When you have the best of the best competing in one meet, the odds are often favorable that you’re going to have an abundance of PRs and state-leading efforts with the potential for a few of those efforts finding their way into the record books. It will be no different for our MA track & field athletes competing at Westfield State University this week for MIAA Meet of the Champions, a two-day meet that will be held on Thursday and Saturday.
We took a look at all the entries and, quite simply, we’re amazed at the level of talent that had graced the Bay State. Here’s a few example. In the boys’ 800-meter run, a time of 1:59.99 was ranked No. 27 on the list! If you ran over 51.8 in the 400m, you’re a spectator this weekend. A distance of 50 feet, two inches in the shot? You guessed it, it’s not even in the top 10, ranking 15th overall. On the girls’ side, all 38 entries clocked under 13 seconds in the 100m dash. Eight in the 100m hurdles were under 15 seconds this spring.
With so much talent making it to the western part of the state this week for the Meet of Champions, it certainly wasn’t an easy task trying to come up with the top storylines. In fact, we absolutely dreaded it. In a good way., that is Of the nearly 40 boys’ and girls’ events, here’s what caught our eye the most.
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The odds on favorite to capture the 100-meter title on Saturday is defending champion Jonas Clarke of South Hadley. The Harvard-bound senior was fifth at last year’s Outdoor Nationals in Oregon with a PR of 10.42. After a record-setting indoor season where he captured the 55m dash at the indoor states and was third overall for 60m at the New Balance Nationals. Clarke missed part of the spring season due to hamstring issues. It appears that was just a minor setback and the gifted sprinter is ready to explode once again this spring as evident by his only two meets so far, He clocked 10.66 to win at the Coaches Invitationals a few weeks ago and this past Monday came close to his PR with a 10.44 clocking at the Div. 6 meet. The state record of 10.36 by Ayers’ Mike Morris was set way back in 1981. With the level of competition that he’ll be facing this weekend – eight runners come in with seeds under 10.9 – and the forecast predicted to be in the mid-70 degree range, Clarke could have the perfect conditions to break the more than 40-year-old mark by Morris.
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Back on May 14, Lawrence’s Jordany Volquez won the 110m hurdles at the Andover Boosters Invitational with a PR of 14.08. On Monday, Winchester’s Easton Tan ran even faster, clocking a state-leading 14.03 at the D4 states. He owns an all-time best of 14.01 from last spring. During the indoor season, these two hurdlers had their battles with Tan winning the 55m HH crown at the Meet of Champions and Volquez setting the state mark to capture the New England’s. Now they’re both facing each other again and dangerously close to dipping under 14 seconds. The state record is 13.87 by Methuen’s Jeff Baker in 1985. Could we see that record erased on Saturday. At the very least, we could have one, possibly two of these warriors breaking that coveted 14-second barrier. By the way, eight athletes in this field have done 14.96 or faster. That’s one talented field.
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Think about this for a minute. When you have a 4x400m squad that can combines for a time faster than 3:20, that’s an average of under 50 seconds per leg! Pretty fast stuff, right? Well there’s a chance we could have one, possibly two, coming close to 3:20 on Saturday in the meet’s final event. The No. 1 seed is Lexington with a state-leading 3:21.87 from the divisionals. Newton North, a squad that always seems to produce a strong squad in this event, is at No. 2 with a 3:22.92 effort. Put the two together on the line for the last event of meet and some spectacular things could happen at Westfield.
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He won two national titles and set a new state record during the indoor season. Could we see more of the same from Frontier’s Jack Vecellio in the pole vault, beginning with this week’s meet? Vecellio captured his specialty this past winter at the Nike Indoor Nationals and New Balance Nationals where he broke the MA mark with a height of 16-6.75. At the D6 states this past weekend, he cleared an outdoor best and new meet record of 16-6. The state record is 17-1 by North Andover alum Erick Duffy from the 2017 New Balance Nationals, a mark that Vecellio is seven inches away from. Is that record out of reach for the Duke commit on Saturday? Maybe? Maybe not? When Duffy set his record five years ago, his previous best going into the meet was 16-7.
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It’s not often you get a 60-foot thrower in the shot. Just like the indoor season, the Bay State has two with Bishop Stang’s Jacob Cookinham and Newton North’s Max Klein expected to duke it out inside the circle on Saturday. Both went 65-plus this past weekend with Klein taking the D1 title with a heave of 65-4 and Cookinham slightly further with a 65-11 effort inD5.During the indoor season, Klein fouled on five of his six attempts and placed eighth overall at the Meet of Champions with Cookinham securing the individual title. We all know what happened after that. Klein used his misfortunes from that meet as motivation for the postseason. The following weekend, he set a state mark of 67-8.25 to take runner-up honors to nation-leader Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan of Woonsocket (RI) at the New England Championships and a week later upset Robinson-O’Hagan at New Balance to win his first national title. Twenty-two years ago, Seekonk’s Jeff Chakouian established a state mark at All States with a heave of 67-10.75. It’s not too far-fetched to think that more than two decades later, that record could get erased.
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Amelia Everett appears to be peaking at just the right time for something special at this week’s meet. Back in mid May, she ran a best of 2:10.70 to win the 800m at the Andover Boosters Invitational. A week later, she ran a major PR of 4:26.92 for 1,500m at the Battle Roads Twilight Series. At the Div. 1 meet this past weekend, Everett ran controlled efforts to win the 800m and the mile. The word is Everett is looking for a fast time in the 800m on Thursday. Based on what she’s done so far this season, if she produces her ‘A’ game, which we believe she will, a 2:08, possibly faster, could be the result under ideal conditions. Everett will certainly have the competition to push her in the early going with Brookline’s Camille Jordan and Wellesley’s Rory Clare, our 2-3 seeds, both clocking times under 2:13 this season. Two days later, don’t be surprised to see Everett teetering near 4:50 for the mile if she’s given the green light by coach Steve McChesney to let loose.
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We had to do a double take when we saw the entries in the 200m. A total of 18 have seeds under 26 seconds! The race for the individual title could be one of the more exciting of the meet. Cambridge Rindge & Latin’s Kylee Bernard holds the No. 1 seed with her PR of 24.72 from Div. 1 where she had just enough to hold off Westford Academy’s Elliana Tweedie, who was second at 24.83. Wellesley’s Chantal Coelho (25.0) and Pembroke sophomore Sarah Claflin (25.01) are both on the cusp of joining the Sub-24 Club. This will be one heckuva race if everything works out as planned and all four advance to the finals.
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In the history of the state, only one team has broken 48 seconds for the 4x100m relay. In 2009, North Attleboro set the current state record of 47.92 at the All State Meet. While it may not break the barrier this weekend, Wellesley still has a good chance to clock a time that would rank among the best. At the Division 2 state meet, the Raiders destroyed the meet mark with a state-leading 48.37. That time currently ranks No. 4 all-time in MA.
