South Hadley High School's Jonas Clarke running to a second place finish in the 55m finals at the MIAA Division 5 Championships. Video by Jason Byrne.
With over 45,000 total votes, the Massachusetts MileSplit community picked a clear winner for the top boys athlete of the 2019 Track and Field seasons. With 18,731 votes, Drew Pesko of Marshfield High School ran away with the victory with over 41% of the total votes. Ethan Connolly of Algonquin Regional High School came in second in the voting with 15,669 votes. Rounding out the top three with 8,442 votes was South Hadley High School's Jonas Clarke.
The freshmen winner from Marshfield High School, Drew Pesko, came off a Freshmen 2019 Track and Field season where he ran both a 4:34.96 One Mile time as well as a 9:47.05 Two Mile time. For his One Mile performance, Drew accomplished this on May 18th at the South Shore Principals Twilight Meet. Drew would finish third in the race behind two rising Seniors, James Doherty of Plymouth North High School and Tanner Jellison of Wakefield Memorial High School. Drew then went on to set his aforementioned Two Mile personal record at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor meet. Pesko ran to a 4th place finish in the Freshmen Boys Two Mile, about 5 seconds off the meet's winning time. Already well under the 10:00 mark for the Two Mile and having dropped mid 4:30s for the One Mile, Pesko has a bright Track and Field career ahead of him.
Our second place poll finished, Ethan Connolly, performed a freshmen best 2174 Pentathlon. Connolly accomplished this at the MIAA Western / Central Division 1 Championships where he finished 5th. Connolly's performance was the Nation's 17th best Freshmen pentathlon performance of the 2019 season. With three more years to further improve his events, Connolly may become one of Massachusetts' top performers in the Pentathlon.
Rounding out our top three Freshmen Track & Field performers is Jonas Clarke. The rising Sophomore from South Hadley High School had a 2019 Track & Field season that showed that he is chasing down the top sprinters across the nation. Clarke lead all Massachusetts Freshmen boys with a personal record 10.69 100 meter dash and a 22.27 200 meter dash. Clarke ran both of these times at the 2019 New Balance Nationals Outdoor meet. Clarke would go on to finish 3rd in the 100 meter dash finals and 4th in the 200 meter dash finals in the Freshmen races at the meet, proving that he is not only to top young sprinter from Massachusetts, but one of the top young sprinters in the Nation. Make sure to keep your eyes on him over the next few years.
Check out the full poll results, here.