Catholic Memorial Sweeps Eastern Division 2 Titles


Arlington's Ryan Ooosting captured the mile and two mile at Saturday's Division 2 meet.

By KEN CASTRO

With the impending All-State gathering a week away, Grace Connelly, Erick Duffy and Ryan Oosting provided notice as to their respective championship-season fitness levels.The trio registered significant double victories and Central Catholic garnered a pair of team titles at the MIAA Eastern Mass Division 2 Track and Field Championships held at Greater New Bedford Vocational Tech.

Connolly, the Natick sophomore opened the festivities with a meet record 10:41.79 in the two mile, before dropping down successfully, winning the 800m with a 2:17.56 clocking. Duffy, a senior at North Andover who captured the pole vault Friday evening with a state-leading result of 16-00, returned with a robust showing in the hurdles; powering through the line in 14.91. Oosting, the gifted Arlington tenth-grader, took care of the distance events, breaking the tape in the two mle in 9:24.70 and coming back with a five-second PR in the mile with a state best of 4:14.20.

Catholic Central amassed 92.50 points on the boys' side; second went to Woburn with 67.Among the girls, the margin proved less significant with the Raiders eking out a 78-74 victory over Natick.


Natick's Grace Connolly leading Concord-Carlisle's Margot Ehrenthal in the two mile.

The favorite prior to toeing the line, Connolly made her move just after the mile; taking Concord-Carlisle senior Margot Ehrental along. With 900 meters to go, the Natick sophomore stretched the proverbial 'rubber band' waiting on a reaction from Ehrenthal that didn't come to fruition.

"Going into it I wanted to even split, " Connolly said. "I didn't want to go out hard through the first mile, I was looking for a sub 5:20 because my goal was to get a sub 10:42, which is a Nationals qualifier."

Ehrenthal who earlier in the campaign came agonizingly close to slipping under the 11-minute barrier (11:00.08), crossed the timing eye in 11:08.19.

"I've never raced her in a two mile and I didn't know what to expect. I felt comfortable through the first mile and was able to push the last 800m," Connolly said. "I wanted to give myself a little wiggle room for the first mile just to see how it went because I knew Margo would be with me, but I just didn't know if she would be with me for the whole time or the first mile. As soon as she dropped off I started kicking into my race plan, keeping the pace because she wasn't there anymore; I tried to stay focused," added Connolly.

Entered with a seeding of 10:47.00, besting the previous meet record of Kelly Madden of St. Clair High School of 10:43.20 in 1984.

"I'm really happy with how it played out because I was at 5:20 through the first mile and 5:21 on the second," said Connolly who acknowledged she was unaware of the previous meet record. "A cool plus," she added.


Connolly winning her 800m race.

In the 800m, Connolly sat in the center of the group, smartly biding her time until the 300m mark when she moved on leaders Marina MacKinnon and teammate Kelsey Walak. Once on the straightaway, Connolly emerged at the front with 20 meters to the line intent on holding her position as the aforementioned pair battled for the next podium places. Connolly's 2:17.56 sufficed as a season best mark.

Duffy capped his weekend skimming the 110m hurdles following a state-leading vault of 16-00 less than 24 hours prior at the Notre Dame High School facilities.

"I like [vaulting] at Hingham because it's set up where most of the wind is blocked and we jumped with a tailwind for most of the day. I came in at 15.00 and had a bit of a shaky start mainly because I wasn't on the right pole, but once I got the right pole I was able to go right to 16.00 after the initial clearance," he said.

"I'm where I was about this time last year. It's not a bad thing. I'm just getting into the swing now after not vaulting for most of the season. I feel good at this point and am taking it forward."

"I was comfortable over the first to hurdles and was able to hold that position to the line," said Duffy.

Ethan Dunn (King Philip) edged junior Brendan Tumwesigve for second over the barriers, 15.19 to 15.28. Duffy projected taking on the All-States and a season of training for two disparate disciplines.


North Andover's Erick Duffy breezing his way through the 110m HH preliminaries.

"I try not to look at the differences or similarities. I love both events for different reasons. I think of myself more as a pole vaulter but when hurdles come around, I'm just as much a hurdler as anyone else is. I'm very excited, I think it's going to be a great day [states]; I'll be jumping back at Notre Dame, one of my favorite place to jump and hopefully I'll be able to get a nice season best and for the hurdles get out there and do what I know I can do and try and get as fast as possible."

On his home track, Greater New Bedford Voc Tech sprinter Dejury Amado surprised, winning the 100m in 11.15, with second going to Woburn's Marcus Qualls at 11.23. Qualls opened his day with a triumph in the 200m, firing to a 22.45 clocking.

"I didn't think I would be able to win today," said a somewhat stunned Amado, who holds a season best of 11.10. Arlington's Ryan Oosting cemented wins at both one and two miles. "I wanted to go for a place today for states," said the sophomore who took the most recent indoor championship at two miles. ""I expected (Ben) Matejka (Wellesley) and Holmes (Marshfield) to be there with me at the end," Oosting said of the mile competition. "I was feeling good but it wasn't easy to move through the pack."


Marshfield's boys closed out the day with relay wins of 4x800 and 4x400.

"We picked up few second and third places earlier in the meet, so the guys certainly wanted to redeem themselves, " said coach Dennis Sheppard. "We took out top 800 guy and put him in the 4x4 to give that team a chance. The Rams overcame North Andover in the shorter discipline 3:26.30 to 3:27.49. The Marshfield quartet clocked 8:06.00 in the 4x800m with runner-up Wellesley in at 8:17.77. "The team part of the sport to me is the most important. When we go to Nationals, it's usually with relay teams. We don't put much emphasis on individual success, it all revolves around the relays," Sheppard said.

"We expected a tight meet coming here, right down to 4x4 relay, "said Marshfield boys coach Michael Leal. "The surprise for us was David Onyemen, who wasn't seeded to score but he came up big for us, finishing second in the high jump with a PR of 6-4 and again in the triple jump, finishing third (43-05.00). We had other surprise performances throughout the day, but Onyemen made the difference, he had a monster day."

Photos

Meet Results

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights