Karina Shepard points specifically to the miles she logged over the summer and through the cross country season for her meteoric rise on the indoor oval this winter.
The tall Dracut junior and 5:08 miler just as well could have run away with the eight-lapper at yesterday’s Div. 2 championships, but Shepard’s main focus and concentration was on the 1000-meter field its decimation on the Reggie Lewis Center track.
The meet was peppered with several strong performances and four meet records heading to Saturday’s state championship competition. Reading captured the boys’ title with 49 points and victories from the 4x400 team, Ryan Maney (55 hurdles), JD Greenfield (600). On the girls’ side it was all Notre Dame of Hingham with wins coming from Amanda Reilly (55 dash), Isabella DiMare (300) and the 4x200 squad.
Shepard, whose best last season was 3:12, continued her breakout indoor campaign as she flew through 800 meters in 2:19.8 on the way to a school and meet record of 2 minutes, 55.40 seconds. Shepard’s time demolished the 2:58.87 run by Tewksbury’s Leanne Tucker in 2010 and put her well ahead of runner-up Stella Worters of Shepherd Hill (2:59.31), who closed hard to dip under 3 minutes.
“I really wanted to concentrate on the 1000 and want to run faster at the state meet,” she said. “I’ve come so far from last year. It means so much to win this race.”
Shepard was even faster in the 4x800, anchoring Dracut’s squad of Kaylee Shepard, Becky Colfer and Katie Colfer with a scalding 2:15.6 split and a meet record of 9:38.82.
North Attleboro’s Eric Beckwith didn’t flirt with the meet record, but the state’s premier shot-putter easily defended his title with a heave of 57-8-3/4. ‘”I was going after the meet record,” said Beckwith. “Everything was clicking.”
Ellen DiPietro and Kelsey Sullivan of Marshfield opened the meet with a bang by sweeping the top two spots in the 55 hurdles, clocking 8.40 and 8.41 respectively. DiPietro went on to win the high jump with an electrifying 5-8 effort. Alex Niemiec of Chicopee Comp bettered the meet mark with a thunderous leap of 23-4-3/4 to capture the long jump and then cleared 6-4 to take the high jump.
Yet another meet record was broken when Carrie Abraham led Winchester to a 1-2 finish in the long jump with an 18-2-1/2 mark. Teammate Alex Curtin was second at 17-4-3/4.