Three state records were broken, including one that had stood for nearly 50 years. State leaders emerged in eight events. Three races came down to a lean at the finish line.
Those performances, and plenty more, highlighted another memorable day at the MIAA Meet of Champions, held Saturday inside the TRACK at New Balance.
In a wire-to-wire solo effort, Westford Academy’s Abby Hennessey raced to a nation-leading and record-breaking 4:37.46 to capture the mile. Hennessey’s time eclipsed the 48-year-old state mark of 4:39.0 set by former Bromfield standout and future Olympic bronze medalist Lynn Jennings.
Emmanuella Edozien of Natick dipped under her own state record to claim back-to-back titles in the 55-meter high hurdles. Edozien was two hundredths of a second faster than her previous mark, set at the Nor’Easter at the Track on Jan. 10.
Sharon’s Nina Kyei-Aboagye and Reading’s Ryan Pulpi were the meet’s double winners.
Kyei-Aboagye was dominant in the 55m dash, defending her title with a massive PR and new state record of 6.83, erasing the 2016 mark of 6.89 held by former Norton standout Brooke-Lyn Williams. The Sharon senior returned a few hours later to set a meet record in the 300m, holding off Natick’s Chloe Elder to win in 38.33, breaking the 2014 record of 39.04 set by Hingham alum Sierra Irvin. Elder also dipped under the previous meet mark with a PR of 38.57 to take runner-up honors.
Pulpi matched the feat on the boys’ side, sweeping the sprint events. The Reading senior won a tight 55m final in 6.41, just three hundredths of a second ahead of Greater Lawrence’s Gustavo Varela. He later broke a seven-year-old meet record in the 300m, clocking a swift 33.82 – his second sub-34 performance of the season.
Click on the links below for results, interviews and more than 1,000 photos. Bay State Running will have full stories from both the girls’ and boys’ meets coming soon.
