Shrewsbury's Domonique Hall has come a long way since the days when she was a bundle of nerves and a track meet represented a day of anxiety.
The defending state champion was completely calm when she went to the starting line of the 300-meter dash at yesterday's Div. 1 Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center, which proved to be a bad sign for the rest of the field.
The defending state champion shot out at the gun and was never challenged as she flew across the finish line to break her own meet record in 39.69 seconds. The Georgia Tech-bound Hall, who was sporting a bandaged right hand after cutting it on a broken glass cereal bowl, was ecstatic with the victory.
"It was a huge deal," Hall said. "You want to defend your title. There was a little pressure but it was exciting. It's incredible how much you can progress. I'm a lot more calm before and during my races."
St. John's Prep's Joe Luongo was also in a record-breaking mood as he held off a tenacious Justin Marcantonio of BC High for a scalding 1:20.5 mark in the 600. Marcantonio was two steps behind in 1:20.89.
Luongo made it a point to go out as hard as he did at January's New Balance Collegiate Invitational in late January.
"I feel a lot more comfortable going out that fast now that I'm more consistent with it," he said. Luongo expects Marcantonio, who he is very familiar with from the Tri-County League, to be his main challenge at Saturday's all-states. "I want to finish on a peak," said Luongo. "We're in the same conference and we've been together all year."
Cambridge's Maya Halprin-Adams dominated the 1000 field with a quick 2:55.92 and along with the winning 4x200 team (1:44.65) and Sydney Fisher's victory in the 55 dash (7.22), captured the girls' team title with 55 points. Newton North was just two points back in second with 53.
Two runners pulled off eye-opening doubles in the mile/2 mile. Newton North's Mike Schlichting outdueled Connor Murphy of St. John's Prep to win the mile in 4:25.61 and then used a devastating kick over the final 200 to pass Lowell's Johnny Abraham to win the 2 mile in a quick 9:25.96. Lowell's Kaley Richards' double was equally impressive. Richards ran away from the pack in the mile for a 5:06.11 and then broke from a six-runner group in the 2 mile to win in 11:09.90. Schlichting was an enormous factor in the Tigers capturing the title for the first time in two years.
"When you have a (Gabe) Montague, Schlichting and Nick Fofana who can do multiple events you're in good shape," said head coach Jim Blackburn. "I debated that (Schlichting's double) a long time and I decided he could handle it."
Other strong performances came from Jordan Samuels, who won the long jump and the 55m hurdles, both in near meet record performances of 22'6.5" and 7.49 respectively.
For a full set of highlight photos from the meet visit Newton Sports Photography's gallery.
