Imagine a team running sub 10 minutes for the Distance Medley Relay and falling short of making it to the podium?
Guess what? It happened.
That scenario became reality at Sunday’s New Balance Nationals, the final day of competition at UPenn’s Franklin Field. The historic stadium played host to an historic DMR, one that Westford Academy was part of with a record-breaking performance of its own.
The Oregon Distance Project and Ridgefield both broke a 23-year-old national record with their 1-2 finish with ODP clocking 9 minutes, 44.30, just .14 ahead of its’ CT rival. Westford Academy placed fifth with a state record of 9:57.63, eclipsing the 12-year-old mark of 10:01.32 by Marshfield at the 2012 New Balance Nationals. In all, seven teams dipped under 10 minutes in the race.
Every runner on the Ghosts’ memorable DMR stepped up to the challenge and enabled Westford Academy to attain its’ goal of a sub-10 on the biggest of stages this weekend. Jack Graffeo, who two days earlier finished second in the Championship 2 Mile with his second straight 8:52 effort of the season, got his teammates in the mix right away with a 1,200m leg of 3:01..47. Ryan Kyle, the state runner-up for the 400m hurdles, ran the race of his life for his 400m leg by splitting 48.52, a time that is almost two seconds under his PR. For the 800m leg, Adam Wedlake nearly broke two minutes with a 2:00.98 effort. He came into the race with a best of 2:02.78 for the two-lapper. Finishing things off was Paul Bergeron for the mile anchor. Coming off another state 2M record of 8:39.37from the Brooks PR Invitational on Wednesday,. the Stanford-bound Bergeron solidified a spot on the podium of an absolutely insane DMR with a 4:06.57 split.
Not to be ignored were a few others strong showings by MA squads in the race, such as Boston Latin (19th,10:10.87) Winchester (21st, 10:15.44). Brookline (22nd, 10:15.56), Billerica (28th, 10:22.10), Natick (41st, 10:31.27) and Marshfield (46th, 10:32.61).
On the meet’s final day, Marcus Reilly put the fitting close on his outstanding high school career with an all-time best of 1:49.97 in the Championship 800m, an effort that placed him eighth overall in one of the deepest fields ever for the two-lapper. The Northbridge senior concluded a five-day stretch that saw him place second in the mile at the Brooks PR Invite on Wednesday and third in the same race at NBN on Saturday night where he clocked an all-time best of 4:01.16.
“After the (mile on Saturday) night I didn’t feel great,” Reilly admitted. “I was like, ‘I’m going to wake up in the morning and see how I feel. If I feel somewhat okay, I’d like to run the 800m.’ I think I’ve been knocking on the door of 1:50 for a long time. If I could just get it out of the way for my last high school race that would be awesome. I felt okay in the morning, so I was like I’m just going to go for it. I was in the eighth heat, which is the second fastest. I went out and ran like 53 (seconds) high (for the first 400m) and I closed pretty good. I was happy with the result. Obviously getting under 1:50 was pretty awesome.”
With still two more years until she graduates, Westford Academy’s Abby Hennessey closed out a splendid sophomore campaign with a PR performance in the girls’ Championship 800m. Running even splits, Hennessey placed third in her heat and 25th overall with a best of 2:09.82. A day earlier, the WA standout clocked her all-time best of 4:45.70 for the mile to finish ninth in the talented field.
Other top efforts by MA on Sunday included Weymouth’s Ainsley Weber in the javelin (ninth, 128 feet, 6 inches), Lincoln Sudbury’s Gabrielle Pierre in the long jump (tenth, 19-6.5), and Xaverian Brothers in the 4x400m (32nd, 3:20.16).
