If he had it to do over, Cambridge's Esu Alemseged would have given the mile field a taste of his scintillating kick a lap earlier at Saturday's Auerbach Freshman/Sophomore Large Schools Invitational at the Reggie Lewis Center.
The smooth running sophomore saw his chance of improving on his 4:29 personal best disappear with a slowish 2:18 for the opening 800 and at that point Alemseged was just looking for a win. He ran down Grant Hauver of Wachusett on the final backstretch and excellerated a final time to cross the finish line in 4:32.41. Hauver was second in 4:33.07 and Tom D'Anieri of Wellesley checked in at 4:36.31.
"I was trying to break 4:30 but we went out way too slow," said Alemseged. "I was feeling pretty good. I was following the kid from Wellesley ( top seed D'Anieri). I was staying right next to him the whole time."
Zachary Kryznski of Central Catholic lived up to his No. 1 seed in the 55 high hurdles, bolting to a sterling 8.03 for dominant victory.
Lowell's Kaley Richards came away with a meet record in the 1000, putting on a mad dash over the final straightaway to win in 3:02.38. Her time eclipsed the 3:04.03 Franklin's Lauren Hagen ran in 2011.
"My coach wanted me to take out the pace and get faster with every lap," said Richards, who clocked a 5:07.80 mile in last weekend's Holiday Challenge. "The last 100 he wanted me to really, really push it."
Catherine Flaherty eclisped the meet record in the high jump by soaring over 5-6, equaling the mark set by Dennis-Yarmouth's Kate Sherman in 2002.
Cambridge's Sam Stubbs also put up a meet record by ripping through a 9:38.31 to lower the previous mark of 9:46.78 set by Chris Allen of King Philip in 2010. Teammate Daniel Aschale was second in 9:38.61 and Luke Bugler of St. John's Prep took third in 9:58.63
No. 4 seed Ashley Arroyo of Silver Lake sprinted to the front and gave up the lead in setting a personal best of 1:42.93 to win the 600. Suzanne Cotter of Acton-Boxboro was second in 1:43.24 and Lincoln-Sudbury's Katherine Maone took third with a 1:43.96. "I wanted to stay in front the whole way and stay comfortable," said Arroyo.
Arroyo was also unbeatable in the long jump pit, leaping to a 15-8 win ahead of Wellesley's Ally Isley, who got off a jump of 15-6-3/4. Jilliam Purtell of Taunton was third at 15-3-1/2.
Wachusett's Katie Gobi surged from the six-runner group with 800 left and increased her pace with 400 to go to run away with the mile in a personal best of 5:22.66. Sarah Armstrong of Needham was second in 5:25.86 and Newton South's Rebecca Grusby, who led through the first half mile, was third in 5:26.52.
Gobi intends to continue shaving seconds off her mile time.
"I've only run the miles a few times before," said the 1000-meter specialist Gobi. "There were definitely a lot of people there so I had to work around that. I knew I had to go with two laps to go. I had a lot left."