The rain never let up for the final day of the State Relays.
But it didn’t stop several athletes and teams from performing at their best at the Division 2 and Division 3 relays on Sunday.
In the Div. 3 meet, held at Oliver Ames, Billerica and Stoughton won the respective girls’ and boys’ team titles. Billerica demonstrated outstanding depth in defeating runner-up Masconomet, 82-56.31. The Green and White captured seven events for the day with victories in the distance medley, 4×1,600m, discus, pole vault, shot, high jump and long jump relays. Billerica’s distance core produced solid times in the DMR (12:58.10) and the 4×1,600m (21:53.52).
Oliver Ames qualified for the New Balance Nationals in mid June with its victory in the sprint medley. The winning foursome combined for a time of 4:15.02.
“I like running in the rain,” said 800m anchor Katie Sobieraj. “This is our home track. It’s a lot of fun. Are parents are here, our friends.”
Unlike the girls’ meet, Stoughton earned its title by the slightest of margins. The Black Knights edged Plymouth South, 42-40. Milton was right behind in third with 39 points.
Stoughton took gold in the high jump, long jump and shuttle hurdle relays and also made the podium in the 4x100m (second), 4x200m (sixth) and javelin (sixth). In both the high jump and long jump, senior Matt Singletary had the best individual effort of all the competitors. He leaped a best of 6 feet, 2 inches in the high jump and went 21-11.75 in the long jump.
In the 4×1,600m, Oliver Ames established a new school and meet record with a time of 18:00.43. Brendan Thomas, Aiden Dupill, Alex Pierce, and Ryan Sarney comprised the quartet. Pierce led off the squad with a low 4:40 split with Thomas and Dupill following with sub 4:25 legs. Sarney anchored with a fast 4:15.
“Our goal was to first break the school record and then the meet record, which was 18:03. We were like, ‘Hey, we were two seconds off last year, let’s go for it this year.’ That was our main goal,” Thomas said. “We also had the state record (17:34.34 by Medfield in 2014) on our mind. That didn’t happen today. There’s nothing you can do about that.”
Oliver Ames earned a qualifying spot at the Nike Outdoor Nationals and was just 10 seconds from the standard of the New Balance Nationals, a standard it will more than make based on top times this season by its four runners.
Catholic Memorial moved to No. 3 in the state rankings in the 4x100m with a winning 43.31. Natick’s SMR squad qualified for the Championship division at NBN with a first-place time of 3:34.04.
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Division 2, held at Lincoln Sudbury, produced a pair of nail-biters for the team titles. Concord Carlise held off Central Catholic, 57-52, for girls, while Hopkinton was a narrow 68-67 victor over North Andover for the boys.
Concord Carlisle finished with four wins, taking gold in the high jump, javelin, 4x100m and 4x200m relays. The Patriots also had second-place efforts in the distance medley and 4x800m relays. In the 4x200m, Concord-Carlisle improved to No. 7 in the state rankings with a time of 1:47.12.
Woburn was one of nine teams at the State Relays this weekend that broke 10 minutes for the 4x800m with its victory on Sunday. The Tanners’ combined for a time of 9:48.12, which moved them to No. 5 in MA.
Wellesley captured the long jump relay with a near record of 49-8.5. The Raiders Annie Comella had the top leap of all the competitors with a distance of 18-0.5, an effort that ties her for No. 2 in the state.
