Long, confusing day at Burlington with track/field events coming and going, but well worth it.
We had two new relays qualify for states, three school records, four top-five finishes, and one NATIONALS QUALIFIER, And – unofficially – the girls had by far their best team finish ever!
The boys started off in the field events, with the long jump relay of Liam Hebert, Mike Donovan, and Tucker Ciarcello placing 16th with a combined mark of 53’9. Liam led the way with a 19’6 jump, joining Mike and Tucker in the 19-foot Club and as a contender for the TVL Meet on Wednesday. The boys javelin crew of Matt Wolfson, Reuben Jacobson, and Cam Waddell placed 14th at 329’0.
The girls track events started off with a school record. In the theme of the day, an expression I stole from Coach Blackmore is “You can’t pick what year you graduate high school.” In other words, you can’t control how deep your event is (or isn’t) in a given year. The girls 4x1600 team was ninth in a time of 23:25 (Salley 5:29, Mejia 6:00, Irons 6:00, Datz 5:56), but their time unofficially broke the old school record of 23:40!
The girls 4x100 team came in on a quest to get the 54.24 standard for states, and just barely missed, as Keara Shaughnessy, Caroline Ward, Elena Daly, and Helen Dolan ran 54.73 to take 24th.
Next up was the Sprint Medley. To use the “can’t pick your year” quote, everyone seemed to ‘stack” this event. So although the girls took fifth…BUT in a time that would’ve been top two in almost any year….AND their splits (2:21.4 Sydney Snow, 27.5 Madison Ward, 28.0 Eve Bagley, 58.6 Kylie Lorenzen) added up to 4:16.65….which qualified for New Balance Outdoor Nationals. It also ranks as 39th in the United States of America. Do yourself a favor…check athletic.net, and look up the US rankings for ANY event. Find 39th place, and prepare to be stunned how incredible it is to be ranked that high in anything.
And before the “but” crowd chimes in…..It IS contested regularly in other states.
The girls 4x200 team entered with a 2:03 PR from their Near-Midnight Run At Twilight. Undaunted, the quartet of Anna Foster (28.9), Kelsey Crowley (30.1), Jill Davis (30.3), and Elena Daly (28.9) blazed a 1:58.04 to take 14th, beating half the field!
The girls 4x400 was the last running event. Kylie, Eve, and Sydney were doubling back…and in fact, Kylie and Sydney had already started their jumps events. The girls had been knocking on the door of the school record (4:09) the last few years.
This year, they got a running start and kicked the door down.
Eve led off in 61.7, Lexi followed with a 63.3. Sydney got the baton in fifth and worked up to 4th with a 60.5. Then came Kylie, with a huge move the last 150m to pass third and second, and nearly stole the win with a split of 58.7. Their time of 4:04.25 SHATTERS the old school record, and is the third fastest time in Massachusetts so far. A few other teams will probably match or exceed that in the other relay meets, but expect them to be in the top 10 after this weekend.
The boys had two running events on the track, and made the most of it. The 4x100 relay team had come oh-so-close to qualifying in several dual meets, but the team of Sam Ratcliffe, Liam Hebert, Mike Donovan, and Matt McIsaac finally punched their ticket to states, running 46.73 to beat the standard by 0.11!
Following suit, the boys 4x400 relay team was coming off a Westwood meet three days earlier when they had run 3:43, two seconds off the standard. Rick Brown led off with the race of his life in a 51.9, then Mike Glazebrook ran a 56.4 (proving that 2 milers can have speed!), and Ryan Sofoul followed up with a 56.1. Ed Bennie held off a charging foe to win the heat, splitting 53.2 as the boys easily qualified by four seconds with a 3:37.80, eighth place overall! It’s the third fastest time in the TVL this year.
Over in field, the girls throws had a trio of top-20 finishes. The shot put squad of Kelly Alves (32’8 PR), Danielle Lamb (28’0 PR), and Flannery Langton (21’0) took 11th at 81’6.5, while the discus team of Lamb, Melanie Galeaz, and Maria Gentile was 16th at a combined distance of 201’8. Javelin (Alves, Amelia Porter, Langton) finished 17th at 203’7 (no individual results available as of yet for those last two).
In jumps, the long jump crew of Kylie (16’8 unofficial), Alexis (near-15 feet), and Elena (14’+) just missed medaling with a 46’0.75. The high jump squad of Madison (4’11), Caroline (4’9) and Sydney (4’6) took fourth at 14’2, while the triple jump of Madison, Caroline, and Kami Kozubal finished third at 97’5.25.
At the end of the day, the girls scored 20 points to place sixth overall. Previously, their highest finish ever was 14th (not counting 2008 data, unavailable…checking on that)!
Congrats to all that either made history, extended their season by qualifying for states, or who competed well and set new personal bests. Everyone gets to charge up the hill again on Wednesday over at the League Meet, so if you didn’t have your best day today, you’ve got another shot!
