Twelve athletes came home this afternoon, all with Personal Records.
Fittingly, a captain lead the charge. Chelsea Dubin, who previously had scaled the Sub 6 Minute Wall, was now tackling a wall that loomed much larger: States. Thanks in part to a 38 second last lap (5:05 pace, so yes, that is a bona fide Kick with a capital K), she crossed the line in 5:44.95 seconds, over a full second below the state qualifying mark. She's now qualified in three events, the mile, 4x400, and 4x800. Her PR was just under five seconds better than her mark set on Wednesday.
Up next was fellow miler Jack Boyd. Boyd and 5:00 were old friends. He scaled its wall in outdoors, running 4:58 and change, but indoors, the Mountain fought back. He had made several attempts at the summit. 5:03, 5:05, 5:01...but today, as Jack passed the 800m mark in 2:22, he no longer was concerned about that summit, the only question was how high he'd be when he stopped climbing. With a 69.6 last 400, Boyd finished the race having taken an astounding 13 seconds off of his personal best. 4:45.65, the fourth fastest time in school history, and fastest in six years.
Boyd and Dubin's PR's got the snowball rolling. It gained size in the next event, the Girls 300. First up was Virginia Hanstad, who entered the meet with a 47.7 PR. She took third in a very competitive heat - two girls from it finished in the top 30 overall - and ran 46.17. A 1-2 punch was quickly formed, as Shauna Rockett lined up in the very next heat. Her time of 45.61 would ironically qualify her for the Division 2 State Championship (and put Virginia within 0.23 of qualifying), but our Division 3 (smaller schools!) standard is oddly a full second faster than the D2 Mark. Her time just missed the top-10 on the all-time list, which is largely populated by that 1997-2000 group that holds all those 4x200 and 4x400 marks. Tough group to break into.
Over on the infield, Logan Cotto and Evan Vasilauskas had gone 1-2 in every 45 yard hurdles race this season. Up against some of the state's best, the pair finished the day as the #1 and #2 ranked 55m hurdlers in the league. Logan ran 8.49 to qualify for states, while Evan ran 8.65, just missing states by 0.11 but ironically passed Logan's brother Mitch on the all-time list.
Shortly thereafter, Evan climbed into the blocks again for the 55 meter dash. Although he missed qualifying by just 0.01 seconds, his time of 6.95 makes him the seventh Holliston Panther to break 7 seconds, and is the fastest 55m time in the league this year. If anything, his competitors at the TVL Meet will now have to deal with the fact that he's also hell-bent on breaking 6.94.
Back on the oval, the rumbling of the avalanche was practically deafening, and would only grow louder, with the whole gym paying attention. Sydney Snow was seeded 26th with a 1:45.71. The PR would be a bit more daunting than others, since hers was set on this same track at the Fr/Soph Meet. Stuck in the fourth-fastest heat, she took off, leaving all but two runners completely out of it by 200m. She lead the entire race and kicked to finish in a 1:41.85, a time that beat all but one of the higher seeded kids that raced thereafter. Several minutes later, she was called to the podium to accept her second medal of the season for her 2nd place finish, as she took 5th in the Fr/Soph Meet.
For those wondering, her time is the 3rd fastest in Division 3, and only one kid behind her in the rankings races tomorrow in the Elite Meet.
Ryan Leonard and Ryan Moser came in having already punched their ticket to states, having broken the school record in the 4x800 at the Div. 3 Relays. Needing 1:29.74 to qualify as individuals, both attacked their heats from the beginning, and returned as Individual Qualifiers. Leonard ran 1:28.64, Moser 1:29.37, a whopping five seconds better than his best Holliston time. I should point out that normally kids run about 3 seconds faster at Reggie than they do at Holliston. A 5 second drop is a bit outside the norm.
Two athletes remained, as our streak had reached 10 for 10 on PR's. Katie Salley had pulled off a rare feat on Wednesday, qualifying for states in a distance event (1000) on our slow, flat 130 meter track. Thus, the opportunity to run on Reggie's surface begged the question. How fast would she go?
In third for much of her heat, she kicked in the last 50m to earn a 3:18.37, the third fastest time in school history.
Finally, the last one up was Madison Ward. Despite being under the weather, she also wound up under her old PR. Stuck in a bit of no-man's land in the last mile, she used her trademark kick - 16.5 seconds for the last 100, which is a good kick if you're running the 600. In a 2 mile? Must've been a red blur to the many athletes she passed in the last lap. She finished in 12:40, besting her old mark.
Having all 12 athletes PR - or in Evan's case (since he hasn't run the 55m distance before) beat everyone in the league - is beyond rare. What you dozen kids today was beyond description. Here's the updated Top 10 All-Time List for the events run today. There's a few more chances to climb these ladders before the season is over.
Girls 55M
7.41 - Kristen Godfrey
7.67 - Meghan Beidleman
7.70 - Andrea Runstadler
7.71 - Leann Teager
7.79 - Nikki Kerrigan
7.81 - Caroline Clancy7.83 - Nattie Tonello
7.84 - Sam Alper
7.84 - Nicole Chaput
7.97 - Briana Crowley
7.97 - Sarah Sams
Girls 600M
1:39.88 - Colleen Cotter
1:40.65 - Emily Naughton
1:40.87 - Dana Butler
1:41.85 - Sydney Snow
1:44.04 - Katie Davidoff1:46.52 - Jess Robinson
1:46.89 - Lynda Maryanski
1:47.22 - Steph Paolillo
1:47.47 - Lauren Galiardi
1:48.01 - Ali Slyne
Girls 1000M
3:12.43 - Dana Butler
3:12.90 - Rosie Keogh
3:18.37 - Katie Salley
3:19.85 - Emily Ricketson3:20.11 - Ally Lynch
3:20.59 - Laura O'Regan
3:21.32 - Carina Doyle
3:23.40 - Gill Chapman
3:23.56 - Anna Cristofori
3:23.70 - Claire Lingham
Girls 2Mile
10:59.84 - Rosie Keogh
11:34.56 - Kim Thalmann
12:03.72 - Amanda Lang
12:21.21 - Kristin Kyrka
12:32.14 - Courtney Richard
12:35.38 - Jill Rosati
12:38.70 - Joyce McKenna
12:40.72 - Madison Ward
12:50.88 - Anna Mannello12:56.80 - Chelsea Dubin
Boys 55M Dash
6.77 - Jon Moussavou
6.84 - Tabor Beaudry
6.90 - James Ferdenzi
6.95 - Evan Vasilauskas
6.96 - Peter Landry6.99 - Grant Slattery
7.03 - Trevor Alper
7.08 - Dan Ikuma
7.11 - Tommy Donovan
Boys 55M Hurdles
7.82 - Andrew Krauss
7.93 - Jeff Mansfield
8.04 - Ty Cotto
8.12 - Matt Esterman
8.32 - Josh McLinden
8.47 - Steve Blackmore
8.49 - Logan Cotto
8.65 - Evan Vasilauskas
8.66 - Mitch Cotto
Boys 600M
1:26.09 - Greg Dube1:26.90 - Zack Snow
1:27.90 - Dan Slyne
1:27.93 - Andrew Johnson
1:28.64 - Ryan Leonard
1:29.09 - Steve Blackmore1:29.33 - Steve Slyne
1:29.37 - Ryan Moser
1:30.09 - Steve Amrock1:30.29 - Marc Levasseur
Boys Mile
4:35.00 - Bryan Cotter
4:40.73 - Cody LeGros
4:44.27 - Alden Woodrow
4:45.59 - Jack Boyd
4:45.80 - John Calhoun4:50.28 - Dan Slyne
4:51.47 - Mark Texeira
4:51.59 - Andy Mysliwiec
4:55.36 - Avinash Sridhar
4:55.85 - Steve Amrock
