This past weekend had some memorable performances by Massachusetts athletes throughout the Northeast.
For many years the Coaches Invitational was the premier event of the season as runners test their mid-season conditioning against the best in the State. Now our May schedule has given our athletes more options with meets like the Andover Boosters Meet ,The Glenn D. Loucks Games, and the New Balance Twilight Series.These meets have slightly downsized the Coaches Meet but we still had plenty of fine performances across the board.
State Coaches Invitationals
The boys meet was contested down in New Bedford at Greater New Bedford Vocation High School. The facility is one of the best around but it certainly is a decent drive for most teams. Newton North stole the show capturing first place finishes by Ryan Lucken (400 Meter / 49.07), Gabe Montague ( 800 M /1:55.83), Mike Schlichting (1 Mile / 4:26.39), and David Oluwadara ( TJ / 46ft 3 1/2) . Carl Whitham finished second behind North Attleboro' s Eric Becwith in the Shot Put. It should be an interesting MIAA Division 1 boys competition next weekend in Andover.
The Massachusetts fastest two sprinters locked horns, Amherst Pelham's Taj-amir Torres (10.79 Ma#1 ) ran his fastest time of the season narrowly defeating Falmouth's Craig Green (10.80 Ma # 2).
The Girls meet was contested in Somerville at Dilboy Field, in which we saw Brockton's Patricia Montiero capture both the 100MHH (15.08) and the Long Jump in (17'11"). The meet also had three Mass # 1's in attendance, and they all lived up to their rankings. Barnstable sprinter Amanda Henson captured the 200 Meters (24.65), Javelin thrower Jackie Vahey of Winchester (125 ft'9"), and Sabrina Silva of Mahar Regional tossed 40-7" in winning the Shot Put.
Andover Booster Meet
The ultimate team battle took place in Andover at the Annual Andover Boosters Invitational. This unusual meet has a combined boys and girls team Champion with the Minutemen of Lexington taking home top honors. This meet boasted 39 National Milesplit Elite performances, one of them being Catarina Rocha. The Providence bound Senior captured the 2 Mile in 10:30.66. Another elite performance went to Dracut's Karina Shepherd who powered her way to a 5:01 mile and winning by 10 seconds over Maya Halprin-Adams of Cambridge. Peabody's Senior Heather MaClean ran a Ma#1 time of 2:14.7 to capture the 800 Meters. The boys meet had Metheun's Mike O'Donnell breaking the 4:20 barrier with a 4:17.7 clocking in the mile run.
District "E" Meets
If your from Eastern Mass you are probably wondering what this District E stuff meet is all about. All of the best Central Mass athletes battle it out for A, B, C titles. The girls meet at Lunenburg High School saw two of our best jumpers competing against each other. Amy Collins of Wachusett defeated Emily Cahill of Uxbridge with both jumpers clearing 5ft 4". The boys meet was held at St. John's in Shrewsbury which had Wachusett's Colin Bennie cruising to a 9:40 2 Mile victory. St John's won Class A, Algonquinn Class "B", and Bromfield took home the Class "C" title.
Glenn D. Loucks Games
One of the best meets in the Northeast is The Loukes Games in White Plains, NY and many Massachusetts teams were in attendance. Abbie McNulty of Bishop Feehan finished second place in the 3200 Meters with a time of 10:26. Lowell High School also turned in some fine performance, senior Colin Hoey was among the best in three different events. Hoey was third in the shot put with a distance at 50-7.5. He was also fourth in both the javelin (178-07) and the discus (150-07). Lowell senior Matthew Vigeant was sixth in the discus with a heave of 146-11 and fellow classmate Ryan Fitzgerald took third in the 200 with a 22.32 clocking.
In the girls’ pole vault, Lowell senior Ashworth Grace cleared a height of 11-0 to take third overall. One of the best performances of the day was hidden back in 9th place as Bryanna Allison broke the 5 minute barrier with a time of 4:58.75.
New Balance Twlight Invitationals
A few runners actually bypassed all the High School options and decided to compete at Umass-Lowell at the first of four Twilight Meets offered by New Balance Boston. Julie McConville ran a # 4 All time outdoor mark in the 5000 Meter run. Julie's time was 16:34.26.
15:50.32 Cayla Hatton (Phillips Andover, MA) 2012
16:00.4# Cathy Schiro (Dover, NH) 1985
16:12.97
16:14.99
16:34.26 Julie McConville (Hingham, MA) 2013
16:41.7 !
16:53.0 ! Schiro
16:59.07 Marissa Shoji (Noble & Greenough) 2011
16:59.5 Lesley Welch (Veterans, Peabody, MA) 1980
# = Boston College oversized track
Private Matters
As the MIAA teams battled it out throughout the State the private schools had the ISTL Championships at Milton Academy. The MIAA has done such a terrific job building the "Berlin Wall" between Public and Private school athletes, that even Milesplitmass has trouble tracking them. The Independent Schools may lack the deep talent pool that the public schools have, but they do have some of the best athletes in our state.
James Randon of the Middlesex School in Concord is tearing up the track on a National Level, he is running phenomenal times with little or no help from competition. His 8:20 / 3K performance this weekend at the ISTL Championships was won by a 40 second margin. Randon is Nationally ranked # 1 in the 3k, and # 2 in the 1500 Meters with a time of 3:49. His talent has pushed some of his Middlesex School teammates to reach new levels. Garrett O'Toole, a junior, has run 3:53 for 1500 Meters and 9:14 for the 2 Mile run. Another Junior Peter Howe has run 4:05 for 1500 Meters, and Freshman Viraj Deokar has run 9:00 for the 3k.
It's not just the distance runners making noise for the Independent schools. Emma Fitzgerald a freshman from Thayer Academy threw the Javelin at ISTL Championship Meet 149' 0".
Larry Newman on James Randon
Perhaps one of the more impressive performances from a New England HS athlete this past weekend belonged to James Randon from the Middlesex School [a co-educational boarding school in Concord, Ma.] at the ISTA Championship Meet @ Milton Academy. These private/prep school meets are often overlooked. Randon ran 8:20.80 for 3,000 meters, shattering the old ISTA record of 8:53.76.That time equates out to about 8:50 or so for two miles - if your the type to take those pace charts seriously! Newton North's Chris Barnicle holds the New England and MA. outdoor record at 8:14.53. Westerly RI's Andrew Springer holds the New England indoor record at8:27.21. The MA. indoor record is held by Jonathon Riley [Brookline] at 8:32.3. I'll need some further research time, but I'd say Randon's time is certainly in the top-five all-time New England outdoors. I believe Randon is one of the 14 invites to the Adidas Dream Mile this weekend in NYC.
Rocha vs McConville ??
As the Coaches are finalizing the MIAA rosters this weekend, lets hope we see both Catarina Rocha and Julie McConville taking the same path towards the 2 Mile. It's something our State has lacked since the "Powell vs Sanchez" epic battle in the 1990's, "Foley vs Rocha" of the 80's, or even "Dillon vs Salazar" of the 1970's. Both runners love to hammer the pace, so the fans will certainly witness a very fast time. it doesn't matter who wins, or even if the race is close or not. Most of the time these races do not live up to the hype, but it's the anticipation leading up to the battle that makes it so much fun for our sport. It would be a fantastic way for both of these future "Hall of Famers" to finish their high school careers, and it would really take our All State Finals to an exciting level we haven't seen in years.
