For the 600-meter run, Ben Tavares couldn’t have asked for a better finish to his indoor season last year. Just a week after placing third in his specialty at the Meet of Champions, the Weston High runner shocked the competition at the New England’s by claiming the individual title with an all-time best inside the Reggie Lewis Center.
How do you follow up that season this winter, your last as a high-schooler? A state and a defense of your New England crown? A school record? A sub 1:20 effort?
How about the potential for all of the above?
Tavares talked about all of that on Saturday after a solid 600m race at the inaugural Beantown Winter Classic, held at the TRACK at New Balance. In his third competition of the indoor campaign, the Wildcats talented middle-distance star was fifth in his heat and sixth overall with season best and state-leading 1:24.27.
While Tavares came up short of his goal of running a time close to his best of 1:21.58 from the New England’s last March, he was satisfied by the early-season effort, his second straight 1:24 performance this winter.
“I just came off (the cross-country season), and just trying to transfer to the 600,” said Tavares, who was sixth at the Division 3A Championships last month. “It’s still early in the season. Of course I was looking for a better time but we’ll get there eventually. I just got to keep training hard. We’ll get there.”
Tavares finished less than a half second ahead of fellow MA rival Sean Johnson. The Westfield senior, a winner of the Small School race at the MSTCA Winter Festival last weekend, was eighth overall in 1:24.66.
Tavares is the top returnee from last year’s MOC where three more podium finishers are expected to be back this season. He’s well aware that there’s plenty of talent he’ll have to contend with to achieve his goals on the indoor surface – one of which is becoming only the seventh Bay Stater to break 1:20 for the three-lapper.
Former Burncoat great Rodney Agyare-May holds the state mark of 1:18.31 from 2020, the same year that Weston alum Peter Diebold set the current school record of 1:19.82.
“I just want to go for the school record and see where we can go from there, maybe go for the state record,” said Tavares, who was third in the 800m at the MOC this past June. “But I don’t know. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”
“I definitely trained a lot more mileage with cross this year,” he added. “If I go through the season like last year, I should be in really good shape and be able to run faster.”
The two-day meet, which concludes on Sunday, attracted schools from more than 10 states. Several athletes and relay teams from MA were among the top finishers on Day 1, a few attaining gold in their respective events.
Natick’s Emmanuella Edozien finished third in the 55m dash with a time of 7.29. The Redhawk junior clocked a season best 7.27 to take her preliminary heat, the second fastest time in the state.
Littleton’s Aidan Rainey won the pole vault with a PR of 13 feet, 5.5 inches. Rainey defeated Nate Elsner of Westhill (CT) in a jump off.
Littleton also had a victory from Maxwell Thomas in the Sophomore Mile. Utilizing a patient approach, Thomas broke five minutes for the first time by clocking 4:56.84. The Tiger tenth-grader held back for the first three laps before taking over the lead just past the 600m mark and holding that position to the finish.
Bishop Feehan’s Dallia Cryan was third overall in the girls’ Freshmen Mile with a time of 5:35.30.
In the varsity Mile, Framingham’s Sasha Lamakina (third, 5:09.44) and Parker Charter’s Henry Jacobsen (eighth, 4:35.30) were the state’s top finishers in the respective girls’ and boys’ races.
Brockton had a strong presence at the eight-hour meet. The Boxers demonstrated the depth of their sprinters with strong placements in separated 4x200m relays. The quartet of Quinten Monteiro, Nicko Stracqualursi, Raphael Pittman and Avery Medeiros won the Freshmen event, combining for a time of 1:42.72. Brockton was also second (1:41.13) and fourth (1:42.31) in the Sophomore 4×2 and seventh in the varsity race at 1:33.22 That time currently ties Lexington for No. 4 in the state.
Brockton’s Lucas Andrade leaped a season best of 6-6 to place third in the high jump.
In the long jump, Brockton’s Jaden Porter captured the Novice event with a distance of 19-3. Teammate Jaden Lopes was sixth in the varsity competition with a 21-2 effort.
Parker Charter’s Chrys Olsen took the Freshmen/Sophomore girls’ shot (28-11.5), Needham’s Charlie Simeone was fifth in the shot (47-4.25) and Framingham’s Ava Lombardo placed eighth in the Invitational 200m (26.09) among other top finishers by MA athletes.
