It was a nice ride home for the teams of Newton North after yesterday's Div. 1 Coaches Relays as the Tigers swept titles.
Girls coach Joe Tranchita will be the first to say that winning any Div. 1 Coaches Relay meet is special. But even Tranchita had to admit that the Tigers' fifth consecutive girls title at the Reggie Lewis Center was one he won't forget any time soon.
Newton North captured the dash relay in 25.14 behind Adrianna Batista, Shannda Fitzgerald, Angela DeNacci and Kaila Hatcher and went on to finish in the top six in seven events to take the team title with 60 points. Up-and-coming Lexington had a superb day, grabbing the 4x200 (1:47.29), 4x400 (4:05.05) and 4x800 (9:43.63) to take second with 42 points.
The Tigers' win was a testament to the teams depth from freshmen to seniors. "It's a very young team and we got everybody involved," Tranchita said. "We had a gazillion personal records. "To have so many girls step up is really impressive."Newton North has been coming up big in dual meets as well with huge wins over Weymouth and Needham in the Bay State Conference with both coming down the to the 4x400 relays. "It's been a busy two weeks," Tranchita said with a smile.
Defending state shot put champion Michaela Smith put up a personal best with a heave of 41-1 to lead the Tigers to the silver medal behind Lowell at 29.22 meters. "Coming in we wanted to see ourselves improve and have a great team effort and we did that," said Smith.
The Lexington quartet of Jamie Banks, Jessie Foley, Alex Cox and Melissa Solomon broke the school record in the 4x200 with its win. Solomon, Lusy Lange, Becca Piom and Olivia Manicas-Hill combined to capture a super competitive 4x400 where the top five teams were within two seconds of each other.
"We're very pleased, it was a total team effort," said Lexington head coach Emmett O'Brien of second place. "It's good to see how your depth holds up against a team like Newton North."
Lexington, who tied for second in the MIAA Div. 1 championships last year with Cambridge, looks even stronger this go around. "Our depth is even more solid. This year it's spread out. It speaks volumes about our girls. To have so many people step up is special."
Jim Blackburn's Newton North lineup edged out a tough Cambridge squad with 42-34 in the boys' competition.
The Tigers came up with wins in the distance medley with Mike Schlichting, Max Hernandez, Adrian Bridgeman and Gabe Montague running away with the event in 10:31.06, while the team of Adrian Butterton, Schlichting, Sean McIntyre and Montague took the 4x800 in 8:02.87. Cambridge had a big win in the shuttle dash with Deshawn Velez, Joseph Kozlowiski, Munn Anusika and Shaquille Anderson putting up a time of 22.27.
Andover's shuttle hurdle team had the lone record of the day as Andrew Mattucci, Sean Caveney, Justin Montrang and Sebastian Silveiria posting a 26.03.
Pembroke took some of its key players from its championship cross country season and let them loose on the Reggie Lewis Center track at yesterday's Div. 4 Coaches Relays.
The result was a surprise to no one on a day where several meet records fell by the wayside.
In Saturday's Div. 4 meet, Christian Stafford, who helped lead the Titans to their fourth consecutive Div. 2 All-State title in the fall, ripped an anchor leg of 1:58.1 and held off a hard-charging Paul Hogan of Burlington to clinch the 4x800 in a meet record of 8 minutes, 10.62 seconds. Hogan surged across the finish line in 8:12.36 to give the Red Devils the silver medal.
The Northeastern-bound Stafford was in familiar territory with his teammates racing for first place. "We had a really successful cross country season and we like to run together in track," he said. "I had to make up a little bit when my brother Billy gave me the baton. We got a comfortalbe lead and I tried to maintain it. I guess Paul Hogan was creeping up on me. I just kept pushing. We really wanted to get the meet record."
Medfield was shooting for the school record in the distance medley and wound up with a meet record of its own. The team of Michael Colivas, Austin Scola and twins Sean and Ian Robertson put up a 10:47.06 effort with Ian Robertson running the mile anchor in 4:25.1. Marblehead was a distant second in 10:59.25
"I was expecting a more competitive race," said Robertson. "I thought it would come down to the last 400 and I wanted to have enough left. We were on meet record pace with 800 to go and at that point I really picked it up."
Randolph came away with a pair of meet records on the way to the team title with 40 points. The lineup of Nathan Fernandez, Rindel Pierre-Wowel, Fabien Thames and Hueston Brathwaithe tok the shuttle dash in a record 22.59 and the long jump team was victorious at 18.54 meters. Fernandez, Kyle Nathan, Evandro DeCosta and Brathwaithe won the 4x200 in 1:34.12.
Head coach Darcey Welch knew the Blue Devils would have to come up big in their key events to have a shot against Pembroke. "That's our strength, the sprints," said Welch. "If it didn't go perfect we weren't going to win this meet today. I'm always looking for distance runners, but we just don't have them."
Pembroke's girls didn't make it close. By the time the team of Breagh Fitzgerald, Brooke Mello, Caroline Leung and Katie Freitas won the 4x400 in 4:08.45, the Titans had a gaudy 52 points. Marblehead was well back in second (30 points) and Tewksbury took third (29 points).
The Pembroke foursome of Kendall Leddin, Freitas, Leung and Mello took the 4x200 in 1:47.77 and the Titans also captured the shuttle hurdles (31.26), shot put (30.92 meters) and the long jump (14.49 meters).
"We knew we had some strong events coming in," said head coach James Rooney. "We were pretty confident coming in that we'd be in the hunt. We're deep through all the grade levels too. We're not senior heavy."
Foxboro's Liz Holmes, who ran 4:54 in the mile as a freshman, continued her comeback from injuries by anchoring the Warriors to a win in the 4x800 (9:56.53).