DCL JV League meet

Click here for photos by John Keklak

DCL JV league meet at NS today

Wed. 25 Jan. 2012
The DCL JV league meet is at Newton South today.
The scheduled time is unclear being either 4 or 5 pm.

DCL open meet today at Reggie Lewis Track

The schedules show that just the girls are going. Don't know why.
DCL meet today at Reggie Lewis Track in Boston. The DCL has the track between 4:30 and 7:30. I'd guess that field events start right away and running events at 5 but then again....
Reggie Lewis Center 

1350 Tremont Street, Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120-3447

DCL dual meet at BU

NS ran against Waltham at BU on Wednesday 11 Jan.
Click here for full results

Report from Steven:
Newton South Girls vs Waltham

Our team wishes to thank the coaches and athletes of Waltham for showing true class and sportsmanship in our dual meet after having a competitive disadvantage by missing three event through no fault of their own.

The final score was Newton South 64 and Waltham 25, but it would have been closer if Waltham could have run the full events. On paper going into the meet Waltham would have scored 11 points and Newton South 16 in the three events missed. Instead Newton South was awarded all of those points.

With this win Newton South now has 19 seasons in a row without a losing record.

We are 2-1 in the large school division and this is the first year that we only count our record as such. We have Acton-Boxborough remaining.

Each meet during the season we have improved and this was our best meet to date.

As a team we had 34 season bests. That is the 2nd meet in a row that we have had over 30 season bests and that is a very good sign. At the start of the season I noted that we were a very young team with event areas of inexperience in which we returned no varsity athletes.

Now I would say that we have gained valuable experience and we are a much more balanced team to the point of being one of the best teams in the DCL ahead of schedule. We have only 8 juniors and seniors filling varsity positions compared to 22 - 9th and 10th graders competing on varsity and we are about to bring a few more young athletes up from the JV ranks. Our senior leaders have really embraced teaching the new kids the system and in turn the new kids are thriving and giving varsity efforts. This making coaching this team an absolute blast.

Jonee Harrison and Jina An got us off to a great start going 1,2 in the shot put with Jonee setting her PR of 29’8 and Jina nearing hers.

In the 600 - 9th graders Sonya Nair and Julia Lee went 1-2 with 10th grader Sophia Cen completing the sweep and all three ran very solid varsity times. Sonya Nair also ran a PR 65 split on the 4 x 400.

Alekhya Chaparala had another great day tying her PR in the high jump, setting a PR in the 1000 and giving us the lead in the 4 x 400.

Anna Laurence placed 2nd in the 1000 and Yasime Hashemi ran below the D. IV state standard in the event which allows her to be an extra entry into the DCL championship meet. 9th grader Louisa Kimmell scored in 3rd place.

Both Kathleen Garrity and Jennifer Olins set PRs in the 55 hurdles.

Mary Testa made her first race of the season in the 55 meters a great one with a state qualifying win in 7.67 and also ran a huge leg on our 4 x 200 spliting under 27. Our 4 x 200 had great hand offs and ran a great team race, but was DQed for stepping in the inside of the rail. I feel that these girls did a great job passing the baton and learned a lesson in the process. Kyra Visnick came in 2nd in the 55, tied for 1st in the long jump and also gave us a great leg on the 4 x 200.

Anna Rhatigan ran a huge PR in the 2 mile in 11:49.8 and showed that she is once again among the best in the DCL in distance events after racing ill.

Emily Caggiano had one of the most exciting wins of the day because of her determined running style and won her heat from the gun with Naomi Eisenberg 2nd in with a big PR. Emily ran 5:37.7 and Naomi was clocked in 5:47.8.

Kathleen Garrity and Jennifer Olins both set PRs in the 55 hurdles.

Next Up:
Division I Relays next Saturday
JV jamboree on Friday

NS v LS photos

Newton South v Lincoln-Sudbury DCL dual meet at Boston University track.
Photos of about 1/3 of events.
Click here for photo by George

From NSHS v LSHS; DCL, @BU

From NSHS v LSHS; DCL, @BU

From NSHS v LSHS; DCL, @BU

From NSHS v LSHS; DCL, @BU

Report - Auberbach 9th / 10th Meet - Large Schools

Auberbach 9th / 10th Meet  - Large Schools
Report from Steven:
We had a lot of fine results in the Auberbach 9th/10th meet on Saturday.  

I am going to mention the varsity caliber marks for print as others will make their marks as they continue to grow and mature.

In the 600 Alekhya Chaparala was in one of the most exciting races of the day.  Elizabeth Gulino of Attleboro was the favorite going in with a 1:40 mark earlier in the season.   Going in I felt this was a good chance for Alekhya to lower her PR.  Little did I know how tight this race would be.

Gulino won the race in 1:42.10 and Alekhya was 4th in a PR of 1:42.75. Five girls broke 1:45.

The entire race was bunched and there was a bit of bumping and shifting for postion which is such a great learning experience.  With 100 to go Alekhya was in a tight bunch with 3 others and she went wide half way through the curve to try to pass.  The extra distance running on the outside cost her some time, but she finished in a blanket with 3 others.  She was .01 out of 3rd as the race was that close.  It was a nice PR and a better seed for States.

The seeded heat of the 1000 in which Anna Rhatigan placed 6th actually raced about 1250 meters.  They crowded too many racers into the seeded heat and in the first start a girl fell within 20 meters of the start and they recalled that race well.

In the 2nd start of the race Anna fell about 80 meters into it and they did not recall it until all of the girls had run almost 200 meters which made running heats on time very unfair to the girls in the fastest heat since they had to go right away again (Anna had to get up and sprint to catch up to the leaders because of the lateness of the recall).  The starter tried to put the girls right back on line to start it again.  The correct thing to do in this situation is to put another race on the track and allow the girls to collect themselves and recover from the two starts and the extra distance run.  I was trying to get through the crowd to the start to insist on this, but other coaches beat me to it and the girls were allowed to let a few heats of the boys run before going again.  

Anna had a nice race as she ran a bit back of the pack and kicked home in a rush.  This was the first race this season that she felt healthy and she looked better than her time indicated with such a strong finish.

Our 4 x 400 placed 7th in 4:29.81 which was 2 seconds out of the the top 4 and ran another state time.  Alekhya ran 63 for the opening leg, Sonya Nair (9th) ran a strong 67 on the 2nd leg.  Sophomore Sophia Cen did a great job filling in for Caroline Delheim whom we moved to the 4 x 200 to cover a missing leg there.   I felt really good for this relay as two legs ran it for the first time and it was at a state level meet.  I work to teach a lot of our girls that we need a lot of kids to be ready at any time to fill in for relays and to be prepared.  Caroline, Sonya and Sophia all were really good examples of how we teach to prepare for relays. 

It has been a good week for our team coming out of the break.  We did not miss a beat, but rather have made nice gains.

DCL dual meet with LS, 4 Jan.

Report from Steven:

Lincoln-Sudbury Dual Meet

I had told our assistant coaches going into the Lincoln-Sudbury dual meet that scoring 35 points would be a good meet for us.  Our team scored 36 and had a very good meet.   We had 35 season best marks among the 44 girls that competed.   As big an optimist as I am I knew going into this meet that LS is a seasoned and well coached team and that they were simply more mature in some events that they would dominate.  Also our top 3 distance runners have struggled with illness that has lasted at least a month in each case and Lucrecia Aguilar has yet to run a meet.  Anna Rhatigan is just starting to bounce back as is Anna Laurence, but not being at full strength in the distance events vs LS is tough going as well.  So I felt that our kids had a stellar showing.

My plan for our team was to focus on doing our best in each event and to learn and grow.   I keep stressing that we have great senior leadership, but they are few and our young kids are filling in with courage.

This is a team with a future and it is starting to show.

An event that we picked up big points was the 55 hurdles since we were expected to take only 3rd place. Kathleen Garrity and Jenny Olins both set PRs and took 2nd and 3rd place which was a boost in the first running event and a great start to the meet.

Kyra Visnick was a double winner with a PR in the 55 meters and also winning in the long jump in 15’2”.  With her 55 effort she has now made states in both events.

Alekhya Chaparala lowered her state qualifying standard in the 600 to 1:44.47 and matched her PR in the high jump in 4’5”.  

Hannah Friedman and Anna Rhatigan both made states in the 1000 in 3:17.40 and 3:19.01.  Anna ran an aggressive race and was on 3:10 pace most of the race.  She is just starting to get over being ill and she faded a bit, but soon she will be well served by her style of racing.  Hannah ran a smart race that was just off of the pace and kicked well into a PR.

Our 4 x 200 of Kyra Visnick, Lizzie Fineman, Ester Cho and Mary Testa set another PR by over a second.  They made states in the 2nd meet and have taken almost 4 seconds off of their team time in two meets.  Mary had a dramatic come from behind win in our heat of 6 DCL teams with a 27 leg.

Anna Laurence looks like she is starting to rebound and led a 1,2,3 sweep along with Leda Olia and 9th grader Louisa Kimmell in the two mile as the top LS runner stopped short allowing Louisa to score. 

3rd DCL dual meet held at BU today

The 3rd DCL dual meet was held at BU today. Lincoln-Sudbury was very strong and beat NS for both boys and girls.
Click here for coolrunning results
Photos to come this weekend.