Andrew Bolze stood inside the infield after his 300-meter race. Like most of the people inside the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center, his eyes were clearly focused on the digital scoreboard on the back end of the track.
Just minutes after winning his specialty at Saturday’s MSTCA Elite Meet, the Hingham High senior saw the numbers he was hoping to see in bright white lights, a new meet record and state mark of 34.19 seconds.
With a strong start out of the blocks the record never appeared in doubt for Bolze, who won the race convincingly. His time is nearly a half a second faster than his previous best of 34.64, set at a Patriot League meet on Dec. 18.
“I knew I had to go out hard,” said the Hingham standout. “I really wanted that state record. That was my goal.”
Bolze’s clocking ranks No. 5 in the nation. It was also more than a second ahead of Needham senior Hantzly Murat, who was a runner-up at 35.32.
“(My start) was better than I expected,” said the versatile athlete, who has also leaped further than 23 feet in the long jump and tossed the shot put more than 50 feet. “(Murat) went out hard the first 150 (meters). Usually that’s when I get pretty lazy and slow down a little. But I took it right there. I knew I had to push it.”
Bolze’s victory was one of several performances among the best in the country so far.
Dracut senior Karina Shepard, one of the top middle-distance specialist in the U.S., captured the girls’ 1,000 with a meet record of 2:51.27 (US #3). Shepard, who ranks No. 2 in the 800 behind Nike Oregon Project and teen phenom Mary Cain, took the pace out hard. She hit her opening 400 at 64 seconds and was 2:15 at the 800.
The Stanford-bound runner broke the meet record of 2:53.26 by Framingham’s Jen Perry in 2002. She was comfortably ahead of second-place finisher, Maya Halprin-Adams of Cambridge Rindge & Latin, who was timed in 2:54.40.
In the boys’ 1,000, the favored Joshua Kerber of Lincoln Sudbury won the seeded section, but he wasn’t declared the overall winner. Running in the “slowest” unseeded section of the race, Gloucester junior Everest Crawford, dipped more than four seconds under his career best with a first-place time of 2:29.53 (US #5). Kerber was second at 2:31.72. Crawford knew he was on to something special once he hit the 800 mark in sub two minutes.
Gabe Montague, a senior from Newton North, won the mile in 4:18.6. Montague utilized a patient approach. He held back in fourth place at the halfway mark, which he passed in 2:12. He didn’t take the lead until unleashing a devastating kick with 300-meters left.
Less than two hours later, Montague placed second (9:17.38, US #6) to Burlington senior Paul Hogan in the two mile. Hogan, the early-race leader, fell back in the late stages but forged back to the front with about a lap remaining to win with a more than 26-second PR of 9:11.77 (US #4).
Bishop Feehan senior Abbie McNulty copped the girls’ two mile with the nation’s third fastest time of 10:38.38. McNulty and Manchester junior Olivia Lantz (second, 11:02.2) broke from the pack early. After a slow mile by her standards of 5:25, the future Stanford runner put on a surge and was never challenged the remainder of the way.
Amy Piccolo, a junior from Ursuline Academy, improved on her season best by three seconds in the 600, winning with a time of 1:33.86 (US #3). Piccolo, who was a little more than a second from her PB (1:32.56) at the All-State Meet last year, took the lead for good at 250 meters and was 62 seconds at the 400 mark.
B.C. High senior Jordan Samuels was a double-winner. Samuels was nearly perfect in the 55 hurdles with a meet-record time of 7.50 (US #6). With about five minutes rest, he captured the long jump with a distance of 22-0.
Jessica Scott of Hopkinton was just .02 from a meet record in the 55 dash. The nationally-ranked senior broke the tape at 7.12. Amherst-Pelham junior Taj Amir-Torres won the boys’ race with a fast 6.45 clocking.
Newton North senior Ellen Dipietro, who last month leaped a nation-leading 5-10 in the high jump, copped her specialty on Saturday with a still-impressive 5-8.