Meet Recap: NNHS v. Brookline

The first indoor track meet of the year in the BSC is always an energetic swirl of competition and near-chaos. The cross-country kids haven't seen each other for a few weeks, and fraternize, while the football and soccer players try to remember how to run or jump without someone trying to haul them down or dispossess them of a ball.

The races are a lot of fun, even if they don't tell you too much. What I mean is that a lot of people don't run particularly fast their first time out, especially in the distance events, so it's hard to predict where everyone will be in 10 weeks. I have seen plenty of milers improve 15-20 seconds from their first race to their last indoor meet. I've seen plenty of two-milers improve by almost a minute.

A lot of kids run the first lap of their first race as though there were bonuses for leading at 200m, 400m, etc. That's ok, they'll learn to pace a little bit better, and it certainly shows desire and heart to go out really fast and then die a horrible, painful death in the later laps.

The Newton North girls are once again foridable. Their 76-5 win over Brookline last night was the most lopsided of all the meets, and it would have been an even greater margin had the teams decided to contest the 4x400 relay, which North certainly would have won. There is hardly an event in which North isn't favored. Yesterday, Haleigh Smith (1M) and Jess Barton (1000) recorded league bests in their events, while Kat Chiong (600), Lily Brown (300), Alex Blenis (HJ), and Morgan Faer (SP) recorded the second best mark in the league in theirs. Next week's meet against Weymouth will be a test, but it will be a test that the Tigers should handle fairly easily.

Performance of the day for the girls? Maybe Barton's 3:12 in the 1000, or Brown's 44.40 in the 300. Or Leah Weisman's 8.02 in the 55. There were also impressive performances from freshman, including Nora Barnicles 5:54 to take third in the 1M, Carolyn Ranti's 13:03 to win the 2M, and Michelle Kaufman's 8.04 to take 2nd in the 55.

The boys have undergone a transformation over the past two seasons from a team with tremendous depth in the distance events, to a team with depth in sprinting and hurdling - and shot putting - North always seems to have good shot putters. Of course having David Polgar (1M), Noah Jampol (1000), and Doug Brecher (2M) will earn them wins against most teams in the distances, it doesn't appear that they'll sweep many meets in those events. The Tigers DID sweep the 55 dash (Caelin Robinson, Gordon Forbes, and Anthony Ambrosi) with three of the top four times in the league, and they DID sweep the shot put (David Smith, Marvin Chan, Anthony Ambrosi). Those two sweeps, along with a league-best win in the 4x400 created a comfortable margin over rival Brookline.

Performance of the day for the boys? Polgar and Jampol won quite easily, but weren't really pressed. David Smith threw 49 feet, which puts him on top of the league -- for now. I 'd have to say it was Caelin Robinson's blistering 6.81 in the 55, followed by his opening leg on the winning 4x4 relay. Most impressive newcomer? Perhaps it would be Jared Plotkin, who ran 1:30 in the 600.

Next up: Winterfest on Sunday, Dec. 18.