For the first time in three years, we were back at the Route 228 Freshman/Sophomore Invite, which had over 70 teams from large and small schools.
In the first race of the day, Eve Bagley ran a time of 72.03 seconds to win not only her heat, but the entire Girls 400 meter hurdles, edging a girl from Concord-Carlisle by 0.16 seconds! Anna Foster was seeded 12th but finsihed 10th in 77.11
In the girls 100 dash, Kelsey Crowley ran 15.73 to beat over 50 people in her field, taking fourth in her heat. Sam Ratcliffe ran 12.83 in the boys 100, 34th overall and third in his heat.
The first field events started to come in, with a few medals among them. Madison Ward took second place in the triple jump at 34'8.25. At the adjacent runway, Liam Hebert was 12th overall in long jump and had the best mark of any freshman at 17'9.5, while Mike Donovan cleared 16'2. Sam Gillman nearly PR'd with a 59'7 in the discus, while Kelly Alves took sixth place in the javelin at 76'5, and also picked up a sixth place in the shot put at 30'4, a rare freshman to claim two top-6 medals!
Back on the track, in the girls mile Addie Datz nearly PR'd in 6:06.58, claiming 17th overall and 5th among freshmen. Alexis Mejia nearly qualified for states with an 8th place time of 5:48.58, third among freshmen!
Kevin Ricard was fourth in his heat of the boys mile in a new PR of 5:45.57.
In the 800, Sydney Snow overcame some early elbows from the 18-person seeded section to finish fourth in 2:28.89, a seasonal best! For the boys, Andrew Milton tied his PR at 2:23.38, 21st overall and 8th among freshmen. Stephen Gallivan was fourth in his section at 2:34.92.
The second set of field events came in, and Madison Ward nearly captured the high jump, taking second at 5'1 on a tiebreaker. Mike Donovan just missed the finals of the triple jump, claiming 8th at 35'1. Reuben Jacobsen was 16th in javelin at 98'8, while the freshmen duo of Alexis Mejia (14'3) and Elena Daly (13'9) were 12th and 17th, respectively, in long jump.
The 400 saw a pair of freshmen nearly medal, as Helen Dolan was eighth in the girls' race at 64.46, and Rick Brown also took eighth, with a new PR of 55.28, just 0.01 off the best time by a freshman.
In the boys 4x100, despite being seeded 17th, the quartet of Sam Ratcliffe, Liam Hebert, Mike Donovan, and Rick Brown finished 10th in 48.87.
The wait was worth it for the last race of the long day. Seeded fourth, the girls 4x400 relay team of Dolan, Ward, Foster, and Snow ran 4:23.99, just off the best time of the season to take second place!
A reminder, the next meet is not only home, but it is on Tuesday, not Wednesday. (Vs. Medway)
