From start to finish, expect each event to create some excitement at Saturday’s MIAA Meet of Champions. With the state’s best taking center stage, would you expect anything different? Throughout the week, we’ll preview all the individual events. Here we feature the girls’ middle- and long-distance events, which includes the 1,000-meter run, the mile and the two mile.
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1,000-METER RUN
Since the spring of 2024, Emily Frawley has recorded three top-three finishes at the Meet of Champions, including back-to-back third-place efforts in the outdoor 800m and a runner-up finish in the indoor 1,000m last winter.
Could Saturday finally be her breakthrough moment?
The Newton South senior and Yale commit enters as the top seed after running a season-best 2:54.52 to place second at last weekend’s Division 1 Championships. That race was won by Lexington’s Amelia Whorton, who is not entered in this event, or the mile, this weekend.
Still, Frawley won’t have it easy.
Five runners enter with sub-3 seed times. Needham’s Madison Roach sits at No. 2 after finishing third at Div. 1 in a PR of 2:57.45. Seekonk’s Hayden Robinson is close behind as the No. 3 seed at 2:58.56, followed by Franklin’s Gwenyth Holland (2:58.56) and Wakefield’s Quin Wilcox (2:59.95).
Tactically, this race could get interesting. Frawley owns 58-second 400m speed and may opt to sit back before unleashing a decisive move over the final lap. If it comes down to a kick, she holds the advantage over the rest of her rivals.
MILE
Aside from the 4x800m relay at the end of the meet, this will be Abby Hennessy’s lone individual race on Saturday.
Expect an all-out effort in her final competition before New Balance Nationals two weeks later. The gifted senior enters as the top seed and overwhelming favorite, boasting a PR of 4:38.70 from her runner-up finish at the Millrose Games on Feb. 1.
A multiple winner at the Div. 2 Championships, Hennessy is coming off perhaps the most impressive performance of her indoor career. Just last Saturday, the University of Washington commit won the open 3K at the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational in a nation-leading 9:02.77.
How fast will she run this weekend? At the very least, expect a solo effort in the low 4:40s.
As for the coveted runner-up spot, that battle could come down to last weekend’s Div. 4 1-2 finishers – Holliston freshman Lucy Downin and Whitinsville Christian’s Abby Flagg. Both posted PRs at the divisional states with Downin winning in 4:53.3 and Flagg close behind at 4:55.18. Downin’s mark currently ranks No. 3 nationally among ninth-graders.
Other contenders include Billerica’s Kylie Donahue, the Div. 2 champion (5:02.20), and Wilcox, the Boston Holiday Challenge winner with a best of 5:06.89.
TWO MILE
The favorite here is defending titlist Emily Flagg of Whitinsville Christian. Flagg has been unbeaten this season in the deuce , including her PR performance of 10:38.95 from the Div. 4 Championship, a race she won by more than 50 seconds!
The Crusaders’ junior will be pushed in this one with six other competitors in this field coming in with seeds under 11 minutes – Donahue (10:46.02), Westford Academy’s Emily Wedlake (10:52.23), Cambridge Rindge & Latin’s Sophia Juanes-Seto (10:54.67), Blomfield’s Rosie Bradley (10:54.93), Concord-Carlisle’s Maria Chopas (10:57.75) and Saint Mary’s Kelsey Kwiatek (10:58.04).
