PR's galore as Sprint Medley takes fourth at NATIONALS!

Despite temperatures in the low 90s and a heat index that easily hit 100, the quartet of Madison Ward, Caroline Ward, Eve Bagley, and Sydney Snow made history yesterday at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in North Carolina.

Without their 400 leg from D3 Relays (Kylie with them in spirit, hopefully not being chased by bears while out in Wyoming), the girls nonetheless all stepped up and shattered their seed time of 4:16.56. Not only that, they won their heat and finished FOURTH overall in the Emerging Elite Sprint Medley with a time of 4:14.01, breaking the TVL record in the process!

Unofficial splits for first three were 28 and change for Madison and Caroline, 61 for Eve, and (only electronic split the meet had), a 2:16.14 for Sydney as she powered from sixth to first in the last 500 meters!

Words can not express how epic of an accomplishment this is. So, if a picture is worth 1000 words...

Wait, but how many words is a video of the race worth? Here's the link. Holliston TC (they have to run as a club, MIAA rules won't allow them to wear our normal jerseys) have black tops and black/light blue shorts. Madison and Caroline are in the middle lanes, Eve cuts in to lane 1 when her leg starts.

http://www.nbnationalsout.com/eprofile.php?event_id=3689&do=videos&video_id=149390
Today, Caroline came back with a vengeance after a four and a half hour wait to PR at 35'1.25 in the Freshman Triple Jump! Her mark would've been 2nd last year, this year it was 14th but out of SIXTY SIX athletes!

Madison had a short wait at one of two high jump pits, but with the highest opening height she's ever had (5'1.75, which took out nearly half the field!), she cleared it on her third attempt. Unforunately a short, but torrential downpour delayed the event by 30 minutes, and she was the second person to jump after the meet resumed. She just barely missed 5'3.75 on her second attempt, but still finished 22nd out of 46!

Congrats to all four girls on a terrific ending to a sensational season!

Donovan PR's at New Englands/Captains Announced

Mike Donovan accomplished the rare feat of setting a new PR in EVERY postseason meet. After winning the triple jump at the Tri-Valley League championship, he jumped 42'6 to take fourth at Eastern Mass Div. 3, then hit 43'0 to finish fifth at All-States, and today at Thornton Academy in Saco, Maine, he leapt 43'2 to finish 13th overall! He was seeded 18th, so he outperformed by quite a bit. Only four of the athletes ahead of him were underclassmen, so that bodes well for the future!

Speaking of the future, here are the captains for next year's indoor and outdoor track teams, in alphabetical order.

Boys Indoor 2015-16: Rick Brown, Mark Mulvaney, Ben St. George
Girls Indoor 2015-16: Eve Bagley, Sydney Snow, Madison Ward
Boys Outdoor 2016: Rick Brown, Mike Donovan, Reuben Jacobson, Matt McIsaac
Girls Outdoor 2016: Eve Bagley, Bridget Ghelli, Sydney Snow, Madison Ward

Donovan shocks field, takes 5th at All-States!

Tough turnaround for us going from the class meet Wednesday night to All-States this afternoon. But Mike Donovan, despite being seeded 21st, was the surprise of the day over at the Triple Jump. He cleared 43'0, to easily have the best mark in his flight. When the second flight (higher seeds) went, he was only eclipsed by the two 46'+ superstars, leaving him third entering the nine-person finals. Two others just sneaked by him at the end, but his 43'0 mark was good for fifth overall!

Mike's the first guy to medal at All-States since his brother in 2010. He'll be competing Saturday at Thornton Academy in Maine at the New England Championships against the best 36 triple jumpers in the region.

Eve Bagley nearly matched her time from last week, running 69.48 to take 26th in the 400 meter hurdles. Sydney Snow, facing a loaded mile field, took 16th at 5:19.59, nearly upsetting a sub-5 girl from her race on Wednesday.

Good job by all braving the wind, and 72 hour "break" between meets today!

Extended Recap of Div. 3 East Meet

Finally got the results online from yesterdays' meet. Happened 72 hours after we expected to compete, but the long wait appeared to have little effect on the Panthers. We had one boy and four girls qualify for All-States individually, and TEN different events earned top eight medals. The girls also had their best finish in at least 10-15 years, taking seventh place with 33 points, even besting league champ Hopkinton!

Early field events yielded our first two qualifiers of the day. Mike Donovan had a PR of 42'6" to claim fourth in the triple jump, with several attempts that indicated he could be in the mix for a medal next week at All-States. Madison Ward, in arguably the most competitive division for high jump, tied her PR by making 5'4 on her third attempt to take fourth overall!

Also in field, Kelly Alves placed 16th in shot put at 29'7.75, while Danielle Lamb took 26th in discus at 83'10. Kylie Lorenzen picked up yet another medal at a state class meet, taking sixth in the long jump at 16'2.75"

Back on the track, Eve Bagley was our first runner competing, and she made All-States by 0.02 seconds, as we picked up yet another fourth place finsih with her time of 1:09.44! Sydney Snow followed soon after, and after getting taken out in 2:32 by a couple of sub-5 runners, she made up a 20 meter gap the last 200 meters to run down third place and qualify for All-States with a five second PR of 5:11.75!

Rick Brown kept up the boys streak of medaling, as he ran 52.76 to take second in his heat and displace a ton of runners in the heats ahead of him with an eighth place finish. He's now medaled in both state class meets as a sophomore, rare for a guy sprinter! Kylie Lorenzen came back with a vengeance in the 400, running 58.76 for a seasonal PR and second place overall!

The second set of field events started, and both Ward sisters medaled in triple jump, with Madison taking sixth at 34'5.25, and Caroline placing eighth at 34'3, tops for freshmen. Kelly Alves placed 33rd at 77'6 in the javelin. Over on the track, Bridget Ghelli entered seeded in the 30s, but placed 13th overall with a time of 17.24, a PR of over two tenths of a second.

2-Milers Katie Salley and Addie Datz both PR'd, as Addie dropped her time to a 12:24 in 22nd place, while Katie PR'd in 11:46.74 to take 12th!

The boys 4x100 relay team was seeded at the bottom, but the quartet of Sam Ratcliffe, Liam Hebert, Mike Donovan, and Matt McIsaac (all underclassmen!) took 21st in 47.03, just off their best time by a couple tenths of a second.

The girls 4x400 relay team had the strongest Non-Division 1 field to contest, but the team of Bagley, Alexis Mejia, Helen Dolan, and Snow ran 4:09.11 to finish seventh.

The All-State schedule is in the post below for anyone interested.

Mini-Recap of Division 3 East meet

Our meet's official results haven't been posted yet, so I'll hold off on the extended recap until then. However, I do have the top-8 medalists and All-State qualifiers. The girls also had their highest finish in at least 10-15 years, scoring 35 points for seventh place, even beating league champion Hopkinton!

2nd - Kylie Lorenzen, 400 (58.76)
3rd - Sydney Snow, Mile (5:11.75 - PR!)
4th - Mike Donovan, Triple Jump, (42'6 - PR!)
4th - Eve Bagley, 400 Hurdles (69.46)
4th - Madison Ward, High Jump (5'4, ties PR!)
6th - Kylie Lorenzen, Long Jump (16'2.75)
6th - Madison Ward, Triple Jump (34'5)
7th - Girls 4x4 (Bagley, Alexis Mejia, Helen Dolan, Snow, 4:09.11)
8th - Caroline Ward, Triple Jump (34'3)
8th - Rick Brown, 400 (52.76)

The top four finishers automatically qualify for the All-State meet on Saturday at Fitchburg State University. Here is the schedule

1PM - Girls High Jump (Ward), Boys Triple Jump (Donovan)
2:00 - 4x800 (Assuming two heats of each)
2:45 - 400 Hurdles (Bagley)
3:00 - 200 Trials
3:10 - Mile (Snow)
3:30 - 100 Hurdle/100 Trials
3:50 - 400 (Lorenzen)

You'll want to arrive at least an hour before your event.

Extended recap to follow later today when all results are posted.

Division 3 EMass Meet/Banquet Update (last one!)

Lot to catch up on, so here it is.

The banquet will be held at 6:30 PM at the Christ the King Church on Friday, June 12. RSVP's were due last week, so we should have an accurate head count to give Bazel's for catering

The Eastern Mass Division 3 meet was postponed yet again. It's now on Wednesday, fortunately the weather actually looks great for that day, so no chance that it moves back any further!

Start time is later than usual, here's the approximate schedule. Please note, this is APPROXIMATE. If a lot of kids scratch, might go ahead of schedule. Or - more likely - if the meet takes a while, later events may start a bit later than listed.

If you're competing in a later event, you can have your parents drive you in but I need to know ahead of time. Arrive 90 minutes before your event is supposed to start.

1:15 - Students dismissed from class. No announcement, your responsibility to remind your teachers.
1:30 - Bus leaves for Durfee High School in Fall River.
2:30/2:45 - Arrive at Durfee.
4:00 - First field events....if we left after school got out, earliest would be 2:20 with the regular buses taking up space, and then we'd likely get to the meet at 3:40, which would rush the field event athletes. Plan accordingly regarding when to eat, etc.
First field events include...(remember, everything except high jump goes in reverse order for flights - so if you're seeded near the top, you'll have a while)
Girls - High Jump, Shot Put, Long Jump
Boys - Triple Jump, Discus, Javelin
5:00 - Boys 4x800
5:10 - Girls 4x800
5:20 - Boys 400 Hurdles
5:30 - Girls 400 Hurdles
5:30 - APPROXIMATE start of second field events. Will vary depending on the event
Girls - Triple Jump, Discus, Javelin
Boys - High Jump, Shot Put, Long Jump
5:40 - Boys 200 Trials
5:45 - Girls 200 Trials
5:55 - Boys Mile
6:05 - Girls Mile
6:20 - Girls 100 Hurdle Trials
6:30 - Boys 110 Hurdle Trials
6:40 - Boys 100 Trials
6:45 - Girls 100 Trials
6:50 - Boys 400
7:00 - Girls 400
7:05 - Boys / Girls 200 Finals
7:10 - Boys 800
7:15 - Girls 800
7:25 - Boys / Girls Hurdle Finals
7:35 - Boys / Girls 100 Finals
7:40 - Boys 2 Mile
7:50 - Girls 2 Mile
8:05 - Boys 4x100
8:10 - Girls 4x100
8:15 - Boys 4x400
8:30 - Girls 4x400