MSTCA meets at Reggie Lewis Track, 25th and 26th Jan.

The MSTCA Coach's Invitational Meet on Saturday:
Click here for full results
Click here for photos by Dave Fineman

The MSTCA Coach's Elite Meet on Sunday:
Click here for full results
Click here for photos by Dave Fineman

Steven M's report:

The state coaches Invitation weekend is in two parts.  Saturday was the MSTCA Coaches Invitational which is open to athletes that have met state meet standards.  The Coaches Elite meet on Sunday is limited to the top 24 seeds in the state and is a tune up for the All State Championship.

Our girls had a great weekend with person records and a school record.  I was very happy that all of our kids handled meets of this caliber going against the best in the state.  We have improved a lot as a team in performance and I feel we have improved even more in how we handle competition and meet preparation.   As a team we are in a good place moving into the championship part of the season.  The kids were excited about their achievements and I feel that we have gained a lot of team confidence.

MSTCA Coaches Elite meet on Sunday.

Our performer of the month has to be our 300 meters girls.  Lizzie Walkes only started running the 300 two weeks ago and she set a school record of 42.05 placing 11th.  She went in seeded in the 20s and knocked off 7/10s of second which is a lot for a race of that duration when her time was already stellar.  She then split low 26 on the opening leg of our 4 x 200. My feeling is that Lizzie is just getting started.

Lizzie is very special in that she has a true sprinters range and can blast a 55 meter and give us a great 400 meter leg on relays.

Our milers had a wonderful day setting two mile personal bests.  From the slower heat Lucrecia Aguilar went in with a best of 5:21 and she looked very strong with a great finishing kick placing 15th in 5:18.85.  Freshman Clare Martin ran in the seeded heat and they went out extremely fast as Clare passed the half mile in under 5:00 minute pace.  She did a great job of holding on and finished 14th in 5:18.51. While that early pace may not be ideal for the best time it is a very positive sign in that Clare knows that she can now run a very successful race that way.  Both milers looked very tough and both had great races.

Rebecca Grusby got stuck leading the 2nd pack for much of her two mile and ran a very solid 11:39.86.  This race went out very fast and then the pack split up and Rebecca did most of the work for the 2nd pack.

Our 4 x 200 of Lizzie Walkes, Allie Arruda, Yuriko Fukumura and Charlotte Huth placed 16th with a near person best of 1:50.91.  

Yuriko had a personal best split of 28.57 and Charlotte ran a brilliant anchor leg in 26.25.

MSTCA Coaches Invitational on Saturday.

Charlotte Huth and Liza Hochberg got us off to a great start in the 300 meters.

Charlotte Huth ran a text book race and had a huge 7/10s of second PR to take 4th in 42.56.   Charlotte got out fast and beat everyone to the break, but there was a girl to her outside that tried to cut her off.  Charlotte did a quick step pick up and held her off to keep position and run clear.  Liza Hochberg followed with another PR of 45.25. 

Lizzie Fineman went out blazing in her 600 heat to run a PR of 1:44.31.  Lizzie went through the first 200 in 30 seconds and had a straight away lead on the field.  She hung on and looked good finishing doing the event the hard way.
Alekhya Chaparala looked very good running a season best of 1:47.19.

Our 55 meter crew had a stellar day.  Yuriko Fukumura and Allie Arruda both broke 8 seconds for the first time.
Yuriko ran 7.96 and Allie ran 7.97.  Katherine Cullen ran a solid 8.26.

Anna Alsop put the shot 27'6.  Anna has been solid all season long.

Dual meet NSHS v Waltham; 15 January 2014 at BU

Dual meet NSHS v Waltham; 15 January 2014 at BU
click here for full results
click here for photos by Dave Fineman

story by Steven McChesney:

The DCL score shows us winning 61-34, but there was a mistake in the 2 Mile and the Waltham girls did not get credit for those points.  The adjusted real score is

Newton South  59   Waltham  40

The meet was much closer than the score indicates.  Both teams were short handed.

We were missing a lot in the distance events and our top 300 girl.  Missing from our line up was Lucrecia Aguilar (illness, although I let her run the 4 x 200), Rebecca Grusby  (illness), Matia Whiting (illness) and Charlotte Huth (slight quad strain). 

I noticed that Waltham was missing 2 long jumpers a high jumper which is strong events for them and maybe more.

We had our best meet of the season by far.   I had told our team that we were missing a lot of help in terms of having a positive meet outcome and that we needed to have kids step up.  The outcome of meets is important to kids if they can contribute and our kids contributed in a way that was inspirational.  I did not see the full results until I could sit down at dinner to take the time to look them over and I was wowed with how well our kids stepped up.  The look on our kids faces today was of focus and they delivered a great meet to be a part of.  I am very pleased for our kids and very proud of their efforts.

Lizzie Walkes had a huge week.  On Monday she ran her first race over 200 meters winning the 300 in the DCL open meet at BU in a stellar time of 42.7.   That is a great debut.  Today against Waltham she finished 2nd to Jenny Sexton in a very good 7.69 in the 55 Dash.  That is a good week for anybody.  But because we were short handed in the 4 x 400 missing two legs we asked her to run her first 400 leg.  She took the lead early and posted a 61 split in her first 400 and handed off in the lead among all DCL relays.  

55

2. Lizzie Walkes  7.69

4. Yuriko Fukumura  8.00  PR

5. Esther Cho  8.19  PR

Anna Alsop had a PR of over 3 feet to lead the sweep in the shot put and qualify for states.  Sabrina Stacks also set a PR took take second and Jina An took 3rd and provided a 2nd place finish in the high jump.

1. Anna Alsop   31'7"  SQ  PR

2. Sabrina Stacks  29'10"  PR

3. Jina An  27'10"

4. Lina Dammann  22'09"  PR

Clare Martin had a great race winning the 1000 meters with Lizzie Fineman placing 2nd against Waltham.

After a slow first 400 Clare took the lead and made the race.  3:09.46 for a frosh is a stellar time.

1. Clare Martin   3:09.46  PR SQ

2. Lizzie Fineman  3:26.22

4. Yasmine Hashemi  3:40.29

Esther Cho also had a huge day for us.  She broke 10 in the hurdles for the first time placing 2nd in 9.83 and just a few minutes later set a PR in the 55 in 8.19.  Anna Mason set a PR to take 3rd in the hurdles.  Ruja Kambli and Sena An also set bests in the hurdles.

55 Hurdles

2. Esther Cho  9.83 PR

3. Anna Mason 10.23 PR

4. Ruja Kambli  10.79 PR

Sena An  11.13  PR

Rachel Boisclair got her first DCL win in the 600.   Katie summers was 2nd and Liza Hochberg took 3rd.

1. Rachel Boisclair  1:49.11

2. Katie Summers  1:49.24  PR

3. Liza Hochberg  1:50.97

Allison Arruda ran a stellar freshman time in the 300 (45.79) to lead all three girls to big season bests.

2. Allison Arruda  45.79  PR

3. Caroline Delheim  47.07  PR

4. Ashley Nhek  47.43  Season best

Alekhya Chaparala and Anna Rhatigan went 1- 2 in the mile.  

1. Alekhya Chaparala  5:50.11

2. Anna Rhatigan  5:54.18

Caraline Pham ran a great race to take 2nd in the Two Mile.  The results were not correct due to a lap counting error by the official.

Caraline took 2nd in a PR, but was told by the officials to run a lap short.  Caraline ran a DCL qualifying time and took 2nd place.

4. Ava Shaevel   14:12.55

We have a tradition of letting our best distance kids run the 4 x 100 in the spring and the 4 x 200 indoors and for four years straight they have met the state qualifying standard in the short relay.  The team of Ashley Nhek, Lucrecia Aguilar, Alekhya Chaparala and Liza Hochberg qaulified for states in a time of 1:56.55.  The standard is  1:57.24.

2.   Newton South    Nhek, Aguilar, Chaparala, Hochberg  1:56.55

Our 4 x 400 ran our fastest time of the season with a very different line up.  Lizzie Walkes gave us a huge boost as our lead off.  Sonya Nair ran a great 2nd leg as did Katie Summers as our 3rd leg.  Caroline Delheim ran a nice anchor.

Three of our legs were sophomores running their first 4 x 400 of the season replacing kids like Alekhya, Lizzie Fineman and Lucrceica Aguilar.  The fact that this group ran faster is promising.

1. Newton South   Walkes,  Nair,  Summers,  Delheim   4:21.29

Jina An had a nice meet as she placed 2nd in the high jump and 3rd in the shot put.

High Jump

2. Jina An  4'5"

4. Allison Arruda  4'1"

Yuriko Fukumura took 2nd in the long jump

2. Yuriko Fukumura   13'2.5"

Dual County League meet 2 at Reggie Lewis, 8 Jan. 2014

Click here for dual meet results

notes from Steven:

Auerbach Large School Frosh / Soph Championship

Lizzie Walkes finished 3rd place in the 55 meters with a PR of 7.66

Rebecca Grusby  3rd   5:26.52   Clare Martin  5th  5:29.72

Liza Hochberg  12th  1:49.16

________________

We had our first scoring meet today and because of the snow out last week we went with invitaional format where  kids were grouped by times rather than by meet.

So even though we had two scored meets today against LS and Westford we often did not get to match up in the same heats so it was not really dual meet competiton.  In fact many times our kids were split up among many heats so it was hard to compete against LS and Westford as we often did not get to see them.

This was two bad to some cases.  For example Lizzie Walkes has run 7.66 in her last two meets in the 55 dash.

The LS girl won today in 7.67, but was not in the same heat as Lizzie.  Head to head would have been better.

This made it realy hard to keep track of scoring.

LS 57   NS  43

NS 72  Westford  27

I was very pleased with our team effort today especially coming off of the break.  We went against a very deep LS team and stayed with them the entire meet.  The meet was decided by very small margins and many of the events were very closely contested.  What I liked most about today is that our girls believed that they could compete with LS and gave a very strong team effort.  I was very proud of the girls today.

We had wins in the 300, 1000, 2 Mile, Shot Put and 4 x 200 and we had a lot of kids fighting for places.

Charlotte Huth was our highlight of the meet today and she had a great head to head dual with Katherine Malone from LS in the 300. Charlotte decided to train with our cross country team this fall to increase her strength and it has paid off as she has chopped her PR from 44.50 from last year to 43.26 to run the fastest time today in the entire DCL field with Malone finishing 2nd among all of the DCL.  It was a very exciting race with Charlotte winning the battle to the cut and leading the entire way and Malone putting on a late charge.

Liza Hochberg ran a very strong race as well in the 300 to take 3rd in both meets in her first race at this distance in a time of 45.52.

Charlotte also ran a brilliant 2nd leg on our 4 x 200 that won both meets and set a team PR by 2 second.

Lucrecia Aguilar ran a very strong 1000 and used a strong kick to win with the fastest time in the DCL today in

3:12.37.

Sabrina Stacks led a Newton South sweep of the shot put with a winning toss and a PR of 28'9.25".  Jina An was  2nd in 28'1" and Anna Alsop completed the sweep with 27'2".  All  three placed in the top 6 among all DCL putters.  

Rebecca Grusby lowered her season best in the two mile with a win by over 30 seconds racing to 11:22.63.

Anna was 2nd against Westford and 3rd vs LS in 12:36.64.

Our 4 x 200 relay of Lizzie Walkes, Charlotte Huth, Yuriko Fukumura and Allison Arruda won both meets in 1:50.34.

Lizzie Walkes won the 55 vs Westford and placed 2nd vs LS in 7.78.  Yuriko Fukumura ran a season best to place 3rd against LS.

Clare Martin ran a very fast 5:25.82 mile to take 3rd against Ariel Keklak and Sidney Clary from LS in the mile. Allen Read of Weston, Taylor Kennedy of Notre Dame and Lee Al-Atraqchi of AB were also in the heat.  All of these girls are state level placers.  This was the most loaded event in the meet and Clare handled the race with a lot of poise.  For a frosh to face that kind of competition and to hang in there that well is remarkable.

Lizzie Fineman won her heat in the 600 and Alekhya Chaparala looked strong in another heat.  Two bad these girls could not have raced together.  They combined to place 2nd and 3rd vs LS and went 1-2 vs Westford.  

All NS marks.

55 M.

1. Wfd   2. LS  Lizzie Walkes   7.78

3. LS  Yuriko Fukumura  8.03 PR

Allison Arruda   8.18

JV

Zoe Nicozsin   8.30 

Michaela Wong 8.60 

Samantha Chin  9.14

Kelly Pappas  9.19 

Hannah Cai  9.49

Malea Gorin  9.69

300

1., 1. 1 in DCL Charlotte Huth  43.26 PR   State Qualify

3,3 Liza Hochberg  45.52  PR

Ashley Nhek  49.00

JV  

Kaavya Chaparala  50.2

Sitara Pal  51.8

Aureanna Miller  51.9

Maya Dennis  54.7

600

2nd LS, 1st Wfd  Alekhya Chaparala  1:48.43

3rd LS, 2nd Wfd Lizzie Fineman 1:48.77

3rd Wfd  Caroline Delheim  1:51.72

JV

Sophia Fulara  2:02.9

Ava Shaevel  2:04.1

Monika Nedeljkovic  2:08.7

Hannah Lynch  2:10.1

Madison Holland  2:11.9

Isabel Kaplan    2:19.0

1000

1, 1  Lucrecia Aguilar   3:12.37   State Qualify

2. Wfd  Rachel Boisclair  3:29.56  PR

3. Wfd  Katie Summers  3:30.19  PR

Sonya Nair   3:31.61

Mile

3. LS  1. Wfd  Clare Martin  5:25.82  State Qualify

2nd Wfd.  Matia Whiting  5:51.58

3rd Wfd  Yasmine Hashemi  6:17.36

JV 

Lauren Miller    6:37.0

Zoe Gelch       6:51.0

Samantha Armstrong  6:52.0

Louisa Kimmell  6:55.0

Two Mile

1.  1.  Rebecca Grusby  11:22.63  State Qualify

3. LS  2. Wfd  Anna Rhatigan  12:36.64

55 Hurdles

3. LS  2 Wfd  Esther Cho   10.42

3. Wfd  Anna Mason  10.64

Ruja Kambli  11.03

4 x 200

Lizzie Walkes, Charlotte Huth, Yuriko Fukumura, Allison Arruda  1:50.34  PR  State Qualify

JV  

Sabrina Stacks,  Zoe Nicozsin, Sena An, Samantha Chin  2:00.9

4 x 400

Lizzie Fineman, Liza Hochberg, Lucrecia Aguilar, Alekhya Chaparala  4:26.27 PR State Qualify

Shot Put

1.1. 2nd among all DCL  Sabrina Stacks  28'9.25"  PR

2, 2  4th DCL  Jina An  28'1.25

2,3  6th DCL  Anna Alsop  27'2"

Zoe Nicozsin   21'9

Long Jump

3 LS, 2nd Wfd Caraline Pham   13'1.25

3rd Wfd Sabrina Stacks  12'9.25

High Jump

3rd LS  2nd Wfd  Jina An  4'5"

2nd Wfd  Allison Arruda  4'3"

Alekhya Chaparala  4'0"