Results from the Team Pentathlon

The Newton North Boys won the MSTCA Team Pentathlon for the fourth time in the last five years, while the girls passed three teams in the final event to place 3rd for the second year in a row.

Full results available here

In the Team Pentathlon, five athletes from one school compete as a team, with each team member competing in one event. The events are: 55 Hurdles, Shot Put, High Jump, Long Jump, and 1000 meters (800 meters for girls). The mark achieved in each event is converted into a score (roughly on a scale from 0 to 1000), and the individual scores are totaled to give the team score.

Unlike previous years in which the boys have been far superior to their competition and could afford to coast, this year they needed outstanding marks from everyone to defeat a determined Andover squad. Racing with a sore hamstring, Brendan Rooney kept North near the lead, as he opened the competition by placing 6th in the 55 hurdles in 8.48, only 0.18 off his best. Next up was the shot put, and David Smith was the big man as he tossed his first throw 51' 4," good enough to win the competition by nearly six feet and put North back in the lead by a slim two points.

The high jump was expected to be North's weakest event, but Nick Van Niel proved once again that he is at his best when the stakes are highest, as he cleared a personal best 5' 8" on his first attempt. Those 2" above his previous best 5' 6" were worth about 50 points to North. Khalel Pritchard had an outstanding effort in the Long Jump, going 20' 1.75", and North had a commanding lead going into the final event.

Last year, the 1000m was the highlight of the meet, as Brian Gagnon and David Polgar finished 1-2 separated by only a tenth of a second. Polgar has struggled for the last two weeks with a knee injury and didn't look terribly sharp, but his fourth place 2:36.87 was enough to seal the win for the Tigers. Their final score of 3664 points was 58 points ahead of second-place Andover, and only 53 points shy of the State Record, set by -- no surprise -- Newton North in 2002.

The Newton North girls entered two teams, and, in at least one instance, their "B" team competitor surpassed the "A" team competitor. In the hurdles, Leah Weisman ran 9.40, behind a meet record 8.75 from Dedham's Emily Stefans. Morgan Faer ran 10.04 for the "B" team. In the high jump, Sarah Berkland cleared 4' 9", and Theresa Staulo cleared 4' 7.5." In the long jump, Alex Blenis leaped 13' 10", about a foot off her best jump this season, while Becca King jumped 12' 8" for the "B" team. In the shotput Tracy Isman got off a great throw in the first flight, 30' 3.5", but unfortunately that was for the "B" team! Lily Brown threw it 28' 7.5" for the "A" team, which brought North to the final event in 6th.

North hoped to catch at least a couple of teams with a strong run from Jess Barton. The defending State mile champion ran a PR 2:20.8 to place 3rd behind Dennis Yarmouth's Colleen Weatherbee and Andover's Rachel Fox, and with Barton's performance, North leap-frogged three teams to take 3rd for the second straight year.