Winterfest

Some great performances for Newton North athletes at Winterfest. It's too bad the meet wasn't well attended by large schools (Brockton, Lexington, Xaverian, etc.). On the other hand, it was nice to see some of the Central Mass. schools like Wachusett, Algonquin, Shephard Hill, etc.

On the girl's side, Julie Blanchard won the 300 in 43.49, only a few tenths of her PR, and looking closer to her old self. That's good news for the Tigers because Julie is a potential state meet scorer in the 300, and also is a key on their 4x200 relay team, which finished 2nd today by only 0.02 out of the unseeded heat.

Kat Chiong also looked impressive, running 1:40.49 to win the 600, a much better performance than her opening 1:46 at the Brookline meet on Thursday. Lily Brown challenged for the lead at one point, but settled for 3rd in a PR 1:44.52.

The girls distance crew took the day off, but the boys distance runners were out in force, trying for the elusive "distance sweep" of the 1000, 1M, and 2M. David Polgar won the mile leading the whole way, running 400m splits of 64-66-66-66 for 4:22, about 5 seconds ahead of Reading's Sam Horn. Doug Brecher won the 2M in 9:59.9 and he also led the entire way. Noah Jampol made a great attempt to win the 100, but settled for 2nd in a PR 2:38.76.

In the 4x800 relay, the quartet of Peter Sun (2:09), Seb Putzys (2:10), Jampol (2:06), and Polgar (1:58), won fairly easily over St. John's Prep.

Once again the NN sprinter -- girls and boys -- showed great depth. Gordon Forbes, Caelin Robinson, and Khlale Pritchard finished 3rd, 4th, and 7th in the 55M dash finals, with Forbes running a 6.80 PR. In the 55 hurdles, Brendan Rooney had only the 7th best qualifying time, but ran brilliantly in the final to take 2nd in a PR 8.39. For the girls, Leah Weisman and Morgan Faer placed 4th and 6th in the 55M hurdle finals.

In the field events, David Smith won the shot put, breaking 50' for the first time this year (50' 1.75") and Nick van Niel placed 3rd in the Long jump at 19' 1.25".

Next up for the Tigers is Weymouth on Thursday. It should be the girls' toughest dual meet of the year.