The Division State Relays occupy this coming weekend, signifying the unofficial start to the championship season.
Based on how some of our top athletes competed over the weekend, it’s clear several are in championship form already.
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At Saturday’s MSTCA Coaches Shore and Metro invitational meets, five new state-leaders were achieved , including one very impressive state-record performance by Lucas Andrade.
In the Coaches Shore Invite at Braintree High, Andrade annihilated the meet record in the 110-meter high hurdles, set less than a half hour earlier in the prelims with a new state mark of 13.69 seconds. The gifted senior broke the three-year-old record of 13.82 by former Winchester great Easton Tan. He was also well under the MR of eventual second-place finisher Joseph Cook of Southeastern Regional, who was timed in a best of 14.00 in the prelims. Cook clocked 14.06 for the silver in the finals.
In the girls’ sprinting events, Sharon’s Nina Kyei-Aboagye and Dennis Yarmouth’s Breanna Braham took care of business. The talented tandem took the 1-2 spots in the races with Kyei-Aboagye edging her rival in the 100m and Braham returning the favor in the 200m. Kyei-Aboagye clocked a PR of 11.86 in the 100m, just four hundredths of a second ahead of Braham. The Dennis Yarmouth senior broke the tape in the 200m with a best of 23.95. The Sharon junior was timed in 24.20.
At the Coaches Metro Invite, Lincoln Sudbury’s Gabrielle Pierre had her best performance of the season in the girls’ triple jump where she improved on her state No. 1 this year by seven inches with a leap of 41-8.5.
Ayer-Shirley’s Cole New raced to a big-time PR of 1:53.62 to capture the 800m New was comfortably ahead of Ludlow’s Logan Walsh, who was timed in 1:56.42 for second.
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We’ve already talked about some of the great happenings of our local athletes during the first two days of the Glenn B. Loucks Games. The final day on Saturday proved just as successful at White Plains High in New York.
First-day leader Nyah Joseph of Billerica continued the momentum from Friday to win the pentathlon with 3,167 points. That was just short of 200 points more than the second-place finisher. Joseph collected the most points in the 100m high hurdles (15.06, 843 points) and 800m (2:34.05, 643 points). Amherst-Pelham’s Elizabeth Sawicki was eighth among the 18 competitors with 2,410 points. Her two best events were also the 100m HH (16.91, 607 points) and the 800m (2:38.06, 717 points).
Amherst-Pelham’s Moriah Luetjen raced to a PR of 55.94 in the 400m, good for fourth overall. That effort ranks No. 2 in the state behind Natick’s Chloe Elder’s 55.09, set just a day earlier in a league competition. Plymouth North’s Macey Shriner was 14th in 58.36. In the boys’ 400m hurdles, Westford Academy’s Ryan Kyle was third overall in 54.74.
Westford Academy’s Emily Westlake was the top finisher from the Bay State in the girls’ mile. Westlake placed 13th overall with a PR of 5:00.25. Following Westlake was Cambridge Rindge & Latin’s Sophie Juanes Seto (18th, 5:02.42), Whitinsville Christian’s Emily Flagg (27th, 5:12.14), Blomfield’s Evelyn Wool (34th, 5:17.25) and Cambridge Rindge & Latin’s Aoife Shovlin (38th, 5:19.65). Lowell’s Jimmy Kelly (34th, 4:32.09) and CB&L’s Gael Medina (45th, 4:40.24) were the fastest among the boys.
We don’t know if there’s a state record for the mixed 4x400m. If there is, it would appear that Old Rochester either broke it or is close based on what the Bulldogs did at Loucks. The quartet of Phoebe Cowles, Wesner Archelus, Audrey Thomas and Nolan Bushnell placed seventh overall with a combined time of 3:44.25.
Cambridge Rindge & Latin was 11th in the 4x800m (8:08.80) and Amherst Pelham’s Logan Alfandari was fourth in the discus (162-7) among other strong placements at Loucks.
