Div 1 state relays - 16 May 2009

Newton South girls won the div 1 state relays in Andover. Newton South boys took 2nd. I was there in the morning and took a few photos to be posted later. Hopefully others will send links to photos.
Click here for photos by Chris Murphy
Click here for photos by Dave Fineman
Click here for results
Results are also in the Boston Sunday Globe.
Click here for Boston Globe story
Story by John Huth:
It was a nice, warm sunny day. A frontal system was approaching from the west, but as often happens in such cases, the wind was out of the east, feeding the approaching convection cells with energy in the form of hot, humid air.

High level summary - NS girls take first, NS boys take second in the overall point scoring.

For the girls - the teams with the most depth were Lincoln-Sudbury, Andover and Newton North. For the boys, BC High took first - with unbelievable depth. Their shuttle hurdle relay was like poetry in motion.

So, it takes something of a relay afficiando to truly appreciate the relay meets. The main thing is that there's an added need on the part of a runner to hold up his/her end of the bargain for their teammates. Each leg on a relay becomes a race unto itself, and, depending on what's happened before-hand, a runner has to deal with the cards they're dealt, whether it's holding off a fast charging anchor from another team, or catching a runner who has a significant lead.

The coaches loaded up some of the relays we don't ordinarily see in most competitions - the 4x1600m relay and the Distance Medley (1200m - 400m - 800m - 1600m) with two squads each for the boys and girls. Plus, the field events represented relays with 3 athletes contributing to an aggregate score, where the best individual marks are added together.
First up was the girls 4x1600m relay. This is a lead-up to the Nike Outdoor Nationals, where we'll get a rematch with the powerful Ballston-Burnt Hills team from New York State. Last spring, at the Nike Outdoor Nationals, Ballston-Burnt Hills won the 4xmile in a time of 20:14.2. This is an average of about 5:03.5 per runner. Newton South took second in 20:52.48.

You may recall that in the Nike Indoor Nationals, the girls 4xmile (a mile is 1609 meters) took first, in a time around 20:25.9, but Ballston-Burnt Hills ran at the NSIC at the Armory, winning in 20:23.06 and not against Newton South at the Nike Indoor Nationals at Reggie Lewis. So, it looks like we could definitely challenge Ballston-Burnt Hills this year - but it won't be easy.

The 4x1600m relay is a tune up for this match-up. We had Kelsey to Kathy O'Keefe to Melanie Fineman to Bridget. Kathy ran a spectacular 4:58 leg. Both Kathy and Mel opened up their first 400 in 69 seconds, obviously going for it. The overall time was 20:28.14, which smashes their old record of 21 minutes and small change. Now, for comparison, you have to add on maybe 7-8 seconds to get an equivalent 4xmile time, so it's hopeful, and with strong competition, they have a shot at it. Also, remember that it's early in the season, and Steven's still giving them challenging workouts. The peak will be for this matchup against Ballston Burnt Hills.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the girls won the 4x1600m relay? I guess I forgot.


The boys also had a strong squad going into the 4x1600, with Xhulio, Ben Finch, Igal Bubar and Sasha Long running. Xhulio opened up with a great 4:28, running in tough traffic. The guys put together a 18:21, which was good for second, behind Xavarian.

The sprint squad in the 4x100m is Katie Sandson to Jenny Epstein to Andrea Braver to Ezra Banks. They have amazingly good handoffs, and Ezra (Pebbles) ruan a fast charging anchor to nearly catch Andover. They took third overall in an exciting race.

We had two Distance Medley's entered - the "A" squad was Kathy O'Keefe to Andrea Braver to Juliet Ryan-Davis to Bridget. The "B" squad was Kelsey Karys to Madeline Frieze to Melanie Fineman to Madeliene Reed. You know you have depth when the B team has three All-Americans on the squad. Lincoln-Sudbury also loaded up their DMR with two squads. NS took 1-4 and LS took 2-6.

In the shot-put relay, the girls took 2nd. We got some big points from the girls pole vault, who took first, and the girls javelin, with Nalis, Kayla Jackson and frosh Andrea Murphy. Their best throws were 26m, 30.85m and 33.57m for a total of 90.42 meters. The closest challenger was Brookline, who was about 1 meter back in the total score. Although they won, the girls were unhappy with their performances, which kinda blew me away. I guess they were expecting to all equal their PR's in the same day, which rarely happens in relays. Anyway, there's room for improvement. Another neat thing was that Kelsey rallied a lot of the runners to come out and cheer on the javelineers - I think this was the one team that actually had teammates coming out to cheer. Otherwise, it was a quiet competition out in left field (literally - part of the baseball complex).

There were lots of other great performances on the girls side - two Sprint Medley relays and a shuttle hurdle relay, and a 4x200m relay.

On the guys side, you already heard about the 4x1600m above. We also had two DMR squads running. Both Will Cha and a returning John Beck had great 800m legs of 2:00.2 and 2:01.9 respectively. The A squad of Xhulio to Kerry to Will to Sasha took 3rd overall.
The boys took first in the long-jump relay, and second in the pole vault relay, with the bar getting up to 15'.
The last race of the day was the 4x400meter relay, and the team of Ben Olins to John M to Ben Seifers to Steven Murphy ran an exciting race, with Andover and Saint John's Prep in the mix. The guys were fearless. Ben's opening split was in the 50's, and the overall time of 3:27.82 is their best yet, and the fourth fastest of all the relays this weekend. If you're at meets in the future, make a point to stick around for the 4x400m relay, which is competed at the very end.

So, next up is the DCL Championship on Wednesday, then the D1 Championship on Saturday. It's all fast and furious end-of-season meets now. These can all be "end of season" experiences where kids may be competing for the last time. Seniors may cross the finish line, walk off the track and move onward to the next step in their lives, or maybe have one more meet to look forward to. Be sure to make some of these meets, if you can!

Go Lions!

John H.