Until yesterday, there had been only sporadic signs that the Newton North girls indoor track might someday rise above its competition on the state level. But in the meet that mattered most to Coach Joe Tranchita, the Tigers emphatically asserted their championship character, winning the MSTCA State Div. I relay title going away.
En route, the girls team won three events -- the sprint-medley, distance medley, and 4x400 relays -- placed second by 0.15 in the shuttle hudles, and placed fourth in the shot put and high jump relays.
The meet began inauspiciously with the 4x800. Running from the second unseeded heat, the North quartet of Emma Kornetsky (2:33.8), Kat Chiong (2:27.3), Carolyn Ranti (2:31.3), and Haleigh Smith (2:30.6) ran a good time of 10:02.49, finishing two seconds behind Attleboro. However, five teams in the seeded heat bettered that time, and North ended up in 7th, with no points to show for the effort.
The tide turned in the next event, the sprint medley, as Jess Barton (2:22.6), Michelle Kaufman (27.3), Lily Brown (27.4), and anchor Julie Blanchard beat a heavily-favored Andover team. In the high jump relay, Alex Blenis cleared 1.50 (4' 11.5"), and Sarah Berkland and Theresa Staula both cleared 1.45 (4' 9") to take 4th place. In the shot put relay, Tracy Isman, Lily Brown, and Morgan Faer had a combined distance of 26.99 (88' 6.75") to take another fourth and another 4 points.
The 4 x 50 shuttle hurdles almost produced another win for the Tigers, but they were happy to take 2nd and gather in another 8 points.
With the meet seemingly in the balance, the distance medley stepped on the track. At that point, Newton North was neck-and-neck with New Bedford for the team lead, and the Tigers needed as many points as possible to overcome New Bedford's potential in the 4x50 relay. Haleigh Smith led off with a strong 1200 leg, splitting 4:00.9 and putting the Tigers in 5th. Emma Kornetsky, a substitute for Leah Weisman (who was busy running t5he hurlde relay) ran a PR 64.7 split for the 400, and handed off to fellow freshman Nora Barnicle. Barnicle ran the first 200 in a seemingly suicidal 32 seconds, but managed to hold on well to run a very good time of 2:33.8 for 800, handing off to Jess Barton. In fifth place at the exchange and more than 11 seconds (a straightaway and half a turn) behind Haverhill's distance ace Colleen McNaughton, it looked like North would be lucky to get 2nd or 3rd. But running with patience and determination, Barton steadily closed the gap to 7 seconds with a 74-second opening 400, and then to 3 seconds, with a 77-second second quarter. Newton North fans began to hope for a miracle as Barton caught the leaders with just under three laps to go, but how much energy had she used to close the gap? For drama and guts, it doesn't get any better than the final two laps: MacNaughton taking the lead and kicking with 150 to go, Barton holding on, and then unleashing a finishing kick that seemed impossible given the fast early pace to pull even with a few meters to go and then ahead at the last possible moment. Barton's split of 5:02.6 converts to a 5:04.4 mile, a PR by nearly 4 seconds, and she ran her final 200 meters in 35 seconds. The team's time of 12:42.12 falls only 0.12 shy of a DyeStat elite time, and was at the time it was run, the 9th fastest girls DMR in the country this year.
With 10 points in the DMR, North pulled ahead of New Bedford for good, 36-34. In the final event, the 4x400 relay, New Bedford's team failed to place, and North's team (Lily Brown, Kat Chiong, Leah Weisman, and Julie Blanchard) put an exclamation mark on the meet by winning the race in 4:08.67.
Full girls results
The Newton North boys put fourth a valiant effort, especially in the sprints and field events, but couldn't overcome the overall depth and quality of Xaverian Brothers, finishing 2nd to the X-men, but ahead of Boston College High, Andover, and Lexington.
The boys earned victories in the long jump relay (Khalel Pritchard, Nick Van Niel, and Gordon Forbes), a close second (by 0.02!) in the 4 x 50 relay (Pritchard, Cailean Robinson, Forbes, and Anthony Ambrosi), 3rds in the shot put (David Smith, Anthony Ambrosi, Marvin Chan) and distance medley (Noah Jampol, Alex Lee, Peter Sun, and David Polgar), a 4th in the shuttle hurdles (Brendan Rooney, Nick Van Niel, Ryan McCarthy, and James Greely), and a 5th in the 4x800 (Jampol, Sun, Putzeys, Polgar).
The boys DMR was an interesting race: the opening 1200 was a "who's who" of the top Div I 1000 runners, with Haverhill's Pat Fullerton handing off in the lead. Xaverian with Mark Amirault splitting 4:17 clearly had the best team, and won in 10:26.0 for a meet record. The final leg was marred somewhat when the officials mixed up the number of laps remaining, causing Polgar and several other runners to kick a lap too early. Even so, Polgar was able to hang on for a 4:27 split and pull North from 6th to 3rd.
Full boys results
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2 comments:
Alex Lee was the second leg of the DMR. Our DMR time(10:43.49) was actually Dyestat elite(10:45), which shows some potential in the event. Obviously, last year's team won't/can't be equaled. However, Polgar would not've gone for a 4:28 split if they hadn't messed up the laps. Additionally, Peter is making some strides with that split. Outdoors, if I could cut down 3-4 seconds for a 3:11-12 split, someone(Avery/Ambrosi/Abass/whoever) could go 51-52, Peter could do 2:02-4 and Polgar could anchor with a 4:15-4:21 leg that's 10:20-10:30 which is very solid.
-Noah
Thanks for the corrections, and congratulations on the DyeStat elite time!
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