Dave Peters went into last night's Div. 3 championships with heavy legs and he left with a meet record.
The speedy Stoughton hurdler broke his own meet mark in the 55-meter hurdles in his preliminary race and then lowered it in a swift final that he comfortably won in 7.43 seconds at the Reggie Lewis Center. Runner-up Easton Tan of Winchester (7.56) and Zach Lalonde of Tewksbury (7.58) were also under Peters' mark of 7.59
Peters, who prefers the morning meets to racing in the afternoon, felt sluggish in the starting blocks. "Honestly, I'm not feeling so well," said Peters. "I like the morning meets. After the preliminaries I knew I was right where I should be so I felt good. I've been running under my times from last year so I was going for the meet record."
Along with Peters, the Black Knights were led by Elisha Teneus-Claude, who won the high jump with a 6-6 leap and shot put winner Mark Edge and his 50-9-1/2 effort. Nathaniel Peters also earned a gold medal with his 1:23.36 victory in the 600. The Black Knights finished of their night capturing the 4x400 in 3:30.11 and rolled to the team title with 76 points. Billerica was a distant second with 44 points.
Sharon's Jada Johnson broke the meet record her preliminary race in the 55, but wound up third in the final. Westboro's Emma Phelps was with the leaders in the final and leaned at the tape for the 8.46 win. Elizabeth Lee of Stoughton was second in 8.47 and Johnson posted an 8.49.
"I wanted to make sure my start was good and get over the hurdles as quick as I could," said Phelps, who also won the high jump with a 5-4 leap. "I knew I was with them the whole way."
Tewksbury's Makayla Paige, who is quickly nearing legendary status, had the performance of the meet as she broke her own New England record in the 600 with a 1:29.7. The time is the fastest in the country this winter.
The mark didn't come easy for Paige. "It was really painful being out there the entire race," she said. "I went out a little harder than normal and it was tough at the finish."
A half hour later Paige came back in the 300 and ran a strong final straightaway for a 40.42 win.
Nicole Anderson of Billerica and Emma Sullivan of Shepherd Hill dueled well ahead of the pack in the 1000 and Anderson was able to put some daylight between herself and Sullivan on the bell lap. She sprinted home in a meet record of 2:51.07. Sullivan was right on her heels in 2:51.57, also under the 2:56.9 run by Dracut's Karina Shepard in 2014.
Anderson was somewhat surprised that Sullivan didn't take the early pace, but was comfortable running at the front. "I knew she loves to go out really hard and I was banking on that," said Anderson. "I was happy to lead and decided to roll with it."
Walpole's Shane Grant pulled an impressive double with a 4:26.13 win in the mile and a sprint finish 2:31.88 1000 gold medal. Hopkinton's Shuyler Gooley took down the mile/2 mile double with wins in 5:16.65 and 11:00.29, respectively. Gooley's teammate Olivia Jones was second in the 2 mile in 11:01.46 and Billerica's Hannah Doherty took a whopping 20 seconds off her personal best for third in 11:10.27. Kyle Sarney of Oliver Ames kicked home for a 9:32.26 win in the 2 mile. Hopkinton finished with 61 points to edged out Milford's 57 points for the win.
After posting the top time in the state to win the boys 300 in a 34.33 best, Steve Harris came from behind on the anchor leg to lead Billerica to a 1:31.86 win in the 4x200. The team of Harris, William West, Ryan D'Agostino and Rodrigo Freitas bested Bishop Feehan's 2012 meet record of 1:32.19.