Middle, Long Distance Events
The 1,000m features our defending champion Thomas Lingard, who has shown success this season in his specialty as well as the 600m, where he clocked a best of 1:21.91. Lingard captured the 1K at last week's Division 1 meet with a season best and state No. 1 of 2:30.27. He indicated after the race that he is ready to defend his crown and is looking to break 2:30 on Saturday, which he did last year at divisionals with his PB of 2:29.61.As he's proven in the 600m this winter, he has the speed if this race is close the final few laps, which we anticipate it will be. He will be toeing the line with a runner who pushed him to his limit at the division state meet, Westford Academy's Jason Dolan, who was mere strides behind Lingard with his all-time best of 2:30.53. Just six days earlier, he ran sub 2:31 to take the individual title at the Dual County League Championships. In other words, he's ready to compete this weekend. Other strong contenders in the field are St. John's Tyler Griffin (2:31.93), Lincoln Sudbury's Robert Roosa (2:32.53), Ipswich's Kellan Waters (2:32.65), Northampton's Benjamin Gordon Sniffen (2:32.61) and Amherst-Pelham's Aiden Foucault-Etheridge (2:32.91) to name a few.
No doubt the favorite for the mile and two mile is Arlington's Ryan Oosting, who captured those two events with ease at the Division 2 meet with times of 4:21.41 and 9:19.41, respectively. Oosting ran his all-time best for the mile of 4:11.78 in the Junior Mile of the New Balance Grand Prix two weeks ago. He won't have to go quite that fast to pull out a victory this weekend. but will have to be in the ballpark of at least 4:15-4:17 to make it happen. He'll face a field of gritty competitors, including St. John's Prep's Tristan Shelgren, who we anticipate with be Oosting's No. 1 antagonist. The recent Division 1 winner captured the individual title last year with a PR of 4:15.93. He's broken 4:20 a few times this season, including a season best of 4:18.58 at the New Balance Games in New York last month. Franklin's Tyler Brogan, Lowell's Nasir Gibson and Brookline's Lucas Aramburu, who were among an exciting mile race at the Division 1 meet where a half a second separated the first four finishers, are also solid runners that could be contending for those top spots. Oosting is also the favorite for the two-mile title. He ran to his season best at divisionals, which he did about 90 minutes after winning the mile. Oosting has an indoor best of 9:12 for the deuce and did 9:05 during outdoor last year. We don't anticipate he'll have to go that fast to earn the victory but he will be tested by a few worthy contenders. St. John teammates Joshua Rahn and Patrick Craemer looked strong in finishing 1-2 at the Division 1 meet where they ran times of 9:22.64 and 9:24.31, respectively. Much like they did at the divisionals, they'll more than likely work off each other to produce a fast time and possible sub 9:20 clocking. Newton North's Andrew Mah always likes to push the pace and should be in the mix, too. He ran a PR of 9:13.61 at the New England's last year and goes into Saturday's meet with a 9:27 season best from the Bay State Conference Championships last month.