Credit goes to the coaches with their guidance and expertise and to the track & field athletes for the hard work and dedication they put forth to perfect their craft at the opportune time. Each and every year, it doesn’t matter. It never fails. When it comes championship time, our MA athletes are always ready to perform, always ready to entertain the spectators that fill the stands and alongside the fence that circles their stage.
Once again, it was everything as expected, and so much more.
So, so, sooooo much more!!!
Just three days after the opener, the grand finale of the MIAA Meet of Champions, held Sunday at Fitchburg Stage University, proved to be the perfect closer. Day 2 was nothing short of fantastic, an absolute gem to bookend another year of cross-country and track & field in the Bay State.
Where do we begin? How about the girls’ mile where we had eight athletes dip below five minutes. Yes, less than 75 seconds for each lap, less than 5:00 on the digital clock at the finish. The leader, of course, was heavy favorite Abigail Hennessy of Westfield Academy. The junior phenom made it a clean sweep of the 800-meter run and the mile for the second straight year. Hennessy did it the best possible way by racing to a new state record and nation No. 4 of 4:37.11. Her effort was just a tad more than a tenth of a second under the 2003 mark of 4:37.23 by former Bromfield great Ari Lambie. She was a comfortable 80 meters ahead of second-place finisher Amelia Whorton of Lexington. The fabulous freshman was timed in a best of 4:53.91, a time that ranks No. 9 among ninth-graders from coast-to-coast.
We can’t ignore the boys’ mile. Oh no, we can’t. After his 800m victory on Thursday, we asked Altamo Aschkenasy what makes him what makes him click, what makes him so special, what makes him perform at his very best whenever that gun is fired. He simply said, “I’m dangerous.” There’s no question about it. That’s an understatement to the highest degree. His competition got a taste of that during four very fast laps. Aschkenasy didn’t just run a PR on Sunday. The Brookline senior smashed it, annihilated it and grinded it into submission. Aschkenasy broke the tape in 4:08.31, nearly nine seconds under his old best of 4:17.18 from last week’s victory at the Division 1 Championships. Placing second was Natick’s John Bianchi with a PR of 4:12.15. Billerica’s Shane Leslie was third overall in 4:13.51. The top six were under 4:14 and a total of 14 broke 4:20.
Newton North established a new state record in the 4x400m with the crew of Reese Connors, Nate Hill, Alexander Hofmann and Juan Talsiasyan defending their crown with sizzling 3:17.97. St. John’s Prep (second, 3:18.50), Lowell (third, 3:18.55) and Acton-Boxborough (fourth, 3:19.74), also went under 3:20. Are you serious??? (On Tuesday, Newton North’s performance was recognized by Larry Newman, the official record-keeper for MA high school track, as a state mark. Newman indicated that he’ll recognize the Tigers’ time as well as current mark of 3:18.55 set by Brockton for the 4×400-yard relay back in 1979. That’s a time that computes to 3:17.40 for 4x400m.)
Nearly 10 new state-leaders were produced at the two-day meet. Most came on the final day.
Lowell’s foursome of Raymond Dafe, Alex Rodgers, James Kelly and Abdul Jalloh won the 4x800m with a smoking 7:46.18. With a time like that, it would appear the victory margin was large. Not in this one. The next two teams were also under 7:48 with Brookline (second, 7:46.53) and BC High (third, 7:47.81) mere strides from switching places with Lowell atop the victory stand. Seven finished under eight minutes.
Count ’em, 11 teams were under 9:30 in the girls’ 4x800m, Yep, nearly a dozen. Taking the No. 1 spot was Westwood. The quartet of Tea Pagnotti, Susannah Rockers, Maeve Gavin and Hailey Cashman struck gold with a time of 9:17.58, 13 seconds faster than their seed entering the event. Weymouth was second in 9:23.83, followed by Cambridge & Latin in third at 9:24.23.
Can you say down-to-the wire? Can you say a lean at the finish? Can you say ridiculously fast? That was the boys’ 100m dash where the top three were separated by three hundredths of a second. Milton’s Luke Juric earned the distinction of being called the fastest runner of the day. He blasted to a PR of 10.66. Attleboro’s Zayne Thomas and Weston’s Noah Lago came across as one, taking the second- and third-place spots with identical times of 10.69. The girls’ 100m was nearly as exciting with Sharon’s Nina Kyei-Aboagye, the 200m winner on Thursday, coming up big again. Kyei-Aboagye bested defending titlist Lauren Quarm of Methuen with a PR of11.62. Quarm was next at 11.73, also a PR.
Prior to this weekend, only one runner has broken 54 seconds for 400m. Now, we have three. We predicted this one would be very close. We predicted it would come down to just two runners. We predicted a sub 54-second effort was possible. We were right on all accounts as Dennis Yarmouth’s Breanna Braham got back her No. 1 ranking from rival Chloe Elder of Natick by defending her title with a meet record of 53.70, a mere three hundredths of a second ahead of Elder (53.73). The duo are now 2-3 on the all-time list. Former Brookline great Maxine Underwood ran the current state mark of 53.0 at the 1982 Pan Am Games.
