Two New Qualifiers, All Teams Top 8 at Relays!

Friendly reminder to all to be at the HS no later than 8:15 on Monday for team pictures before the Hopkinton meet.

On to today's Division 4 Relays. Despite most of you being a bit fried from final exams, and a couple kids battling some illnesses, all three of our relay teams placed in the top 8, and either qualified or improved an existing qualifying time!

The girls 4x800 placed of Sydney Snow, Madison Ward, Alexis Mejia, and Katie Salley finished fifth in 10:19.2, the fastest time in six years, and earning themselves medals! (I picked them up after you left, you can get them Monday).

The boys 4x800 squad of Jack Boyd, Mike Glazebrook, Ryan Moser, and Ryan Leonard took eighth in 8:46.70.

We had already made states in the 4x400 from Freshman/Sophomore Meet (4:24), but even without the fastest leg that day (Snow), the team today improved the time by taking seventh in 4:21.70, from the quartet of Shauna Rockett, Virginia Hanstad, Eve Bagley, and Emma Guccione. It's less than a second off the top time in the league this year!

See everyone Monday - bright and early - for the dual meet vs. Hopkinton!

4x4 TIME CHANGE/Team Picture note

***Emma, Shauna, Virginia, and Eve, you need to be at Reggie by 11:45, NOT 12:30 tomorrow. I checked last year's results and the two medleys run more kids than expected in each heat. Given how fast Fr/Soph went with the new clerking system, I'd rather you get there early enough to assure that you're able to check in (most likely you'll be called during the Distance Medley, which is right before you. Longest race of the day but in case they call you during the first of those heats, you'll be covered).

Friendly reminder to all that we will have our team picture Monday at 8:30 AM before our meet against Hopkinton. Arrive NO LATER than 8:15 as we need to set up the gym, and we want to get that done before the picture. You need to be wearing your uniform, you can put your bib number on after the picture.

Girls win vs. Bellingham - big performances from many today!

***Before I get to the recap, here's the list of the participants in Saturday's Division 4 Relays. We're sending a 4x8 for the boys, and 4x8 and 4x4 on the girls side. You'll get more specific info (time of your race, etc.) tomorrow.
(List is not necessarily the order you'll run in)
GIRLS 4x800: Snow, Salley, Ward, Mejia
GIRLS 4x400: Guccione, Hanstad, Rockett, Bagley
BOYS 4x800: Boyd, Moser, Leonard, Mike Glazebrook

The girls won 65-21 to improve to 6-1 on the season this year, while the boys lost 55-31 to a very talented Bellingham team that took third at the State D5 Relays last weekend. Lots of "Home track PR's", I'll update the TVL rankings to see how high some of you climbed today!

GIRLS (65-21 win)
Hurdles: (3) Bagley 8.2
Dash: (2) Guccione 6.0 - seasonal best for Emma!
Mile: (1) Ward 5:55.6, (2) Meltzer 5:57.9, (3) DesRochers 6:15.1 - Meltzer runs faster than she did at Reggie 10 days ago, and Ward's time would've qualified at Reggie.
600: (1) Bagley 1:54.0, (2) McShane 2:00.1 - first varsity points for Jill!
300: (1) Guccione 46.8 (home track PR), (2) Hanstad 48.0, (3) Mejia 48.1 - nice debut!
1000: (1) Salley 3:18.7, (2) Snow 3:19.8, (3) Hanlon 3:35.7 - Katie and Syd I believe are the first Holliston girls to go sub 3:20 on our track since Ally Lynch in 2008!
2 Mile: (1) Naughton 13:23, (2) Datz 14:00.1
Shot Put: (1) Brady 25'4, (2) Rosati 22'11.5
High Jump: (1) Ward 5'1
4x400: (1) 4:50.6 - Foster, Ghelli, Rosati, Vrees

BOYS (lost 55-31)
Hurdles: (1) Cotto 6.2
Mile: (1) Boyd 4:58.6 - edges Schmith by 0.1 seconds and becomes first Holliston kid under 5 on our track since 2010
600: (1) Moser 1:35.0
300: (3) Bennie 42.3
1000: (2) Leonard 2:53.6 - top 5 in the league after this?
2 Mile: (1) Mike Glazebrook 10:59.6, (2) Ed Glazebrook 11:16, (3) Luke McCallum 11:55 - Mike's the first sub-11 on our track since Reseska (2010)
High Jump: (2) Boyd 5'2

Wednesday's Meet/Finals

I'll announce this at practice, but wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to read it early - hopefully people are checking the blog regularly by this point in the season.

We've decided that for Wednesday's meet only, we will allow an exception to our team policy that all athletes must be present for the entire duration of the meet.

The lineup will be posted tomorrow. Athletes are still responsible for showing up early enough to warmup and checkin for their events. I'll have an approximate time schedule posted.

*Due to the nature of the competition, it's inevitable that some of the varsity athletes may be in both an early and a late event, with a long gap in between. We'll have Room 501 open for those athletes to use as a quiet study space during their break.

No practice Tuesday

I reminded everyone today, but in case any of the absent people didn't know, there is no practice tomorrow (Tuesday). There is a meet at our gym, but its between Medfield and Millis. I'll be around after school to set up the gym for that meet if anyone needs to find me.

Enjoy the day off, see you all at 2:30 on Wednesday.

4x4 Wins, Snow/Ward 2nd, Girls (unofficially) tie for 1st!

Wow, you wouldn't know by the times that this was the second meet in the span of 24 hours! Nearly everyone got at least top 25 in a state-wide invitational, and we had three medalists for the girls team, which unofficially would've tied for 1st place with Pembroke! (Using 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring since they gave medals to the top 6 finishers)

(Unofficial) team scores
1) HOLLISTON 28
2) Pembroke 28
3) Dracut 24
4) Hopkinton 20
5) Bishop Feehan 17

On to the results...
First up was the girls mile. Abby Meltzer nearly beat her seasonal PR, running 6:00.52 to take third in her heat despite running a grueling 2-mile just 17 hours earlier. Addie Datz had a big PR in 6:15.92, moving up very well in her heat!
Next up was the boys mile. Ben St. George was coming off a scintillating 2:55.4 debut in the 1000, a time that would've been good for a sixth-place medal at today's meet! He had already been entered in the mile, and showed no signs of fatigue, running 5:08.3 in a massive PR of 15 seconds.
In the girls 300, Anna Foster took her heat in 48.26 seconds, finishing 28th and beating half of a sophomore-dominated field!
Next up was the girls 600. Sydney Snow fought off a couple of attempts by a Plymouth North challenger, and although she lost at the finish by 0.03 seconds, her time of 1:42.68 was a seasonal PR and a full 3 seconds ahead of her time at last year's meet! Quite impressive for someone who had to run 1:43.7 last night to win against a girl who broke Norton's school record.
In the 1000, Alexis Mejia had a huge kick to pass nearly her entire field and finished in 10th place, just missing states by two seconds in a time of 3:25.28. Katie DesRochers also PR'd in her race, finishing fourth in her heat in 3:40.16, 31st overall, top half of the field!
In the high jump, Madison Ward was less than 24 hours removed from having defeated her toughest challenger in the TVL, and cleared 5'2 to take second place, matching her PR!
Over on the infield, Helen Dolan and Emma Guccione both advanced to the 2-heat (16 person) finals of the 55 meter dash, running 7.99 and 8.01. Emma took ninth overall in the finals in 8.02, while Helen ran 8.56. Emma's time is slightly better than the 7.8 hand-time she ran at Norton (0.24 second conversion = 8.04), so an unofficial PR for the rookie! Sam Ratcliffe ran 7.47 in the prelims, beating the majority of the freshmen in a competitive field.
Bridget ran 11.56 in the hurdles, besting more people than she was expected based on seed time.
In the 2 mile, Adri Grinder hung tough in the seeded section, and ripped off a 39.4 second last lap to not only qualify for states (12:48.22, 12:50 was the standard), she nearly took the last medal, as she went from 11th to 7th place in the last lap!

Last event was the girls 4x400. We were seeded 7th overall, putting us in the second-fastest heat, but knew we had a chance to win since last year 4:22 and 4:28 were the top two finishers. Emma, running her first 400 ever, opened up with a 65.9, taking a lead early, then Madison kept the lead with a 67.1. Eve got passed but stuck right on the shoulder of Hopkinton's third leg and split 67.4. Sydney took the baton and regained the lead after the first turn, and held off a furious charge on the final straightaway to win the heat in 4:24.09. We then waited for the fast heat....which was won in 4:26, giving Holliston 1st place and the fastest time in the TVL!

Congratulations to all, the majority of the kids PR'd, we had top-10 finishes in five events (Girls 600, 1000, 2 mile, high jump, 4x4), three medalists (600, HJ, 4x4), and two new state qualifiers (Adri in the two mile, and the 4x4).

NO PRACTICE Tuesday, but there is practice Monday! (Medfield-Millis are having a meet at our track on Tuesday, and we can't have the fr/soph kids practicing/competing seven days in a row, so everyone gets the day off on Tuesday).

Girls beat Norton, three new State Qualifiers!

***Please check the post below this one for info on the Fr/Soph meet. Remember, the bus leaves at 7:45 so be at the HS by 7:30!

Good start to our long weekend, as the girls avenged a loss from last year by beating Norton 54-32 while the guys fell 63-23, which is actually closer than most teams in the TVL have done against the Lancers. Highlighting the day were new state qualifiers Emma Guccione (55 meter dash), Sydney Snow (600), and Logan Cotto (55 meter hurdles), as well as several PR's.

GIRLS (won 54-32)
Hurdles; (3) Eve Bagley 10.0
Dash: (1) Emma Guccione 7.8 (state qualifier!)
Mile: (1) Alexis Mejia, 5:50 (PR!), (2) Adri Grinder 5:52 (PR!), (3) Kiara Hanlon 6:04
600: (1) Sydney Snow 1:43.7 (state qualifier!), (3) Eve Bagley 1:49.6
300: (1) Emma Guccione 45.8, (2) Shauna Rockett 46.5 - Anna Foster ran 46.6 in the JV heat, big PR for her!
1000: (1) Katie Salley, 3:14.8 (PR!), (3) Madison Ward, 3:31.9
2 Mile: (1) Abby Meltzer, 13:02.2, (2) Maggie Naughton 13:17.1 - clinched the meet for us, which gave some of the fr/soph kids a break from the 4x4
Shot Put: (3) Ally Rosati 22'4.5
High Jump: (1) Madison Ward 5'0 - beat a girl who's seeded right behind her for tomorrow's meet, as well as the only other girl in the league over 5'1!
4x400: (1) Virginia Hanstad, Shauna Rockett, Ally Rosati, Katie Salley, 4:40.1

BOYS (lost 63-23)
Hurdles: (1) Logan Cotto 8.0 - qualifies for states, new PR (even with the hand-time conversion)
Dash: (3) Sam Ratcliffe, 6.9 - big time for a freshman!
Mile: (1) Jack Boyd 4:58.4 - remains undefeated vs. Norton!
600: (2) Ryan Moser 1:36.0
300: (3) Logan Cotto 40.4
1000: (2) Ryan Leonard 2:50.8, (3) Ben St. George 2:55.4
2 Mile: (2) Mike Glazebrook 10:46 (almost broke his indoor PR), (3) Ed Glazebrook 11:12