Meet Recap - 1/11/06

A Wednesday dual meet against league weakling Braintree could have been a yawn-fest, but instead, there were some interesting and exciting races, and some significant season and personal bests.

Link to full results

There was some drama before the meet even started. With ten minutes before the mile, it looked like David Polgar might... well... pull a David Polgar. Although he was scheduled to run the mile, he was nowhere to be found, prompting Assistant Coach Shawn Wallace to pull a dazed Seb Putzeys (slated to run the 2-mile two hours later) out of the stands to warm up. But Polgar showed up in the nick of time and won easily in 4:36.

The girls mile had a little different look as Carolyn Ranti and Kerry Moy dropped fown from the 2-mile to work on their speed. Along with Nora Barnicle (winner in 5:46.36), the three North girls went 1-2-3, with Ranti running 5:46.71 and Moy running a season-best 5:53.24.

For boys and girls, the 1000 was the race of the day. In the boys race, Noah Jampol took on Braintree's Chris O'Day and Brookline's Matt Stewart and Robert Gibson. O'Day led from the gun and held off a furious charge by Stewart to win by a tenth of a second in 2:37.07, the league's best time so far. Jampol finished a strong 3rd in a PR 2:37.80, just ahead of sophomore sensation Gibson. In the girls race, Brookline's Sabrina Parise opened with a 34.9 first 200, with North's Kat Chiong two strides back. Parise held the lead until late in the 4th lap, when Chiong made her move, taking the lead for the first time. The last lap was a terrific battle with Parise closing the gap around the final turn and into the home straight. Kat had just enough left to hold off the Brookline runner, winning in 3:14.91 to Parise's 3:14.92.

In other girls events, freshman Emma Kornetsky won the 600 in 1:51.80 (her first varsity win); Lily Brown won the 300 (43.77, best time of the day), and the shot put (30' 7") ; Alex Blenis won the long jump in a PR 15' 2.5" and tied for first in the high jump with Thera Staulo and Sarah Berkland at 4' 10"; Michelle Kaufman won the 55 dash (7.97); Leah Weisman won the 55 hurdles (9.66); and Haleigh Smith won the 2-mile with an impressive time of 11:51. When the Newton North 4x400 relay team won the final race of the day, Braintree had been held to just 8 points.

There were fine performances on the boys side, as well. Sophomore Jared Plotkin had the fastest time of the day in the 600 (1:30.68); Cailean Robinson (38.15) and Alex Lee (38.35) went 1-2 in the 300; Robinson also won the 55 dash in 6.86; Brendan Rooney (8.53) won the hurdles, with Nick van Niel (8.89) breaking 9.00 for the first time to place 3rd; David Smith won the shot put with a throw of 50' 0.5".

In his first ever 2-mile, Seb Putzeys very nearly won the whole thing. Seb broke away in the early laps and held a 5-second lead with a half mile to go before being caught on the final lap by Walpole's Steve Cain. A furious sprint ensued, with Cain (10:34.62) getting the better of Seb (10:35.29). Still, it was an auspicious distance debut for the sophomore. And in another stellar performance, fellow sophomore Alex Gurvitz broke 11 minutes for the first time, running 10:55.65 to place 4th overall. Congratulations, Alex!

Finally, North's Khalel Pritchard tied for first in the long jump with a leap of 19' 3.5", just a quarter-inch ahead of 3rd place Nick Van Niel.

Next up for North is the team pentathlon at Regiie Lewis on Saturday, followed by dual meet action next Thursday, Jan. 19th.