Beginning on Wednesday and stretching to Saturday, we’re expecting some intense competition with the MIAA Divisional Championships. The individual and team battles with be fierce with the best of the best competing inside the confines of the Reggie Lewis Center.
Throughout the week, Bay State Running will be providing preview capsules of each division. Here we feature Division 2 boys.
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DIVISION 2 – BOYS
Day/Time/Place: Thursday, 4:30 p.m., at Reggie Lewis Center
Teams: Algonquin Regional, Arlington, Barnstable, Bay Path, Belmont, Beverly, Bishop Feehan. Bridgewater-Raynham, Catholic Memorial, Chelmsford, Concord-Carlisle, Diman Regional, Essex North Shore Agric. & Tech, Everett, Hingham, Hopkinton, King Philip, Leominster, Lynn English, Malden, Marshfield, Milford, North Andover, North Attleboro, North Quincy, Peabody, Plymouth North, Reading Memorial, Sharon, Springfield Central, Waltham, Wellesley, Westborough, Winchester, Woburn
Events To Watch: Anytime shot-putter Alex Jackson steps inside the circle it’s an event to watch. The Peabody senior is our state’s best with the metal ball where he owns a best of 66 feet, 6.25 inches. Since that performance on Dec. 14 at the NEC Winter Invitational, Jackson has consistently been over 60 feet, but the closest he came to his PR was a 64-4 effort from the Coaches Invitational Large School Meet a few weeks ago. We’re predicting a big throw from the two-time defending champion on Thursday in his final competition before the Meet of Champions. The field also includes a trio of 50-footers with King Philip’s Nick Gallagher (52-7.5), North Andover’s Trey Kean (51-9.25) and Peabody’s Arena Saint-Victor (50-4)…Look for an intense competition in the high jump where the top two seeds, Hopkinton’s Logan Sullivan and Algonquin’s Miles Lipka have both cleared 6-8. We don’t expect anyone to touch this duo, but the battle for the other top positions will get interesting. The next five seeds in this field have done 6-2. That quintet includes Diman’s Maxwell DesRoches, Catholic Memorial’s Reidar Davies, Marshfield’s Nathan Looney, Arlington’s Peter Ngowi and Algonquin’s Max Brown…The 1,000m features our state’s No. 1 runner with Marshfield’s Graham Heinrich on the line. Heinrich looked awfully strong in cruising to his best of 2:29.02 at the Coaches Invitational on Jan. 26. Head coach Dennis Shepperd believe his star runner is capable of running at least two seconds faster than what he did a couple of weeks ago. Heinrich’s next closest rival based on the seeds is more than five seconds behind. Expect this one to be a solo effort from the start with a 2:27, possible faster, flashing on the digital clock at the finish…The 300m is a matchup between the state’s two fastest runners for the one-and-a-half lapper – Winchester’s Daniel Killian and Reading Memorial’s Ryan Pulpi. A little more than a week ago at the ML-12 Championship, the talented tandem went 1-2 with Killian breaking the tape in 34.37 and Pulpi finishing at 34.38. Could be a rematch of the competition with either capable of stealing the title. Killian is the defending titlist.
Team Outlook: The team title appears to be up for grabs with several schools in mix. Those teams include Reading Memorial, Peabody and Winchester.
