It was a record breaking day as the Newton North girls took home the team title and set three meet records in the process. The Tigers surpassed the previous best marks in the 4x50 Yard Relay (24.52), the 4x50 Yard Hurdles Relay (29.11), and the Long Jump (49’4.25) with Kayla Wong and Kayla Prior as part of all three record breaking teams. Steph Brown competed on the 4x50y dash relay and the 4x50y hurdles relay; both of which are new state records. Carla Forbes also competed on the dash relay and led the team in the long jump relay. She ended the day by anchoring the winning 4x400m relay, and the building erupted with cheers as Forbes received the baton and broke open a significant lead with her 58.6 split.
The boys 4x800 Meter Relay was a compelling battle between three of the best distance programs in the state. Patrick Coppinger of Lowell ran a 2:00 split to hold off a very impressive Brookline group by just half a second. The fastest split of the day came from James Sullivan of Acton-Boxborough who made-up huge ground with his 1:54 clocking to move his team into third place. Coppinger would return later in the meet to go from nearly last to third in the 4x400m with a gutsy anchor leg that sealed the team title for his Lowell team.
Last night’s MA#1 time of 1:47.34 in the Big Three Championships 4x200m was obviously just a warm-up for the Brockton girls. They returned this morning to crush that time and win the event in 1:45.65. Andover put up a good fight in finishing second with a MA#2 time of 1:47.23.
It was a big day for the Peabody boys sprint crew as they finished 2nd in the 4x50 Yard Relay and won the Sprint Medley Relay in 3:35.68. Nick Christensen split 1:56.9 for his 800m leg of the SMR and their finishing time is MA#1 and US#8.
The Franklin girls showed tremendous depth, and heart, with their record setting performance in the DMR. Alex Giese anchored the group to a 12:19.56 final time and did a magnificent job of holding off Catarina Rocha of Peabody in the process. Rocha was charging with 600m to go, but Giese put in a timely surge to protect the gap her teammates helped create. Rocha would split 4:53.6 to help her Peabody team finish second in 12:21.68.
Brookline and Lowell entered the final leg of the boys DMR with a 15 meter lead on Newton North. Chernet Sisay (Brookline) and Alex Andujar (Lowell) were locked in a great battle for the win with Justin Keefe (Newton North) seemingly out of the picture. Sisay displayed his signature strength, pulling away from Andujar in the final 400m for the win (10:41.08). With Andujar now vulnerable in open space, Keefe came charging back over the final 200m to challenge for second place. Andujar dug deep for one last burst and held on for the silver (10:43.31 to 10:43.92).
