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The 52nd Andover Collins-McIntyre Meet was a rousing success for the juggernaut known as Central Catholic. A favored team coming in on the boys side, it was the girls team that stepped up to help both teams claim victory, as well as the combined scoring, with a whopping 148 points, far ahead of Weymouth and Andover. Andover Coach Peter Comeau, somewhat of a local celebrity, put on a show for the fans, complete with a new Lynx HD Scoreboard, but Central Catholic was able to steal that show with several outstanding performances. On the boys side, Central was paced by just one individual event winner, javelin thrower Devon Lattrell (168'), a rousing win in a stacked seeded heat of the 4x100, and a whole bunch of great performances by its formidable depth. Ryan Doherty took 3rd in the shot put (49'6"), just ahead of teammates David Veilleux and Tyler Yeastedt in 5th and 6th, and Ryan Daigle was runner-up in the discus (138'4"), with Yeastedt coming back and taking 4th. For those scoring at home, that's 27 points in the throwing events, an area where many teams are lucky to have one place winner. Matt Fenlon (12'6") rounded out the field event scoring for the Raiders with 3rd in the pole vault, an event all eyes were on, but one in which Westford's Brendan Sullivan ho-hummed his way to 14'. Something tells me Sullivan is gearing up for when it counts in two weeks, as he has the Mass. vault record already this spring. Jeremy Zimini (15.25) added 6 points in the 110 hurdles, and Alex Dehullu (56.41) was 2nd in the 400 hurdles as well. For good measure, Central would take 5th in the 4x800 and 3rd in the 4x400, putting together an insurmountable 66 points.
The Raider girls had a much more obvious approach to their dominance, as they had event winners in the mile, 800, 400 hurdles, and 4x800, as well as runners-up in the 200 and 4x400 accouting for the bulk of their points. Janie Lowett led the mile tape to tape, winning in a PR 5:16.63 in impressive fashion over a strong group that included Haverhill's Jackie Solimine and Billerica's Meagan Maloney. Seeming to enjoy that strategy, teammate Kylie Regan employed a similar one in taking the 800 in 2:17.50, as she never trailed either. Tewksbury's Sarah Semenza broke with 300 to go for 2nd, and Weymouth's Julie Tevenan outdeuled Whitman-Hanson's Abby Baker for 3rd in a fantastic finish. Another sophomore for the Raiders, Katie Aqui, took the 400 hurdles in 67.96, ahead of the Westford duo of Alexa Pop and Katie Pietras. No surprise that when these three Radiers got together in the 4x800, they and teammate Hannah Carey took victory in an easy 9:55.00, besting Whitman-Hanson and Weymouth once again.Adding in Leanne Kent's runner-up finish to A-B's Maya Jarostchuk in the 200, Central Catholic had done something that only Andover seems to have ever done, sweep both genders and the combined title. When Khary Bailey-Smith arrived back at Weymouth's tent upon completion of the high jump, he was asked how it went. He flashed a 5 with his left hand and a 2 with his right. The untrained eye might have wondered if he had only gone 5'2", an opening height for some dual meets. Those who knew him erupted with pride. Bailey-Smith had done what no other Massachusetts high jumper has since former BC High (and how Stonehill) standout Corey Thomas- jumped 7 feet. Bailey-Smith was named Outstanding Male Athlete, as he also won the long jump, soaring 21'5.5" in that event. The 7 foot club is an exclusive one in Massachusetts. Thomas did it indoors, but never outdoors. Quincy's Jean Washington Morriset did in in 2003 outdoors. The UMass-bound football star flirted with the height a year ago, just knocking the bar off at 7'0.25" at EMass Divisionals, before fighting windy conditions at Bridgewater State College to win in 6'8". But now, Bailey-Smith can tell his grandkids some day that he jumped 7 feet too. Maybe when they ask how high he jumped in high school, he'll just flash them a five and a two, and maybe they'll wonder if he meant 7'. Bailey-Smith wasn't alone at the winners table for Weymouth, as teammate Tyler Mulcahy breezed to a win in the 400 hurdles (55.05), and led off the 4x400 relay in 50.0 to a 3:29.58 win, 5 seconds ahead of Needham. Mulcahy worked well with anchor Dave Harrison, who had earlier taken 3rd in the 400 behind A-B's star junior Brian Sommers (49.85) and Lawrence's Robert Garcia. Mulcahy was also runner-up in the triple jump (43'8.5") by 3 inches to North Andover's Eric Riedel.
Other event winners included Methuen's Samuel Weeks (50'2.5"), the only 50 footer on the day, who edged Newton South's Ryan Kim in the shot put by just 6 inches. Dracut's Nick Staub was tops i the discus with a heave of 141'6" on a windy day in which throwing anything wasn't easy. Newton South's Young Park dipped under 15.00 in the 110 hurdles, edging Brendan Sullivan and stealing his chance at a double win, 14.95-15.01. Methuen's Mike O'Donnell (9:29.14) ran away from Lexington's Nat Adams by 7 seconds, putting together a furious final two laps to seal the deal. The closest race of the day belonged to the 200, as Reading's Robert Federico needed every inch of his body to outlean Chelmsford's Joe Maniscalco 22.79 to 22.80. Kelvin Severino of Lawrence was tops in the 100, and Nick Christiensen (4:23.60) and Mike McNaughton (4:24.41) put on quite a show over the final lap of the mile. Billerica's Scott Arsenault (1:58.08) was the first of 5 runners breaking 2:00 to finish the 800, impressive times on a windy day. Newton South's Kyra Visnick was named Oustanding female of the meet, and why not? All she did was add a foot and a half to her already impressive triple jump best, going 38'.5", beating the competition by three feet. She then soared 9'6" in the pole vault for a 2nd win (ahead of two others on misses), giving Coach Steve McChesney another in a long line of national caliber athletes. The rest of the field event's went as follows. Billerica's throws coach deserves a nod, as the Indians swept all three throws. Now, it helps having Stephanie White, arguably the state's best all around thrower, but she wasn't alone. White dominated the discus in 112'9", 12 feet further than anyone else threw, and then came back to take the shot put in 38'4", ahead of a solid group including North Reading's Emily Murray (36'9"), Andover's Cassandra Kobelski (36'7"), and Weymouth's Nostia Amazan (35'6"). Jess Turinese (112'7") also outdeuled a North Andover thrower in Samantha Barron to win the javelin, completing an impressive sweep. A broken collarbone in the 100 hurdles by top seed Melissa Darling left the long jump wide open, and Whitman-Hanson's Melanie Collins capitalized, going 16'4" for the victory. Savannah Craib of Acton-Boxboro exacted some revenge over her narrow loss to Andover's Courtney Comeau (15.77) in the hurdles by taking the win in the high jump at 5'2" over Weymouth's Ashley Donovan. Both athletes had a nice back and forth throughout the competition, but Craib was perfect through 5'2", and Donovan needed a key 2nd jump at the height.
Catarina Rocha left behind smoke after her amazing 5:15 first mile split in the 2 mile, but running alone and so hard had her running "only" 10:48.64, still well ahead of Weston's Olivia Brackett, who ran a smart, controlled 11:17.33 for 2nd. Tulie Finley-Moise took the 100 in 13.33, demonstrating how oddly the wind was blowing throughout the day. Gusting at the time of the final, none of the runners came within reason of their trials times, but TFM was able to cruise to the win nonetheless. She would later team up with Jarostchuk and Craib for a win in the 4x100 (50.38, ahead of Tewksbury's 50.51) as well. Jen Kimball came out of the first lane in the fast heat of the 400 to win in 60.23, a personal best for the Weymouth junior, who was tuning up for the 400 hurdles, an event that she has the state's leading time in. One thing must be said about the Andover Collins-McIntyre Meet. The times may have been affected by windy conditions, the athletes may have been affected by a long, hot day, but the heart shown on the track race in and race out was impressive.
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