What a day! The weather was warm, the track was fast and it was a fruitful day regarding PRs. Between the 27 athletes we brought to the meet, there were 32 PRs across the board. Newbies jumped into events and performed to the best of their abilities and returning veterans managed to nail down their personal bests, whether it be from last year’s outdoor season or four outdoor seasons ago.
We had two athletes qualify for MIAA Division 5 States on Tuesday. Junior Captain Nikki Clarke took almost a full second off her PR in the 100-meter hurdles, running 17.5 seconds to come in first, and is now first in the Catholic Central League. Sophomore Captain Leia Ahmad-LeBlanc qualified in the 400m hurdles and discus, running 1:13 and throwing 95’ 5” to come in first!
To start us off with the throws, Jimmy threw PRs in both shotput and discus. He threw 30’ 2”, a huge comparison to his previous PR from his 2021 track season where he threw just over 19’. He was accompanied in shotput by three newbies, Cece and Corey who both managed to throw over 20’ at their first real meet, and Emily who willingly jumped into an event she had never practiced before! In the discus circle, prs were granted to all of our throwers!
Marco Boatwright, a sophomore who is competing in his first season of track and field, had an incredible opening meet. He was our leading male for both the 100m and 200m, running 12-seconds flat in the 100m and 25 seconds in the 200m. He also participated in the long jump where he jumped 17’ 2” despite barely having practiced the event. He is one of our many young athletes who has qualified for the Lou Tozzi Fr/So Meet in May.
Sophomore Captain Joe Donovan also had prs in his respective events. In the 100m hurdles, he broke the 20-second barrier and ran 19.6. He dominated the triple jump with a whopping 2 foot 1 pr and jumped 35’ 3”.
Andrew Airasian wowed the competition. Your usual cross-country runner, he hasn’t strayed very far from distance running events and has never toed into field event territory. That all changed today when he doubled up in the 400m hurdles and opened 400m! This was his debut hurdle race and he attacked it viciously. Starting the race quickly, he built up so much speed that the first hurdle crept up on him, leading him to fall. Gasps were heard as we were unsure of whether or not he was okay, but without hesitation, he hopped back up and continued with his race. It’s not often that you see someone continue with such determination and grit as he did, but he continued the race and finished strong. Later on, he ran the 400m and had an 8-second PR to run 1:05.1. He may have found his new calling, as he expressed his excitement in moving forward with the hurdles and possibly participating in the jumps.
Another outstanding performer was 7th grader Darcy Serpa. Darcy ran 14.6 in the 100m and was our third leg in the 4×400 relay where she managed to sprint past an opposing team and ran a 1:11 split in her first-ever 400 race!! We expect great things from her as we move on, especially as the youngest member of our team. Despite having soccer practice later the same day, that didn’t keep her back from running aggressively.
For the rest of Spring Break, we’ll continue our training into the weekend to prepare for our next meet that will take place the Monday we come back from break. Finally, the season is starting to be very active as we enter the schedule of meet after meet, and next weekend we’ll compete at one of the best meets of the year, State Relays!
