge because of the wind - but as the coaches are fond of pointing out - the weather affects everyone. I recall one in-bounds throw from a Plymouth South competitor that was grabbed by a strong gust, and steered outside of the sector lines for a foul. Elsewhere in the State, Wayland set a new All-State record of 314 meters in the jav relay at the D3 competition. Like many events, the DCL's are strong in the jav.

If you're trying to cover both the field events and track events, there's a lot of running around. Both Matt and Steven were out there, taking care of business, catching splits, making last minute decisions, etc. It was pretty frenetic, but worth it, because at the end of the day, the girls had taken first, for yet another trophy. Steven was interviewed by a reporter from the Globe - the article is in today's (Sunday) paper.

In the boys 4xmile (really 4x1600) relay, Brookline showed up with their crack squad that included Bob Gibson and David Wilson. Andrew Wortham ran leadoff for us and did an amazing job, coming around for the handoff in the lead, splitting about 4:27. Eventually, Brookline managed to grab a commanding lead, from Gibson's second leg, setting a new All-State record of 17:50.11. The boys team of Andrew, Yuji, Ben Finch and John Beck ran 18:34.71, dueling with Xavarian and St. John's Prep (Danvers) for most of the relay, in their own mini-race. They took 3rd overall.

The South ladies were next up with Juliet, Kathy O'Keefe, Madeleine Reed, and Kelsey in their 4x1600 relay. The ran a commanding 21:07.08, breaking the old All-State record held by....Newton South....from 1999, by nearly fifty seconds. That's over 10 seconds faster per leg than the 1999 effort. Kelsey cruised in with a 5:10 split. They took first, by a margin of nearly 50 seconds, which was equally impressive - but the girls weren't pushed very hard for a substantial fraction of the relay.
Looking ahead to the Nationals, here are some interesting marks to keep in mind. Running as Newton Centre Athletics, the squad of Juliet,Madeleine, Kelsey, and Bridget ran 20:58 at the outdoor nationals last year, and with Kathy running, they did 20:52.48 at the indoor nationals this year. Last year's winning time from the outdoor nationals, was 20:23, but the winning time at the outdoor nat's is sure to be faster this year. So far, Burnt Hills Ballston NY, has run a 20:14.24 this year at NSIC, and Saugus CA has run a 20:20.63 at an outdoor meet. I'm guessing that 20:12 might be what it takes at the outdoor's - which is basically a 5:03 per leg (!). Also - I don't have the precise differences in front of me - whether these were all truly 4 x 1 mile, or 4x1600, which is short by 40 yards, and begins to be a substantial difference in comparing times. Caveat emptor. The 4 x 1 mile will probably be a thriller this year in North Carolina.

The women took first in the shot put, paced by a huge PR breakthrough for Liz Jeyaraj of 36'. This is coming at just the right time for the DCL's and States.

The girls took 3rd in the long jump, with yet another PR by Candace, of 17'9". OK, it might have been aided by the minor hurricane blowing down the runway, but she's now consistently in the 17's wind or not. We also took 6th in the pole vault, despite missing Cora with her injury.

In the boys 4x100 meter relay, the boys team of James to Jong to Georgiy to Kwame ran a 44:27, which is consistent with their 44.0 at the LS meet. That was good enough for 5th place. The top five finishers all had fully automatic times within 0.2 seconds of each other.

We had Sasha to John to Yuji to Will in the 4x800. Sasha ran a very strong leadoff, splitting 2:01.2, and the guys all ran strong legs, taking 2nd in 8:18.78.

The boys 4x200m was exciting. James had a blistering leadoff, making up the 2 turn stagger before even coming off the first turn. Georgiy and Kwame ran legs 2 and 3. Most of that relay was a duel between NS and Lexington, with a strong closing leg from Gerald. Brockton had a strong lead at the finish, and Lexington got DQ'ed on a lane violation in the first exchange. That was enough for a 2nd place finish in 1:32.24. Gerald and James both split in the low 22's.

We have a relatively young team in the 4x4 of John M. to Tal to Ben, teaming up with Gerald. John M and Tal both split their fastest 400m times yet in 52.X legs. They ran a 3:31.46, which was good for 6th. If I throw in a best-case scenario, with each guy splitting fast, it's conceivable they could run around 3:25 this year - which could be a point scorer in the States.

There were also guys teams from NS running in the shuttle hurdles, sprint medley and distance medley.

For the girls relays, we had our Pebbles to Katie to Azeezah to Candace running the 4x100 meter relay. Candace just got nipped at the tape by Andover's Christina Muccio. NS got second in 49.75, their best time all year. In the D2 relays, North Attleboro set a new All-State record of 49.0. This is going to make for an interesting State Championship, with LS and Westford also running strong teams.

We didn't run a girls 4x800 meter relay, but LS ran their strong squad, taking first in 9:20 - which I think is shy of an All-State mark. This is LS's Molly Binder's last race of the season, as she's sidelined with a stress fracture in her shin.

The 4x200m relay had 26.X splits by Pebbles and Candace, taking second in 1:48.66. Andover ran a 1:43.58 for a new All-Class record.

We took 5th in girls' SMR, with a huge 59.7 leadoff by Julia Frieze, her first sub-60 400m ever. Big PR. We also had 26.X splits by Andrea and Dani for 4:21.13.

We also had a great performance in the Distance Medley relay with Kathy O'Keefe to Julia to Juliet to Kelsey. Kathy split a 3:50 on the opening leg, with Kelsey closing in 5:13 to take first in 12:31.46.

The girls squad, minus Julia, who ran in the distance medley, took 5th in girls 4x400. The squad was led off by Andrea Braver who split a 60.8, followed by Emily Epstein, Dani Pensack and Diana Braver. The overall time was 4:08.9. Two teams were disqualified for throwing the baton, which, for some odd reason, I've seen more of this year than in previous years, but, then again, I'm going to more and more meets.

So, let's see...how did we do?

1st places: girls shot, girls 4xmile, and girls distance medley
2nd places: boys 4x800m, boys 4x200m, girls 4x100m, and girls 4x200m
3rd places: boys 4xmile, and girls long jump
5th places: boys 4x100m, girls 4x400m, girls jav, and girls sprint medley
6th places: boys 4x400m, girls discus, girls pole vault

Darn those elusive 4th places!

Pretty impressive - also the team scores had Newton South's girls winning with 60 points, and Newton North, who had a great day as well, second with 56 points. The guys took 9th, with 25 points, but this is without competing in the long jump, triple jump or pole vault. We had Cora, Bridget, Ross and Roy R. on injured reserve - soon to return, we hope!
The ways meets end is always interesting. In addition to being incredible athletes, the kids seem to becoming track and field addicts, and can't get enough -soaking up every drop of competition that's out there. As we waited for team scores to be tallied, a large contingent filtered over to the throwing circle to watch the last flight of the discus relay, with Joe Needleman, Julani and Thomas Li competing against teams from Andover and Haverhill. The NS spectators were a bit optimistic in their appraisals. In Thomas' first throw, he foot faulted on the ring for a foul - although the crowd clapped and yelled "Go Thomas!" This rattled him a bit.

I was standing next to Andover's Steve Moore, who was waiting his turn, and we talked about the effects of wind on the throwing events earlier in the day. Thomas stepped into the ring again, and the crowd hushed. Thomas' second throw went pretty far, but it was a sector foul (going outside of the painted lines). The crowd, not understanding some of the nuances of discus, cheered anyway. Steve Moore looked at me quizzically, and I shrugged my shoulders and said, somewhat apologetically, "hey, they're runners and don't get a chance to watch many throwing events..." Steve then stepped in the ring and threw a big PR of 10 ft beyond his previous best - which caused a minor celebration party among the Andover parents and teammates.
After two fouls, Thomas was getting a bit unnerved and looking for some guidance. It's times like this when I go to the well for sources of wisdom. In most cases, I always find that the movie Bull Durham is great for words of cosmic guidance. So, I said to Thomas, "you just gotta relax and concentrate..." (I can't give the full quote to this forum, but you can look it up). Thomas stepped into the ring for the third, and last time, and finally got one off to score. You don't score in field relays if one of the members of the team fouls out - just like rule number one in track relays is "you gotta get the stick around".

With the last flight of the final event over, the officials packed up their bags, and headed off, along with the "first-in, last out" crew of the Newton South Lions.

Next up - we're into league meet season, with the DCL meet on Wednesday at LS. It's scored 10-8-6-4-2-1 for the top 6 places. Like the Andover invites, and the MSTCA relays, every little point counts. Then there's the JV DCL meet on Thurday in Wayland, with a rain date for Friday. Then, on Saturday is the Last Chance to Qualify Meet at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham. The name should be self-explanatory, but the deadline for state marks is just after the Last Chance meet, and the coaches will bring athletes who are on the cusp of qualifying for States. I know a number who are in this category. Then D1 states, then All-States, then New Englands, then Nationals. Then...it's all over. This end-of-season series of meets is always bittersweet - kids who have been competing with each other all year, see an end of competition, sometimes abruptly. Each step in the way - DCL to D1 to All-States to New Englands to nationals has more and more athletes dropping until you're left with the best in the country, or maybe a few who want to pay their way to North Carolina to stretch out the season as long as possible. Then, on to the summer and new adventures.

Go Lions!
from the infield by John Huth

MSTCA relays this Saturday

Click here for Meet Info PDF
Info on MSTCA relays by John Huth:
The Mass Track and Field Coaches Association (MSTCA) holds several relay meets simultaneously - each one is done within the Divisional rankings of high schools in the state - e.g. Class A = Division 1, etc.
The Class A's are held in Andover tomorrow- directions are the same as last week - but in case you forgot - take Rt. 128 N to I-93, exit at Rt. 133 - just before I-495 intersection. Drive a mile or so, turn right onto Shawsheen Road - Andover HS should be just on your right.

The running events are all boys, followed by all girls. Boys events start at 9:30 AM, girls running events at 12:30. Field events are girls first - at 9:30 AM, and boys field events at 12:30.

The one exception is the 4xmile relay, which is boys at 9:30, girls at appox 9:45 AM. If you're coming, you'll want to see the girls 4xmile. We have a very strong team that took 3rd in the Indoor Nationals, and are looking to return to the Outdoor Nationals in North Carolina. With luck, this race will give us a good seed for the Outdoor Nat's. Other "loaded" teams are likely to be the girls and boys 4x1 and 4x2's.
The Distance Medley legs are 1200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m. The Sprint Medley is 400m, 200m, 200m, 800m.
Schedule - running events

9:30
Boys 4xMile
Boys Shuttle Hurdle
Boys 4x100
Girls 4xMile (approx 9:45?...seems a bit early)
Boys sprint medley
Boys 4x800
Boys 4x200
Boys distance medley
Boys 4x4

12:30
Girls shuttle hurdle
Girls 4x100
Girls sprint medley
Girls 4x800
Girls 4x200
Girls distance medley
Girls 4x4

Field events
9:30 - all girls
12:30 all guys

This is also a mini-preview of the State meet, with teams that we don't regularly see: Newton North, New Bedford, Brockton and St. Johns Prep, among others.
Go Lions!

NS vs LS vs Bedford 14 May 2008

more photos to come.
Click here for photos by George
Click here for photos by M. Hergrueter

Story by John Huth:

Are the coaches of LS, NS and Westford conspiring to sell tickets at the DCL championships next Wednesday? Unlikely, but it sure felt like it.

The NS girls lost a squeaker to LS 73-72 - as close as they come, the NS boys won in a slightly more comfortable margin of 82-63.
For the ladies, this means a three way tie of LS, NS and Westford, all of whom have a 7-1 record. Bragging rights will be decided in the DCL Championships next week.

It turns out that they were short on officials during the meet, and when I arrived, I was immediately asked if I could officiate javelin, so my spectator status was compromised. I have to confess that I was surprised when I was told that I'm getting paid for this, however. It was a nice, sunny day, with a fairly strong wind that affected some marks. There was a steady head/cross wind in the jav, which made throwing difficult for some - but there were large rosters from all three teams, and I was pretty happy that the jav attracted a large crowd of spectators. I'm enjoying this event greatly - there are a lot of subtleties to it, and it takes a while to tune into all of them.

We still have Cora Visnick out with her rolled ankle - she's progressing and healing. Bridget Dahlberg was out with what I hope is a minor injury. Lest you think that I'm making excuses for NS, LS'es roster was also lighter than they may have hoped: their star 400/800m runner Dana Jamieson is not running outdoor, and also Molly Binder, a strong 400/800 meter runner was used sparingly because of a nagging case of shin-splints. Molly only ran in the 4x4.

There were huge performances on all sides. One notable from LS was Andrea Keklak, who won the mile, 2 mile and javelin - talk about athleticism.
Candace Bailey had a great day, winning the 200m in 26.4, the long jump in 17'0", showing that her performance at the Andover Invitational was no freak accident. Candace also anchored the winning 4x100m relay - taking first in 50.0. This was a razor thin victory, and unless you were right at the finish line, you couldn't tell who got first.

Nalis won the shot in 32'3.5", but had trouble putting it together in the jav, taking third. Kayla Jackson took 2nd, again throwing close to her PR.
Liz Jeyaraj took first in the discus with 79'1". Joe Needleman took first in the disc on the guys side, but thought he could throw farther.

NS seemed to own the dashes this time around, although many of the races were close. Pebbles Banks won the 100m dash in 12.7, and Candace first in the 200m in 26.4, Dani Pensack third.
On the boys side, James H. won the 100m dash, in a school record-tying 10.9. He was pretty happy about that one. Kwame took first in the 200m, and Gerald took first in the 400.
In the girls 400m, LS'es Emily Mepham again demonstrated her versatility by winning in 60.4. Emily runs races from the 2 mile to the 400. Julia Frieze took second, and Andrea Braver took third.
Gerald again gave a strong victory in the 400m.
Kathryn Ellis took 2nd in the high jump with 5'2"

In addition to Candace's first in the long jump, we had Christie Lee second in 16'9", which is a PR for her. Ross McDonald took the boys long jump.

Pebbles took first in the girls triple jump with 35'10".

The ladies took a hit in the 800m, where LS went 1-2 with Ellis Hylton and Claire Arthur. Frosh Kathy O'Keefe is showing real promise in the 800, running a 2:25 - add to this her strong showings in the mile, and we have yet another great distance runner for South.

In the 2 mile, Madeleine Reed led most of the way, with Keklak tucking in behind her. The only way to win against Andrea's kick is to crank up the pace a bunch with maybe 600 meters to go - which is not always feasible. Madeleine couldn't keep up with Andrea's strong kick, but had another big PR of 11:12 - her 11:17 at the Andover Invitational was already a 25 second PR. Great efforts, there.

In the guys 2 mile, Jake Shumaker from LS, running in funky sunglasses, took it out in an early strong lead, but Andrew and Cameron hung in there, patiently. Andrew passed Jake with maybe three laps to go, and, right at the end, Cameron caught Jake for a 1-2 NS finish. Andrew's winning time of 9:47 shows he's now very consistent in the 9:40's - I'm hoping we'll see some more breakthrough races by the end of the season for him and Cameron.
The big story of the day belonged to the relays. The scores all hinged on the relays, and nothing was certain coming into them. While a Bedford runner was finishing up her last couple of laps in the 2-mile, a calm descended on the field. James was waiting patiently on the sidelines, with his starting blocks ready. On the "take your marks command", he did his downward-dog/upward-dog routine - the gun went off, and the guys ran a hard relay against LS, finally winning in 44.0. This is only 0.2 seconds off the school record, and the baton passing still can use some tweaking. This is one of the things that are tough in a 4x100m relay - the handoffs are a real high-wire act, and it takes time for teammates to get used to each other. At the Olympic level, you'll see the best runners in the world struggling with handoffs, mainly because they don't have adequate time to practice and get used to each other's quirks. We've had the same squads in the boys and girls 4x1 all year, and this familiarity is paying big dividends.

The girls 4x100 was a thriller - Pebbles to Katie to Azeezah to Candace. It looked for a while like NS had fallen too far behind, but a strong leg from Azeezah got us within shooting distance, and Candace ran an amazing anchor to just barely nip LS. The winning time of 50.0 is their season best, and is only second this year to Andover's performance last weekend at the invitational.

Then the boys 4x400 was up next, with Will to John M. to Tal to Gerald. The first three legs split in the 53's, and, when LS'es Alex Linden got the baton, it looked like he had an untouchable lead. I didn't think there was a hope in hell that Gerald could close that gap - but when he came around the last curve, he was in the lead, and was actually opening up a sizable gap on Alex. The winning time of 3:30 was their second best all year. I caught Gerald's anchor in 49.6, although others had him in 49.1. I might give him the 49.1 because it was such an astonishing performance.
The girls 4x400m was Juliet to Julia to Andrea to Diana. LS put in Molly Binder because the whole meet came down to that. Juliet managed to get off the baton roughly even with LS'es Ellie Hylton. The last two legs for LS were run by Mepham and Binder. When Molly got the baton, she had too large a lead for Diana to close, so LS took that one. BUT - the times were amazing - the girls ran a 4:02.6, each one splitting in the 60.X range - unbelievable. We also had little sister Andrea handing off to big sister Diana in this relay.

Overall, a strong day from all four teams. The guys seemed to be getting their groove back after the Westford meet. It was a tough break for the girls - particularly considering that any shift of one event from a third to a second, or someone squeaking in for a third place would've changed the result. This will make the DCL's all the more thrilling, though.

Next up: on Saturday are the Class A relays, at Andover. In addition to the standard relays you see in big meets (4x1, 4x4, 4x8), you have the 4x2, the distance medley relay, the sprint medley relay, the 4x1600 meter relay (probably Steven's favorite, although I won't put words into his mouth). Then there is the shuttle hurdle relay, and relays in the field events. No, the field events don't have batons that they hand off, the marks are added together - typically the top 3. This should be great fun - I have no idea what the coaches will run - but there will be some surprises for sure. I have my own personal favorite line-ups I'm hoping to see, but I won't jinx it by spilling the beans.

Then, next week we have the DCL championships on Wed, and JV DCL's on Thursday. In the DCL's, the scoring is 10-8-6-4-2-1 - and, because it's not a pairing of schools, the scoring strategy can change. Some teams can act as spoilers, and the coaches have to think through many possible scenarios.

Finally - the cookie dough orders are coming in. We may distribute it today. Depending on which kids show up or are absent, we may need help storing some of the orders in friendly refrigerators. I may make a call for help later today, if we need it.

Go Lions!
from the infield by John Huth.... or would that be the javelin runway?

NS vs Lincoln-Sudbury & Bedford tomorrow, Wed.

John Huth adds his comments about tomorrow's meet:

So, we have another big meet - LS and Bedford at LS. LS just recently built a new track facility, and it'll be interesting to see this. They'll also be hosting the DCL Championship Meet and Class A State Championships. Meet starts at 4 PM.

LS is very strong on both the boys and girls side, with some great performers - on the boys, James Tyrell and Jake Shumaker in the distances, Alex Linden and Ben Cutting in the 800, Sean Kleeman in the 200, Bryant Wang in the 300m hurdles, and 110m hurdles. They also have strong throwers. On the girls side is Maggie Flemming in the hurdles and high jump, the versatile Emily Mepham and Molly Binder lead their runners, with strong runners in Claire Arthur and Elie Hylton. They always have huge depth. Unfortunately, star runner Dana Jamieson isn't running this season. LS always puts on strong dual meets, so this should be exciting.

Bedford's Jon Gault has been running very strong in the 2-mile this year.
Directions - there may be better ones than this - but this seems the most straightforward: take Rt. 30 west until Rt. 27 - take Rt. 27 north (= right), and in the town center, angle to the left to continue on Rt. 27 (= Old Sudbury Road).

At the next major intersection, make a right onto Concord Road, then fork to the right on Lincoln Road. The entrance to the HS is on the left - the fields are to the right of the cluster of buildings.

Go Lions!

John H

a note from Steven M. - Andover Invitational

(See previous post for links to photos and story by John Huth)
(scroll way down)

(from Steven McChesney; 11 May 2008)

Hi everyone,

First of all thanks for all that you do. We have
the greatest parents and fans anywhere.

I normally just do the coaching thing and leave the
writing to others that are better than I am. John is
the king and the John Huth javelin does have a nice
ring to it. But this meet was too special for me not
to add my thoughts.

In name I am the girls coach, but we all know that
I am very involved with both teams. We won the co-ed
title and that is huge against this collection of
teams. It took a total team effort and I am very
proud of the huge trophy we received for the being the
best combined team. I felt that the boys had a good
meet considering that we were missing one of our big
point guys in Yong. I am sure that he would have won
the 110 hurdles and that we would have scored well in
the 4 x 100 with him completely healthy. We held him
out so that he can have that kind of an impact later
in the season when he feel more up to it. We had so
many kids give so many great efforts that were just
off of scoring. Both boys and girls teams really came
to compete and we had a great team effort.

As a girls coach I sent the following to the
Tribune. There were far too many great efforts for me
to single out in the text. We had a jaw dropping
great day that I will remember as a highlight of my
career as the South girls coach.

My take sent to the Tribune:

Andover Invitational
1. Newton South 120 #2 All State Indoor Season
2. Reading 54 4th D. II Indoor Season
3. Tewksbury 52
4. Central Catholic 49 3rd D. II Indoor Season
5. Andover 48 2008 Indoor All State Champions

Also competing Acton-Boxboro, Westford

The Andover Boosters Meet is the most competitive
invitational run in our state. This year it featured
the #1, #2, #4 and #9 teams from the indoor all state
meet.
We came into the Andover Invitational as a hopeful
team. In the indoor season we led the All State meet
from the first scored event until the last event.
Andover overtook us in the 4 x 400 to become State
champions and we took 2nd.
We came to Andover as a very motivated team after
a very hard earned win against Westford on the 7th.

This is certainly the best total team performance
in my 19 years as a head girls coach at Newton South.
I WOULD LOVE TO TAKE THIS EFFORT AND PUT IT IN A
BOTTLE FOR USE AT THE STATE MEETS. You know you are
having a great meet when you score in bunches in a
number of events. We had two or more girls score in
the 2 Mile, Long Jump, 400, 800, 100, Mile and
shot put.
I LOVE THE BALANCE OF OUR PRODUCTION. EVERY EVENT
GROUP CONTRIBUTED TO THIS WIN. Brookline coach Mike
Glennon remarked on how impressed he was with our
total team.

We didn’t just win. We completely dominated the best
teams in the state in such a convincing fashion that
the meet was never in doubt. I don’t know which was
more impressive, the huge amount of points we scored
or the number of kids that had their season best or
personal best that are now at a state scoring level.
Almost every girl not only had their best day of the
season or their best day ever, but the marks we
achieved are huge going into the state meets. This
was truly a great team across the board on display.
We had three other possible scorers missing from the
line up. Ellie Ellis (5'3 High Jump) and Cora
Visnick, (9’0” pole vault) are just coming back from
ankle sprains. Both of their PRs would have placed
2nd. Kyle Remy had a prior commitment that was
approved by the coaching stafff and her PR would have
been 6th and would have helped our relays score. We
could have raked up over 130 points.

In the first two events scored we jumped to a
huge lead and never looked back. The 2 Mile was the
first and we went 1,2, 3 against a field far superior
to that of the larger MSTCA coaches meet. In all of
my years at South I have only had three girls ever
break 11:00 in this event (Bridget and Kelsey are the
only two to ever do it in the spring season). We had
two girls in the same meet break 11:00 and I never
thought I would ever see that. Bridget broke her 2nd
Invitational record (also Weston Twilight Mile) in a
row and brought our school record down to 10:46.72.
Kelsey has done it in each of her three 2 miles this
season which is in my mind as remarkable as Bridget’s
time. As far as I can find both of these times rank
in the top 10 in the nation.
Madeleine Reed took 3rd in a 25 second PR in 11:17.2.
At about the mile of this race an opposing coach
thanked me for putting on a clinic. That was nice.
We had 24 points in our first event.

The next event is also a great story. We did not
jump well against Westford and allowed them a 1,2
finish in our dual at only 15’0” We had a talk with
our jumpers after that and boy did they respond.
Candace won in 17’0, a jump over 2 feet better in
three days. Christie Lee jumped a 10 inch PR of
16’7.75 to take third. Candace also ran an anchor
leg on the 4 x 100 that was very impressive.
By our 2nd event we had 40 points.

Our other big winner was Nalis Mbianda who won both
the shot put and Javelin. She set a big PR in the
javelin winning with 116’9”. She won the shot put in
34’8.5”

I was able to give the meet director two names for
the outstanding performer of the meet in Bridget and
Nalis.

Ezra Banks also had a huge day. She jumped a
triple jump that can win meets like this many years in
a PR of 35’6.75” and ran a strong 2nd place in the 100
in 12.96. Her time was slowed by a strong head wind
as was all of the running events. She also got us off
to a great start in a 4 x 100 relay that challenged
the defending state champs.

The thing that makes me feel that we are heading to
a fun post season is the relays. In the indoor
season we were able to field a very competitive 4 x
200 and 4 x 800. Andover overtook us in the last
event the 4 x 400. We have been determined to be able
to field 3 relays that could help at state time.
Our 4 x 800 did not run a remarkable time at
Andover and that is not unusual for this time of the
season when I am working them hard towards the post
season. I will be more selectful with the races they
run later and they will all be more rested. In that
event our season bests are Juliet 2:19, Bridget 2:20,
Diana 2:21, Kathy 2:23 and Julia 2:24 and that
roughly is a 9:25 4 x 800 so we are actually ahead of
where we were in indoor at this point. We will get
big points out of this event. In fact I am thrilled
that Kathy was able to run 2:23 giving us more options
in the relays.

Our 4 x 100 of Ezra, Katie, Azeezah and Candace
broke 50.0 last year and was 5th at All State. We are
well ahead of where we were last year at 50.13. What
really pleases me is that we had a go mark mix up on
the 2nd hand off that really slowed us and we still
ran very close to the defending state champs of
Andover. We looked like a team that could challenge
Andover.

But our 4 x 400 developement has me thrilled. I
may double some kids in the 4 x 800 and the 4 x 400 at
the state meets. But I am not sure that I will have
to. Our 400 has developed into one of our deepest
events. In the Andover meet I only moved Diana into
the 4 x 400 in this meet and we looked very good. I
believe this event has growth potential that may be a
real surprise to opposing teams. I believe we can
have a 4 x 400 that break 4:06 or so by the D. I meet
and that is without any changes to our other two
relays. At All State I will mix and match in a way
that gives us a chance to score here.

Once in a while in my career I leave a meet feeling
like, wow, I can't believe we are really this strong.
I am still saying that to myself as I write this the
next day. The 2008 Andover Boosters meet was one of
the great meets in our history and I am thrilled
beyond belief with this performance. Did I mention,
WOW!

Marks by Event
100 2. Ezra Banks 12.96 PR
5. Katie Sandson 13.60

200 7. Candace Bailey 27.13

400 4. Andrea Braver 61.46 Ties PR
6. Dani Pensack 62.56

800 2. Diana Braver 2:21.34 SB
5. Julia Frieze 2:24.8

Mile 2. Kathy O’ Keefe 5:13.61 PR
5. Melanie Fineman 5:21.75 PR
Sonya Freeman 5:37.69 SB
Juliet Ryan-Davis 5:40.46

2 Mile 1. Bridget Dahlberg 10:46..72
Meet and School records 6 sec. PR
2. Kelsey Karys 10:53.34
3. Madeleine Reed 11:17.2 25 second PR
Sara Chari 11:55.55

100 Hurdles 7th Azeezah Gray 17.36
Rachel Rubinstein 18.69

300 Hurdles Mary Kate Cronin 53.17 SB
Emily Epstein 54.81 SB

4 x 100 2. Ezra, Katie, Azeezah, Candace 50.13 SB

4 x 400 5. Dani, Andrea, Emily, Diana 4:12.51

4 x 800 2. Juliet, Jullia, Kathy, Bridget 8:51.65 SB

Long Jump 1. Candace 17’0” SB
3. Christie Lee 16’7.75” 10 in PR

Javelin 1. Nalis Mbianda 116’9” PR
Kayla Jackson 89’2 a few inches off of PR

Triple Jump 3. Ezra Banks 35’6.75” 7 inch PR
Zoe Demple 31’11.25 PR by a foot

Shot Put 1. Nalis Mbianda 34’8.5”
6. Elisabeth Jeyaraj 32’9

Discus Elisabeth Jeyaraj 79’7
Hillary Bloom 78’11

Steven

Andover Invitational 10 May 2008

Two photos by N. Dahlberg:


Click here for photos by D. Fineman
Click here for Photos by S. Chari
Click here for Photos by George
Click here for coolrunning results

Story by John Huth:
The Andover Boosters Invitational is a yearly event -held during the same weekend as the MSTCA (Mass. State Track Coaches Association) Coaches Invitational. The MSTCA draws a lot of teams, but the Andover Invitational is a tradition up north, and we see a number of great teams that we seldom run against, except in State competitions: Andover, North Andover, Reading, North Reading, Haverhill, Methuen, Peabody. But, there were also teams like Brookline and Acton Boxoborough there.
The Cape Ann League was the scene of a recent tragedy, when Alex Farese, 17 of North Andover, collapsed after the finish of a 400 meter race against Hamilton-Wenham. His heart stopped beating, and was restarted with a defibrillator. He later died at Tufts Medical Hospital for Children. Here's a link to the Globe article:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/23/north_andover_runner_dies_a_week_after_collapse/

Hearing a story like that kind of puts things in perspective. But North Andover was out in force, and definitely had their mind on business.
There are some interesting features to this meet, sponsored by the Andover Boosters, who definitely have their act wired tight. Most races and events are named after various people - some of whom may have contributed to the Andover track cause. This might explain something about the quality of the facilities: Jon Frieze take note, I'll be expecting a "John Huth Javelin" event to be contested once we get the fields fixed up at South. In addition to this, there are team awards, and even an award for the highest scoring boys+girls team.

First up was the James Brown Girls Javelin. We had a mini-NS encampment with Maddie Willert (frosh/soph mile in 5:50) and Mary-Kate Cronin joining the javelineers. Sue Chari and Mimi Karys were also there for the early jav action. We seemed to have adopted AB's Courtney Bouland (see photo of Nalis, Kayla and Courtney by Sue Chari), whose parents were there, and was happy to see some friendly DCL faces. Courtney has the classic javelin shoes with one inch spikes - both Kayla and Nalis agreed that they needed a pair of those - no slipping whatsoever. Kayla threw in the first flight - winning that in 89'2" - just a smidge off of her recent PR at Westford Academy. Nalis threw in the second flight, along with the striking- looking Nika Oulette from Brookline. I had to spend some time convincing John M. that Nika was a girl - especially after her first 110'9" heave.

Nalis topped her long-ago PR with a throw of 116'9" - good enough for first place. Nalis was ecstatic and psyched to go right into the shot.

The gun went off in the distance (nearly always the case for the jav), and I went over to catch the Ken Seifert Girls Two Mile run. Newton South swept the first three places, with Bridget taking first in 10:46.72 - a new school record. Kelsey was in second in 10:53, and Madeleine Reed third in 11:17. If you want a contrast to the MSTCA coaches invitational - Alyse Rocco's winning time there was 11:16.

Then came the Gerry Ray Beven and James Christi Memorial Boys' Two Mile Run Moody (?). Talk about a loaded field! David Wilson from Brookline took first in a record breaking 9:19.95, followed by teammate Bob Gibson (9:21.81). Andrew Wortham took 8th with a PR of 9:40. Again, drawing comparisons with the MSTCA coaches invitational - the winning time there was 9:44.36 - which would've maybe gotten 9th place at Andover. Andrew didn't seem happy with his performance, but a big PR in a loaded field is nothing to complain about.
Back to the jav -in the Wallace C. Fiedler Memorial Boys Javelin, John Mitkevicius keeps improving and throwing PR's - this one was 135'11". First went to WA's Alex Pfister in 171' - huge throw for him.

We had some great marks in the Arthur Iworsley Girls Long with Candace Bailey taking first in a PR of 17'. Christie Lee took third in 16'8", which is also a big PR. Yong Cho had a minor injury, and the coaches had him sit this one out - so we missed his long jumping, hurdling and canceled the 4x100 meter relay.

In the Albert Swenson and John Rooks Girls One Mile, Kathy O'Keefe ran a great race to take second in 5:13. Melanie added points with a fifth place 5:21.

Newton South seemed to be racking up a lot of points. Many of us Newton South parents sat behind some Reading HS parents, including the DiNitale's. Tom DiNitale is a strong sprinter from Reading, who took 2nd overall in the 100m dash. After his race, we congratulated him, and he said "yeah, thanks, but Newton South is basically a big point scoring factory..". Actually Reading was racking up points on the guys side, too.

Pebbles Banks took 2nd in the finals of the Homer Wadman memorial Girls 100 meter dash - in 12.96. In the boys 100m dash, James qualified for the finals, but the blocks they gave him had no spikes in them, and recoiled at the start. James managed to recover, but couldn't make up lost ground and took fifth, well off his PR. In the Rick Collins Boys 200m dash, Kwame Francis-John also took fifth, adding a couple more points on the board. It's always a bit of an amusing exercise to hear the announcer struggle over Kwame's name - sometimes cited as "John Kwame..." etc etc.

Speaking of names - Nalis is pronounced "Nah-Liss", not "Nah-Leese", despite what the coaches say. You say Nahliss, I say...Nahleese....but she took first in the Charles W. McCullom Memorial Girls Shot Put with a throw of 34'8.5" - to add more hardware to her first in the jav. She was one happy camper at the end of the day.

[Ed - I'm going to omit the names on these events from here on out]

Ross McDonald tied for second in the pole vault, with a jump of 12'6" - well off his PR of 13'6", though. Gerald Arneaud took second in the 400, with a 50.82 - again well off his PR of 49.6.

Frosh Andrea Braver took first in her heat of the 400 with a 1:01.46, good enough for 4th overall. Dani Pensack, also in that heat, took 6th overall.

Andrea's big sister, Diana Braver, put one together in the 800m, taking 2nd in 2:21, and Julia Frieze took 5th in 2:24.8.

A notable PR in the high jump was Gus Hergrueter jumping 5'8".
The team of Pebbles to Katie to Azeezah to Candace took 2nd in the 4x100 meter relay - to host Andover's record breaking 49. We didn't run a boys 4x100 because of injury.

The girls 4x800 meter relay team of Juliet Ryan-Davis to Kathy O'Keefe to Julia Frieze to Bridget Dahlberg, took 2nd in 9:51.65 - racking up points. But, given that our 4x8 had run a 9:16 during indoor, it felt a bit off. Each leg of the relay went out hard, but seemed to fade a bit. More on this later.

The boys 4x8, Sasha, John, Yuji and Will took 7th overall in 8:30

In the girls 4x400 meter relay we had Dani to Andrea to Emily Epstein to Diana Braver - with some great legs, taking 5th overall.
The boys 4x400 relay, like the girls, is a somewhat new squad, with John Metkivicius to Tal Inbar to Ben Seifer to Gerald. They were running against Westford, among other teams. They took 4th overall in 3:33.8. This team has great potential - where we may be able to field strong 4x1's, 4x4's and 4x8's on the boys and girls side. Of course, if everyone has an "on-day" for these relays, it would be amazing.

Whew! If there was a story to this meet, the NS girls show amazing depth, where if one competitor is having an off day, another steps in to take up the slack. At the end of the day, the girls scored 120 points. The closest team was Reading with 54 points. Indoor All-State Champ, Andover was 5th with 48 points. Not only did the girls take the team trophy, but the announcer said that the coed trophy also went to Newton South, where the combined ladies and gents score gave us an overall victory.
After the awards presentation, Peter, the Andover track coach came over and told the girls that he was really impressed with their performance and hinted that they had a good shot at the All-States. Well, we'll see (knocking wood and throwing salt over my shoulder).
Some of the athletes, juniors and seniors in particular, seemed to have off-days, however. Some ran well off of PR's and were disappointed, despite the big team trophies. I talked with some of them, and the general theme became apparent: "too much...". They're taking SAT's and AP exams - huge dual meets against Westford, the environmental challenges of the Weston Twilight - getting psyched up for meets, end of year recitals, parties, proms, sibling's graduations, parties, plays, etc etc . One summed it up this way "it feels like we're just taking a lot of incoming mortar rounds, and there's not enough time to rest..."
Hopefully they'll get some rest, and recharge their batteries. The next big dual meet is against Lincoln-Sudbury, who I'm sure are hungry after the upset with Westford Academy. Then it's the Class Relays. Actually, I hope that the relays are a source of fun for the kids, and not looked as a chore - anyway. I always love relays, and it could be a nice break from big team scoring and the pressures of individual performances.
As I was driving home, I noticed that the leaves had finally come out on the trees - the big meets, and proms and recitals were all a sign of the season. I remembered the inexplicable death of Alex Farese from North Andover. We're lucky to have the wonderful kids we do.

The Trees They Do Grow High (trad)

The trees they grow high,
the leaves they do grow green
Many is the time my true love I've seen
Many an hour I have watched him all alone
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Father, dear father,
you've done me great wrong
You have married me to a boy who is too young
I'm twice twelve and he is but fourteen
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Daughter, dear daughter,
I've done you no wrong
I have married you to a great lord's son
He'll be a man for you when I am dead and gone
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Father, dear father, if you see fit
We'll send him to college for another year yet
I'll tie blue ribbons all around his head
To let the maidens know that he's married.

One day I was looking o'er my father's castle wall
I spied all the boys aplaying at the ball
My own true love was the flower of them all
He's young, but he's daily growing.

At the age of fifteen, he was a married man At the age of sixteen, the father of a son
At the age of seventeen, his grave it was green
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.

(reporting from the infield, John Huth)

Newton South vs Westford cs Boston Latin 7 May 08

Click here for Photos by George
Click here for Photos by M. Hergrueter

Reporting by John Huth:
We knew the Westford meet would be tough, and it was a real thriller. To cut to the chase - boys lost, girls won. The performances were huge - if I look at random dual meet scores around Massachusetts, there's no comparison - except perhaps New Bedford, who seems to be on a roll like NS and Westford. Both teams - or rather all four - WA boys and girls, and NS boys and girls, went into the meet undefeated. Streaks would be broken for sure.

I had to drive directly from Harvard, and found the usual snafus with the bus company not delivering on time. From data analysis on the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva to the physics of javelin throwing in an hour or so. The javelineers assembled and we marched over to the jav field, which is invariably off in some distant corner, where no one is going to get hurt from the spears. This one had some shade, and was far out of sight of the track. You couldn't hear the loudspeaker and calls for races, so I had to run back and forth a couple of times to find out what was going on in the oval. We rested in the shade a bit and started to warm up.

Going into this, Westford looked ferocious on both the boys and girls side - I fully thought they'd walk on water. The official showed up, and began to take down the girls names. Westford had five throwers to our three, and I thought "oh my god...". But once we got throwing it didn't look so bad - Kayla threw a huge PR of 90', and is getting a lot more consistent. The Westford ladies seemed to approach the throws in an uncertain manner and seemed to treat the jav with some delicacy. Our girls just heaved it - and put it out there. The work in practices seems to be paying off. Nalis 102'4", and, by the end of the rounds with the ladies, we had taken 1-2 in the girls jav. Then the boys came up, and we got PR's from three guys - Joey Needleman threw 25' farther than his previous best in 115'4", Frankie Rand threw 123'7" for an 8' PR, John M threw 132'9" for a 1" PR. Chris Kim threw 149'8" and it looked like we were taking 1-2 also in the boys jav.

In the distance, we could hear the starter's pistol going off repeatedly, but I couldn't find out what was going on in the meet, staying focused on the jav. About this time, Cliff Bargar (aka Cliffbar) came over to see how things were going in the jav. I said "surprisingly well....." He said, "that's good, because we're getting hammered everywhere else." I was a bit surprised, but didn't have time to ask questions. A guy named Alex Pfister from Westford jogged over and said he had to run the 400m, and had to jump in. He fouled on his first throw, and then hit 156' in this second throw, shrugged his shoulders, threw another one 151', and just jogged off. Meanwhile, the NS kids ended up helping the official do all the measurements. So, we took 2-3 in the boys jav, anyway, with basically a crew of newcomers. I thought that was pretty good.
I got back over to the oval to check in with Steven M, and he asked me how it was going. I said "not bad, we got 1-2 in the girls jav, and 2-3 in the boys, and we had four PR's overall..." He looked at me and said, "can I touch you?" I said "what?" He said, "can I touch you? I need some of that magic." - and made a pantomime of touching me. I said "huh, what's going on?" It turned out we got blanked in the boys shot put - zero for three, losing 9 points, there. We only got third in the girls long jump, with nothing remotely approaching our PR's. Kyle Remy managed to take third place in the 300m hurdles. Ben Seifer got a huge PR in the 300m hurdles of 42.6, but only snagged 3rd. The jav and the mile were the only events that looked even close to helping us score points at that moment. Cora Visnik, our pole vaulter, was still on crutches from the Weston Twilight meet. Ellie Ellis had a rolled ankle and couldn't high jump.

We got 2-3 in the boys mile, losing a point there. We *did* sweep the girls mile, with Kelsey, Kathy and Melanie running strong. We only managed second in the 800 despite a strong effort by Sasha long in 2:03.3, which is a PR. The only problem is that WA's Greg Hartofelis PR'ed by about 6 seconds to win in the 2:02 range. Gerald Arneaud managed to take third in the triple jump - but you get the idea - first is equal to five points, second and third combined is only 4 points. Joey Needleman got 2nd in the discus for 3 points. We'd been gored and it was only a question of whether the wounds were fatal, or whether the guys could rebound. Kwame and Georgiy took 2-3 in the 200, Candace Bailey and Andrea Braver took 2-3 in the 200 for the girls - with 26.3 and 26.9 - smoking times - but not enough to catch WA's Karen Nallem, who was also doubled in the 400.
In nearly every event, we were falling behind on points. A first in any event meant at least one point up, nothing but seconds and thirds means a long slow bleed. The girls' 800m, we took 1-3 with Juliet Ryan-Davis and Julia Freize. This along with the sweep in the mile helped turn to begin to turn the tide for the girls.

In the hurdles, Yong Cho PR'ed by a huge amount, running 14.3 to take first. Azeezah Gray had a huge PR of 16.6 in the hurdles, but WA's Cassie Ryding took first.
Next up - the 400. In the girls, we had Bridget and Dani Pensack, who took 2-3. WA doubled back Karen Nallem in the 400m, who took first. In the discus, we took 2-3 with a strong showing by Hillary Bloom for 2nd. In the girls' pole vault, with Cora out, we managed a third - Avery Forrow. In the high jump for the girls 2nd

The jav thrower who took his first place so lightly, ran against Gerald in the 400m, and Gerald ran smoothly - taking first. Along with Cho, this began to give us some wins for the guys.

James H. had a rematch with Max Enos in the 100m. Recall that James beat Max in a tight race at the Weston Twilight. The good news is that James Pr'ed in a 10.95 - the bad news is that Max nipped him by a razor thin margin for first. Pebbles Banks took first in the 100m for the girls, in 12.7, which is a big PR for her, beating WA's Cassie Ryding, who was doubled in that event from the hurdles. Katie Sandson took 3rd in 13.1, also a PR. So things were beginning to break our way for the girls.
In the girls' 400, WA doubled back Karen Nallem from the 200, to take first, while Bridget and Dani Pensack took 2-3.

More comebacks - the boys took 1-2 in the pole vault with Ross (13') and Roy (10'6"). In the two mile, WA doubled back distance star Marc Boutin. Andrew and Cameron took the first 800 out in a blistering pace of 2:20. Marc fell back, and his coached yelled at him "They went out at a 4:40 mile pace, they're going to die, just sit tight and relax". Well, they didn't die and Andrew came through at 9:45, and Cameron in 10:05. The mile seemed to have taken its toll on Marc, who came through in third in 10:33, nearly caught by fast closing Marcus Schneider.
In the high jump, Gus Hergrueter took 2nd in 5'6".
The girls took 1-2 in the shot with strong performances from Nalis Mbianda and Liz Jeyaraj.

In the girls 2-mile, we swept 1-2-3 with Kelsey, Madeleine Reed and Hannah Westbook taking 1-2-3.
Next up, the relays. In the boys 4x1, our guys ran their fastest time ever this season, 44.23, but WA ran a new school record of 43.25. This seemed to sum up the meet - we have a huge performance, they have a huger performance. WA had a big celebration, carrying anchor Max away on their shoulders. Our 4x1 anchor threw away the baton in disgust - which didn't sit well with the coach who DQ'ed his own team. We'll get another shot at a time to get a good state-qualifying mark to get in a seeded heat at Andover and other meets.
In the girls relay, we began to get big breaks. Pebbles to Katie to Azeezah to Candace ran a state-leading 50.0 - utterly dominant. WA, unfortunately ran out of zone in the relay, and they were crestfallen by that result.
The boys 4x4 had Sasha to John M. to Tal inbar to Gerald Arneaud. The lead went back and forth many times, and you could hear the WA kids and parents screaming at them, although the meet was already in the WA bag at that point. The splits were spectacular for NS - 53.8, 53, 52.5 and 49.8 to win in 3:28.9 - our best time this season, or in recent memory. At least we ended up on a high note.

In the girls 4x4, we had Juliet to Dani to Julia to Bridget, who dominated to win in 4:10. Our B squad of Andrea, Madeline F, Dahlia and Emily Epstein ran very strong. In her anchor leg, Emily got the baton a bit behind the WA, but charged through her anchor, catching and passing, to take 2nd behind our A squad. WA had basically used up their top runners

And that was it.....at the end of the day, NS boys lost, despite some huge PR's and great effort. The NS girls won 80-65 - again with some huge efforts. The events that helped the win were the throws (jav and shot) and distance events (800, mile and 2 mile). But we had some strong performances. In order to get close, WA had to double up their best performers, leaving their relays vulnerable. The WA girls were crestfallen, as were the NS boys - but - no excuses - everyone did their best, as reflected in the huge number of PR's.
Evidently, we won't see a loaded WA at the DCL championships. There's a DisneyWorld trip that the WA seniors take, so many of their top performing kids won't be around. If you don't show, you can't score.

Next up - the Andover Invitational. Like the Weston Twilight, this is a good chance for kids to go against very tough competition. This meet brings together a lot of top schools - many of whom we haven't competed against this season - Andover with sprinters Christine Mucci, and Chris McConnell. Brookline will be there with their strong distance squad. NS now has very strong 4x1, 4x4 and 4x8 relays, which have a shot at big scores in the DCL champs, and also in the State meets - this will be a good preview of how things may unfold in the big meets. LS sometimes brings a squad to Andover - so we may get a taste of the dual meet to come.

After Andover - a thoug match-up with LS, who fell to WA in both the boys and girls events. They'll be looking for some redemption and will make for a very competitive meet. Then the Class A relays, then the DCL champs, then the State Class meets - all big ones.

Go Lions!
(From the Infield by John Huth)

Weston Twilight, 3 May 08

Newton South had lots of incredible performances and lots of scorers.

Click here for Photos by S. Chari
Click here for Photos by M. Hergrueter
Click here for Photos by George

See earlier post for added photos from 30 April meet.

Coverage by John Huth:
We've had a spell of pretty sloppy weather this weekend, and the Weston Twilight Invitational presented a real challenge - kids had to warm up, stay dry, compete, refuel and repeat, sometimes three times. But, we had some huge performances and excitement. Newton South had a huge presence. I'm not completely sure, but I think we may have been the only school to run squads in all 6 relays (boys, girls in the 4x1, 4x4 and 4x8).
I'm biased toward relays because they're so much fun - the combination of individual and team performances, along with the "doing it for the team" ethos that emerges, it seems fitting that they're run at the end of meets.

We had one injury where we're waiting to hear the damage: Cora Visnick landed in a crack between the cushions in the pole vault pit and injured her ankle - having to be taken off the field. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't too major. Cora's been working real hard this season.
As of this moment, I'm still waiting for results to get posted, and all I have to go on is my faulty memory of races and what the announcer said.
Some teams that showed up in strong force included Newton North, Westford, Bedford, CC, LS, Bromfield, Brockton and New Bedford. Although AB had a large number of entries, I didn't see them. I don't know what happened to Andover, either. I *thought* I saw some Andover runners warming up, but, I didn't see any competing, so maybe I'm mistaken. It's tough to run in that weather, so I'm wondering whether the coaches were afraid of injuries - particularly for the sprinters and jump events.

In the shot-put, Nalis Mbianda is on a roll - taking first overall. She's been throwing very well in the shot, but she says her first love is the javelin. We had a nice crew compete in the jav: Kayla Jackson, Nalis, Chris Kim and John M. Unfortunately, there were no outstanding throws from NS, but we enjoyed hanging out and watching the competition and talking about the event. One of the more interesting bits of trivia is the emergence of a kind of barber-shop-pole piping that adorns some javelins. When the javelins are thrown, they spin, and the barber-shop-pole painting makes for an interesting visual effect while they're in-flight. Ben Lincoln from Hingham threw 180' - it looked like a missile.

In the dashes, Katie Sandson advanced into the finals of the 100m. Likewise, James H. advanced to the finals. Yong Cho also advanced in the hurdles, with a commanding lead in his heat. Bryant Wang, the dramatic LS hurdler, got DQ'ed in the prelims for a false start, but did come back to win the 300m hurdles in 40.X.

The girls mile run was billed as the thriller in the meet, with Bridget Dahlberg running against Emily Jones from Bromfield and Emily Mepham from LS. Bridget's really matured as a runner - learning how to race, as opposed to just run. She tucked in behind Emily Jones for the first three-plus laps. Emily is used to longer distances, and although she's a commanding runner in the 2-mile, she doesn't have a strong top speed, and has to rely on a fast early pace to wear down her opponents. Typically, she'll negative split - meaning that each successive lap goes a bit faster than the previous, and by doing that, maybe take the kick out of the other runners. In this case, however, Bridget had enough in reserve from running smart, to be able to bust by Emily in the last 100 meters or so, to open up a fairly good lead to take first. Winning time was 4:58 - which is not only good, but outstanding, particularly if you figure in the weather. Emily Mepham hung in there until about 300 meters, when it appeared that she began to tie up, and couldn't follow the faster pace.

The boys mile featured a three way contest between Chelmsford's Chris Brown, Brockton's Carlos Montrond, and Charlestown's Omar Aden. In the end, Chris Brown was able to take the race.
Both the boys and girls 800m were interesting from the NS perspective. We had Juliet Ryan-Davis, Julia Frieze, and Diana Braver in the girls seeded heat. Also in were LS'es Ellie Hylton and NN's Carlyn Ranti. It was actually a very exciting race, with the lead changing a number of times and a fairly fast pace, given the weather. In the last turn, there was some jostling, and a bit of a domino effect between Juliet to Diana, transferring the momentum to Ellie, who fell, but got up and ran strong, taking 5th. Juliet was in the lead, and seemed to ease off ever so slightly at the finish line, allowing a fast closing Carolyn Ranti to nip her at the end. At that point, there was a bit of drama from one coach who was not keen on the jostling.

In the boys, we had the debut of Gerald Arneaud, who is trying this event, moving up from the 400. He stayed up close to the front up till about 650 meters, and then seemed to tie up at that point. Having been a 400 meter guy who has run 800's, I can tell you that the demons lurk around 600 meters, so I know the feeling well.

In the final of the boys 110m hurdles, Yong seemed to have a great start, but then faded halfway through his race. I asked him what happened afterwards, and he said he'd lost his concentration when he saw the other kids out of his peripheral vision. I told him that this was OK - it's better to get over that kind of thing in a meet like this, and be able to regroup in the future, when the points really count. All these little experiences are the only way athletes can progress - like Bridget learning to race, there are some things that you can only learn by getting out there in competition.

In the finals of the boys 100m dash - nearly a heart-attack for this father. James was running against Westford's Max Enos. Max is a very strong sprinter, and we'd received reports that he ran a 10.7 in the 100 at a meet on Wednesday. James' PR is something like 11.1. I tried to be as casual as possible, saying that "FAT is the great equalizer...." (FAT = fully automatic timing, the 10.7 was most likely hand-timed ) - but we were all nervous. James got a good start, but Max seemed to pull even at 50 meters, and perhaps get an edge. James kept his cool, was smooth and relaxed, and caught Max at the end, with maybe a couple of yards on him at the finish. Taking first! James ran a 11.26 and I think Max was in at 11.35 or so - FAT. They may be racing against each other at the Westford meet on Wednesday - a real nail biter coming up.

At this point, the announcer came on to say that Ross MacDonald had vaulted 13'6" in the pole vault, for a new meet record! Glad to see him back. We also got the news that Cora was injured in the vault.

In the girls two mile, Kelsey Karys took the race out at a strong pace, and Natick's Rebecca White tried to hang just behind her. Here's a case where the Emily Jones-style tactics worked in Kelsey's favor, and she pulled away from Rebecca, opening up a healthy gap, and winning in 10:50 or so.
The boys two mile was a tight race, with Andrew Wortham and Jon Gault dueling it out for much of the race. Cameron Fen has also been improving by leaps and bounds in the 2-mile. With about 300 meters to go, Jon took the lead, and I swear that I didn't think Andrew could answer, but he did, and kicked past Jon. With one last effort Jon, managed to put a last-ditch kick on and managed to snag Andrew at the finish line. Both PR'ed in about 9:40-9:42. Cameron slices another 10 seconds off of his PR, which had just come down to 10:00 at the home meet on Wednesday - finishing in 9:51.

To the relays!

In the 4x800 meter relays - first up was the girls. The lineup was our classic Juliet to Diana to Julia to Bridget. I'm trying to ignore the fact that the announcer hyped LS, who wasn't running. The girls did a great job. But, boy, you could tell the effects of the cold, rainy evening. The times were held down, and I won't torture anyone by listing splits. Considering this was 10 PM, after a long, cold wet day, I think it was amazing they could run as well as they did.
For the guys, John B. to Yuji to Will to Sasha, they were in a three way race with LS and Brockton. We fell back a bit from LS, but Will ran a very strong leg to catch LS and put a sizable gap. In the end, Sasha seemed to close a bit on the Brockton's anchor Carlos Montrond, but not enough to catch him. Again, the times would've been much faster if conditions had been better.
Then we had the 4x1's. The lineup was Pebbles to Katie to Azeezah to Candace. I think all four were there for some payback - singly struggling in the 100m, 100m hurdles and 200m, but collectively, they ruled to take 1st in 51.61.
In the boys 4x1 - we had both Newton North and Westford in the lineup. Newton North had the top seed going into the event of 44.0. It was James to Yong to Georgiy to Kwame. We had handoff problems, again - both on James to Yong (James seemed to run up Yong's back) and Yong to Georgiy. But, rule number one is "get the stick around", and they did that - I'm pretty sure they took 3rd, and edged out both Westford and Newton North.

Both 4x4's were a great opportunity for runners who hadn't gotten a lot of experience in relays, and I was very happy the coaches put together squads for this. In the girls relay, we had Kyle to Mary-Kate to Emily Epstein to Dani. There was a lot of back-and-forth in this relay, with Dani running a tough anchor leg, for a 4:22 finish. I don't have the exact placing, but I think it was third.
The boys had a fairly new lineup of John M to Tal to Ben Seifer to Gerald. They ran a very strong 3:32 - which is a very strong time, given that our previous best this season has been in the 3:35 zone, and it was such a cold and wet night.
Sorry if I got details wrong - or - worse yet, I couldn't cover all the stories.
Because of a snafu with the buses, the coaches couldn't take them home, and I accompanied what was left of the team on the short ride back to NS, where we shoveled the pole vault poles, and jav's and tents into the storage shed, and the bus disgorged the runners into waiting cars.
The next adventures - Westford and BL on Wednesday, and then the Andover Invitational on Saturday. The Andover Invitational is sure to be good - at least, I can't imagine how the weather conditions would be worse than last night. I have to say that I was truly surprised at how well the kids performed - I have to give it to them - running as well as they did in those conditions shows a huge amount of grit. I didn't hear anyone complain or use the weather as an excuse. When you have a day/night like that, and they're doing their best, learning lessons from competing, and coming out stronger on the other side, you know you have one amazing team.

Go Lions!