It’s considered a fun event — the kind of meet at the start of the season where the pressure is low. But with athletes wired for track & field and cross-country, the fun only lasts so long.
About as long as it takes for the starter’s pistol to fire.
That was the case at Saturday’s season-opening MSTCA X-C Relays at Highland Park, where five relays were completed and a sixth was halted late due to a lightning threat. In every race, the competitive spirit was on full display.
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In the most one-sided races of the afternoon, Central Catholic won the girls’ Freshmen/Sophomore Relay by more than a minute over second-place Needham. The trio of Calista King, Kyla Breslin and Clara Qamar combined for a time of 29 minutes, 47.11 seconds for the 4.6-mile distance. Needham was a distance second at 31:06.17. Breslin set the tone with a blistering opening leg in the low 9:20s for her 1.55-mile leg, creating a nearly a 400-meter gap over her closest pursuer.
“I felt really good going out there. My goal was to give them a good lead to work off that,” Breslin said. “That seemed to work. It was really great.”
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Weston’s Hunter Waechter, Jessica Bourne, and Aarav Mehta dominated the Co-Ed (two boys, one girl) Relay, clocking 25:21.62 — nearly a full minute ahead of Dover-Sherborn (26:15.4). The Wildcats came in with extra motivation after falling just four-hundredths of a second short of victory in last year’s meet.
Mehta, running the anchor leg, inherited a commanding lead thanks to the strong efforts of Waechter and Bourne.
“I knew Jessica made a huge lead for me, so I just had to maintain it,” Mehta said. “I was able to do it.”
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Bedford’s squad of Addy Poulter, Will Protasowicki and Zadie Poulter positioned themselves with the leaders from the start of the Co-Ed (2 girls, 1 boy) Relay. Separated by mere strides on the final exchange, anchor Zadie Buckley was able to seal the deal with quick final leg. Bedford crossed in 27:19.50, about 70 meters ahead of runner-up Norton (27:34.34).
‘I got the baton – I have a thing about going out way too fast – so my goal was stay in second and run a smart race and go when I felt the time was right,” she said. “I stayed in second, right behind (Norton), until halfway through and then I just kicked, and got the win.”
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Parker Charter’s all sophomore trio proved victorious in the boys’ Frosh-Soph race where they led four under 26 minutes with their time of 25:13.96. Taking runner-up honors was Hopedale at 25:21.70.
The Panthers were fifth in this race last year.
“Last year was super stacked,” said anchor Jett Johnson. “This was a big surprise.”
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Boston Public Schools captured the Junior-Senior girls’ race with the trio of Anjuli Claire Szydio, Neve Flynn, and Sara Blanco combining for a winning time of 28:25.31. Braintree followed in second at 28:47.24.
Thanks to strong legs from Szydio and Blanco, BPS maintained the front-running position throughout, and Flynn carried it home as the anchor, running her leg mostly alone.
“I felt pretty good,” Flynn said. “It’s a little harder to focus when there’s nobody around you. I think people yelling at me, saying the person behind me was coming, kept me going.”
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In the final event of the day – the Junior-Senior boys’ race – officials called the meet due to the threatning weather with only about five minutes remaining for the leaders. At the time, four-time defending titlist Boston College High was engaged in a tight battle with Parker Charter. The two teams still managed to finish with the Eagles narrowly ahead of the Panthers. but it was not made official based on the earlier call.
