Newton North's Theo Burba captured the 800m at the boys' Coaches meet.
Boys' Coaches Invitational
We knew this meet had potential for some outstanding performance and it certainly didn't disappoint. In one of the meet's first events, Newton North's Andrew Mah broke a 34-year-old record in the two-mile run, winning the race with an outdoor best of 9:15.26. Mah was already far ahead of the field after two laps and passed his opening mile in 4:30.
As expected, the sprint events proved highly competitive, featuring three of the state's premier speedsters - Northampton's Nikolas Smith, Milton's Smith Charles and Brighton's Ricky Francois. The trio were separated by .14 in the 200m dash with Smith edging Charles with a time of 21.86 to Charles' 21.89 effort. Francois was third at 22.0. Charles would take gold in the 100m dash over Francois with a 10.93 clocking. Charles also won the long jump with a distance of 22-6.25.
It was a down-to-the-wire affair in the 800m with Newton North's Theo Burba holding off fellow tenth-grader Benjamin Gordon Sniffen of Northampton with a time of 1:56.64. Sniffen crossed the line in a PR of 156.91. Ryan Oosting, yet another sophomore, was third with a time of 1:57.43. Earlier in the meet, Oosting won the mile by almost six seconds with a PR of 4:18.78. Xaverian Brothers' Chris Shanahan tossed a state best of 183-9 for the discus. Brockton's Rudiano Ramos (49.42) and Belmont's Calvin Perkins (49.48) both dipped under 50 seconds in the 400m.