Wachusett's Amy Collins's presence in the gym was enough to make the rest of the field give up and go home, realizing that a 5'8" high jumper with 2:20 speed was going to put up an historic number when all was said and done. She did, scoring 3196 points, a top-10 All-Time Massachusetts mark for the Girls Individual Pentathlon. Collins opened in the hurdles in 9.61, then took over the field events as expected. She jumped 5'5.75" for the best high jump mark, soared 16'7.75" in the long jump, one of the top marks of the day, and held her own in the circle, tossing the shot 25'7.5". To boot, her 2:25.43 800 meter time was only bettered by Narragansett's Krista Webb, whose 2:20.15 showed no signs of fatigue from the previous four events.
The only chance anyone had at beating Collins was by being nearly perfect, and Jen Kimball of Weymouth was as close as possible. After a personal best 8.78 in the 55 meter hurdles, Kimball was unable to stick a jump at 5'2", settling for 4'11.75" instead, and opening the door for Collins to run away. But Kimball rebounded in her "weaker" field events, jumping 16'5.25' and throwing 29'5.5", each PR's like the hurdles, giving her a chance for the win with a near-perfect 800. Nursing a sore back, she only managed a 2:34 split on Saturday in the 4x800, and did not have the benefit of racing Collins and Webb in the much faster 7th heat. Kimball shot to the lead at the gun, and ran a much more controlled effort, seemingly holding something back for a final kick, one she couldn't have known that she would have.
Kimball's time of 2:28.33 was good enough for 714 points, enough to leapfrog the great Collins, and enough to couple with her South Heptathlon victory from 2012 at NDA. The Holy Cross-bound star ended the day with 3227 points, the 5th most All Time in Massachusetts, and the most since 2007. The Weymouth team of Kimball, Meagan Deane, and Kristin Leone would have to settle for 2nd (7667), though, as Northampton rode a stellar day from Adrienne Pascucci in 3rd place (3051), joining forces with Leah Tompkins and Sophie Sharp for team glory with 7921 points. Rounding out the top 5 was Ellen DiPietro of Marshfield (2871) whose 5'3.75" high jump was 2nd best only to Collins, and Kristen O'Connor of Beverly (2839) who put together solid marks in the hurdles, long jump, and 800.
In addition to Webb's individual win in the 800 and Collins's in the high jump, Bridgewater-Raynham's Sarah Barnett tossed the shot the furthest, an outstanding 32'1.5", Northampton's Sophie Sharp soared 17'10.5" to take the long jump, a foot better than both Gabriella Weithoffer of East Longmeadow (16'10.5") edged Whitinsville's Abby Epplet (16'10"), and Angie Higgins (8.68) nosed out Kimball for the best of the day in the 55 hurdles.
MEET RESULTS