Boys 10th with 21 points, girls 17th with 21 points - only four points outside the top 10, too!
Congratulations to all that competed. I'll go in chronological order, since it's too hard to rank such impressive performances.
We started off with the field events. In the girls javelin, Eliza Dodge moved up from 28th seed to 21st place, surpassing 1/4 of the kids ahead of her with a throw of 86'5. Fellow ace Amber Ahronian was 26th in 84'1, barely missing her seed place and capping off a sensational rookie season.
Over in the boys long jump, Andrew Krauss was 20th at 18'7.5, besting half of the kids in his flight. His day was just getting started, though...
Dan Barone didn't qualify until 10 days ago, and even then only made it by one inch at TVL's. Never satisfied, the senior hit 20'3 to make the finals and take home a medal in 8th place, despite being seeded second to last of the entire field of 25 competitors. Absolutely fantastic job! He, too, was just getting warmed up.
Cam Chisholm, bounced back after being out sick earlier this week to medal in shot put, earning sixth place with a throw of 46'6. We'll keep an eye on the other divisional meets to see if a wild card to All-States is still a possibility.
Around 10:40, the running events got underway for the Panthers. Steph Paolillo just missed her PR in the 400 hurdles, as the TVL Champion placed seventh in 68.70 seconds. Following a similar theme with the seniors, her work was not done yet! Ryan Leonard took 23rd in the boys race in 63.69, against a field that only included six sophomores and no freshmen!
The 200 trials followed. Kylie Lorenzen ran down nearly her entire heat in the trials to earn a berth in the finals, setting a new PR of 26.31 that would only last another hour or so...Dan Barone came in entered 12th, but after going from 24th to 8th in the long jump, this "uphill battle" was nothing for the star sprinter. He made the finals by running 23.37, just 0.01 off his PR from TVL's. His PR, though, was destined to fall soon.
Up next was miler Katie Salley. The freshman entered as the 39th seed, and passed 1/3 of those ahead of her according to the rankings, finishing 26th in 5:50, an impressive time given it was already about 85 degrees on the frying pan that was Pembroke's track!
In the 110 meter hurdle trials, sophomore Logan Cotto lowered his PR to 16.67, finishing 15th after being seeded 25th. Quite the leap up the leaderboard! Senior Andrew Krauss made the finals with the 2nd-best time of 15.17. With 5 of the top 12 hurdlers in the entire state in the field, it was destined to be a battle royale in the finals.
Tabor Beaudry ran 11.91 to take 19th in the 100, 3 spots better than projected and a bit faster than he ran at TVL's.
Shauna Rockett, who was barely under 66 seconds as of a couple weeks ago, ran a PR of 63.69 coming in 23rd in the 400, after being ranked 29th. Great effort by a rookie sophomore!
Devin Sanford capped off a solid 400 campaign by taking seventh, with a time of 51.64 that's the fastest non-handtimed race he's ever run, earning a top-8 medal for his efforts.
Back in the field events, Logan Cotto moved up from 18th to 16th in triple jump, making 37'9.5 in an event dominated by upperclassmen.
Kylie Lorenzen was facing the only division that had four girls who had done 5'3 or better. After making 4'11, then 5'0 on her second attempt, and 5'2 as well on her second attempt, only five girls remained as the bar was raised to 5'4. She was in a tie for second on misses as one girl had made all her attempts. Every competitor missed their first attempt, but then Kylie soared over the bar at 5'4 on her second jump. Once the other four girls failed on their final attempt, the freshman had won the event, making her the first Holliston Eastern Mass Div. 3 champion since Emmaline Berg in the shot put in 2009. Excellent performance!
Back on the track, Andrew Krauss lined up against an absolutely loaded hurdle final. Once he got going, he cruised past most of the pack and took second in 15.09, missing his PR by just two hundredths of a second and most likely setting himself up as a top-8 seed for All-States!
Although the track was heating up, so was the Holliston momentum, as now two athletes were headed to All-States and a few more spots were about to be filled.
In the 200 finals, Kylie was in the first heat (5th-8th seed), and with a great start, took the lead by 100m, then built a considerable lead as she crossed the tape in 25.98 seconds, lowering her PR and school record. Only two girls from the other section beat her time, as she finished in 3rd place overall!
Dan Barone had already moved up from 12th to 8th by getting into the finals. Not one to be content, he gained another spot and lowered his PR by a full tenth of a second, placing seventh in 23.26!
In the girls 800, Kaylee Kozubal ran a great time of 2:25.21, just missing the top-8 medals and recording her second-fastest time even in the sweltering heat. Her day was not over, though...
The 4x100 relay teams were next to go, and both stepped up with phenomenal performances. The girls team was seeded 12th, and had a freshman (Cassandra Kelly) that had never run the relay before. Never one to back down from a challenge, the girls ran their best race of the year. Morgann McKunes got a great start, and made a clean handoff to Kelly, who motored down the straightaway. Thanks to the first two legs, the girls were already in the middle of the pack despite being seeded as the last team in the heat. Kelly passed to Caroline Clancy, who as usual dominated the turn and moved the team into third before passing to anchor Nicole Kerrigan. Nikki ran a fantastic straightaway, closing a 5 yard gap on Medfield and finishing second in our heat, ninth overall in 52.71, a full 0.46 faster than at TVL's!
The boys were next on the track. Max Athy lead off, and had a great handoff to Tabor Beaudry, who flew down the backstretch before handing off to Andrew Krauss, who moved the team into the top two before passing off to Barone. Dan took off and had the lead with 50m to go, then created more separation as he crossed the tape in 44.91, a full 1.08 seconds faster than the same group ran on this very track one month earlier. After the seeded section only had three teams displace them, the boys had finished fourth overall, advancing to the All-State Meet!
The 4x400 relays were next. Kylie lead off with an incredible 58.9 split, letting Shauna Rockett take the baton in the lead and allowing her to make the cut-in without worrying about the traffic from the rest of the pack. Shauna split 65.9 and handed off to Steph, who kept the Wilmington team in sight as the girls pulled away from the rest of the heat. Kaylee anchored in 63.4 after Stephs' 64.3, with the girls finishing in 4:12.51, a full SEVEN seconds faster than they've run this season, and good for yet another medal in 6th overall!
The boys were next, as Ryan Leonard, Cole Osten, Duncan Robertson, and Devin Sanford finished 16th in 3:49.50.
Overall, here are the top-10 finishers. Top 8 earned medals, Top 4 finishers automatically advance to the All-State Meet.
What we were projected to get
Top-4 finishes: 2
Top-8 medals: 4
What we got
Top-4 finishers: 4
Top-8 medals: 10
1st - Kylie Lorenzen, High Jump (5'4)
2nd - Andrew Krauss, 110m hurdles (15.09)
3rd - Kylie Lorenzen, 200 (25.98)
4th - Boys 4x100, 44.91 (Max Athy, Tabor Beaudry, Andrew Krauss, Dan Barone)
6th - Cam Chisholm, Shot Put (46'6)
6th - Girls 4x400, 4:12.51 (Kylie Lorenzen, Shauna Rockett, Steph Paolillo, Kaylee Kozubal)
7th - Dan Barone, 200 (23.26)
7th - Steph Paolillo, 400m hurdles (68.80)
7th - Devin Sanford, 400 (51.64)
8th - Dan Barone, Long Jump (20'3)
9th - Kaylee Kozubal, 800 (2:25.21)
9th - Girls 4x100, 52.71 (Morgann McKunes, Cassandra Kelly, Caroline Clancy, Nicole Kerrigan)
Forgot this earlier...since I did it for TVL's I'll do it again here. Biggest Upsets of the Day...
16 places - Dan Barone, long jump, 20'3 (8th, seeded 24th)
8 places - Boys 4x100, 44.91 (4th, seeded 12th)
6 places - Girls 4x400, 4:12.51 (6th, seeded 12th)
Everyone enjoy the rest of the long weekend! I'll post the All-State Performance List Sunday night after the other meets' results are posted.
