Piccolo Breaks 600 Meter State Record
Ursuline's Amy Piccolo has dominated her specialty for the past two years on the indoor circuit with little competition.
At Saturday's 27th New England Track & Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center, Piccolo locked horns with Bishop Guertin's Molly McCabe in a classic battle that resulted in a new Massachusetts record for the talented junior. The finish-line photo was needed to figure out the winner of the 600 as McCabe got to the tape an eyelash ahead of Piccolo for the win in the closest race of the day. McCabe put up a 1:32.0 ahead of Piccolo's 1:32.01 personal best. Piccolo's stunning personal best bettered the former Massachusetts record of 1:32.23 set by Stoneham great Maura McCusker back in 1999 and puts her in front of some enormous talent in an event has historically attracted some of the state's best track runners.
The showdown with McCabe came down to a lean at the tape as both girls entered the final straightaway virtually even.
"I could feel her on my back," said Piccolo. "She was actually pushing me physically. I knew I had to pick it up and she gave me a little push at the end. I've been waiting for a personal best all year. I tried to lean a little extra because I knew she was slightly ahead of me. I guess I couldn't lean enough - I tried."
BC High's Jordan Samuels didn't dare raise his arms in victory. The Eagle senior knew the finish of the 55-meter hurdles was too close to call with his periphiral vision so he waited until the results were posted on the Reggie Lewis Center scoreboard.
When they were finally posted two minutes later, the personable speedster was all smiles. The state champion edged Springfield Central's Edison Perez by the closest of margins - 7.48 to 7.49.
Samuels' starts in both the preliminaries and final were good, but not as explosive as he would have liked. He wound up chasing Perez down and leaning hard for the win.
"I could see him right next to me the whole way," said Samuels, who was fifth last year. "It was going to come down to me or him. He got me in the trial last week and knew he was someone to look out for. Honestly, I thought he had me at the end.
"In my league I haven't had enough competition where I had to fight the whole race and give that big lean at the end. I've been working on my start in practice. It was ok. I thought I should have gone out a little better. I just tried to keep my composure and go for the win."
The final meet of the indoor season had plenty of stellar performances by Massachusetts athletes. Ellen DiPietro of Marshfield and Hingham's Andrew Bolze captured two events, while Hingham's Sierra Irvin broke the meet record in the 300 with a blazing 38.67 and then anchored the 4x400 team to a 3:59.17 win. State champions Joe Luongo of St. John's Prep and Ryan Kim of Newton South also put up gold medal wins in the 600 (1:20.59) shot put (55-2-1/4), respectively. DiPietro's teammate, Kelsey Sullivan, was a big winner in the long jump, stretching out a leap of 17-8-1/2
DiPietro felt particuarly sharp during warmups and decided to wait to enter the high jump competiton at 5-5. The Michigan State-bound talent soared over 5-9 to lead a Massachusetts sweep of the top-three places. Bedford's Anika Hibbard and Westwood's Phoebe Fitzgibbon both cleared 5-5 for second and third, respectively.
With DiPietro at full strength, the event wasn't close. "I came in at a higher height and my legs were feeling really goo," she said. "My approach and pop were together today so I was really happy about it."
A half-hour later she came back to blitz the field in the 55 hurdles in 8.30. With state champion Isabella DiMare of Notre Dame a healthy scratch, DiPietro was rid of her most dangerous competitor.
"I'm very happy," said DiPietro. "I was seeded second, but the number one girl (DiMare) didn't run. I really run well under pressure. I do like competing with the best of the best so it was a little disappointing she wasn't in there."
Despite not competing in her specialty, DiMare played a big role for the Cougars, teaming up with Amanda Reilly, Gabby Sillari and Gabby Kenyon for second in the 4x200 in a school-record time of 1:44.36.
"It felt great," said a very upbeat DiMare. "Once again we were ranked low and had no expectations. The fact that we were the underdog and came in second was great. We've had that mentality since day one to make it to New Englands and we really proved ourselves today."
Bolze matched his two wins in the state meet by capturing the events in reverse order. His 23-7 leap made him an easy winner and he proceeded to race to an easy 34.25 win in the 300 and hour later.
"The New England schedule is different from the all-state schedule so I got to long jump before my 300," Bolze said. "My legs were fresh and weren't dying with lactic acid when I was warming up so that was really nice to be able to do that.
"My run throughs felt great - I felt light and I felt fast. Pretty much all my jumps were over 23 (feet). That gave me a lot of confidence knowing I can produce those jumps."
Luongo came from behind in the 600 to edge out Zachery Emrich of North Kingstown, RI in a photo finish. The talented junior is already looking forward to defending his title next winter after the down-to-the-wire victory.
"I got him - thought I had him - and he kept on going," said Luongo. "It was going to come down to one of us leaning quicker. It was still close. I got it and I'm pretty happy. I was going for the state record. I have one more year."
Newton North's Gabe Montague battled a heavy cold all week after his epic state record in the 1000 the previous Saturday and was happy with his second-place finish to Gloucester's Everest Crawford. Montague was clocked in 2:26.38 to Crawford's 2:26.11
"I was actually quite happy with how I did today," said a smily Montague. "I've had a rough week of training beeing sick. I was debating not running in this meet. I was happy with how I did. I was able to take it out hard. That gave me confidence mid-way that I'd be able to hold it."
Kim was happy to escape with the win after sustaining a painful hamstring injury earlier in the week. Evan Donbrowksi of St. John's Prep was second in 54-3 and Mansfield's Oliver Erickson's 53-1-1/2 heave earned the bronze.
"On Tuesday I pulled my hamstring and coming in today I wasn't feeling very good," Kim said. "Fifty-five feet isn't my best but it got me first place so I'm happy. It really hurt when I started to spin and when I spun faster it hurt even more."
State champion Jessica Scott of Hopkinton excellerated over the final 20 meters to capture the 55 dash in 7.08 to edge Barnstable's terrific sprinter, Amanda Henson, who pushed to a 7.10. "My start wasn't as good as I wanted it to be so I had to catch up a little during the middle," said Scott.
State champion Taj-Amir Torres of Amherst-Pelham put daylight between himself and the field to win the 55 in 6.43 and Medfield's Sean Robertson was a strong third in the mile in 4:18.72. Cambridge was second in the 4x200 in 1:31.97 and Burlington clinched the runner-up slot in the 4x800 with a 7:56.56. Kaley Richards of Lowell raced to a personal best of 4:56.81 for second in the mile after capturing the state title.
Michaela Smith of Newton North continued her dominance in the shot put, putting out a 40-6-1/4 effort for the win.