Just who are the top athletes that will be competing at Saturday’s Meet of Champions? Throughout the week, Bay State Running will preview all the individual events at this weekend’s competition, scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., at the Reggie Lewis Center. Here we feature the girls’ sprinting & hurdling events.
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55m
Sub-7? It’s a possibility with this group. It certainly wouldn’t surprise us if someone broke seven seconds this weekend. The top seed is Framingham’s Abby Desmarais, who came close to the milestone at the Division 1 Championship with a PR of 7.03. At the No. 2 seed is Methuen’s Lauren Quarm, who was a runner-up to Desmarais at last Thursday’s meet with a best of 7.08. The No. 3, 4 & 5 seeds are defending champin Sarah Claflin of Pembroke (7.12), Wellesley’s Annie Comella (7.13) and Norton’s Jillian Strynar (7.13) Claflin and Strynar went 1-2 at Sunday’s Div. 4 meet with their current bests. Comella held the previous state-leader before the division state meets with her PR from the Large School meet at last month’s Coaches Invitational.
300m
The state mark of 39.04, set 10 years ago by former Highham star Sierra Irvin, appears to be safe this weekend. But don’t be surprised if we have a winning time in the low 39-second range with at least two, possibly more, breaking 40 seconds. So far our top two seeds in this event have accomplished that feat with Desmarais, the defending champion, winning her second title at the D1’s in a state-leading 39.61 and Whitinsville Christian’s Avery Glidden taking the D4 crown with a PR of 39.89 at the D4 meet. Right on the cusp of a sub-40 from their respective divisional meets are Wachusett’s Nyah Santana (40.07), Dennis-Yarmouth’s Breanna Braham (40.08), North Reading’s Giuliano Ligor (40.11) and the Lancers’ Strynar (40.18). This race should certainly generate some excitement inside Reggie Lewis.
600m
Here’s another race we expect will be close at the finish. The Hornets’ Liigor, who was third t last year’s meet, is the No. 1 seed after winning the Div. 5 title last Wednesday with a best of 1:35.41. Three more are in the 1:36 range with Framingham’s Sasha Lamakina (1:36.15), Westford Academy’s Abigail Hennessy (1:36.71) and Wellesley’s Kaya Bohlin (1:36.85). There’s also nine more that have done in the 1:37s. Among the notables there are Woburn’s Kayla Buback (1:37.04) and Weston’s Sloan Hinton (1:37.17). In particular, keep an eye on Buback. She was the runner-up in this race last year where she clocked her current best of 1:35.26.
55m HH
This just might be one of the races of the day. In a span of eight days, we had our top three seeds race to identical state-leading times of 8.39, beginning with Franklin’s Sarah Dumas, who is our top returnee from the 2023 race where she was second overall. Dumas, who is unbeaten in her speciality this winter, twice ran her PR this season in the hurdles, hitting the mark to win the Hockomock League Championship on Feb. 8 and in her preliminary heat at the Div. 1 Championship last Thursday, a race she won in 8.44 in the finals. There’s also Plymouth South’s Camryn Travis, who ran her best at the Patriot League Championship on Feb. 10 and Algonquin’s Olivia LaBelle., who matched that time to take the Div. 2 title this past Friday. Not to be ignored is the fourth seed, Isabel Wheeler of Middleboro, who captured the Div. 3 crown on Saturday over Travis with a time of 8.41.
