All-State Meet - Team Previews

The All-State Meet is the culmination of the indoor track season, and there is a team title on the line, as well as individual titles. The team competition is, however, a little bit strange because it only takes one or two great athletes to win the title. That looks to be the case for the girls this year, as no team projects to score more than 22 points, and one athlete - Medford's Aranxta King -- is the heavy favorite to score 20 points all by herself. Yes, the team title could be won by a one-person team!

But more likely, one or two teams will get over the 20-point barrier. Wachusett seems to have an excellent chance, as Kim Shooshan is favored to win the 1000 (and another teammate is seeded 5th), and Wachusett's 4x800 team is also favored. If anything goes wrong for them, Newton South is poised to make a run at the title, with Bridget Dahlberg a strong candidate to finish 2nd in the mile (behind untouchable mile goddess Colleen Wetherbee), Anja Hergreuter a potential high scorer in the high jump with a chance to get points in the hurdles, and a very good 4x800 team, which could finish in the top three.

And, darn it, Newton North can't be counted out. I mean, if North could get 10 points in the 2 Mile, and then win the 4x400, all they would need would be a couple more points, which they could get from the 600 or the hurdles or the 2 Mile. It's a long shot, but it could happen.

In the boys competition, Lexington once again looks releatively safe for the team title. They have the first and third seeds in the 1000, the second seed (by 0.01) in the 600, a potential winner in the HJ, the top seed in the 4x200, and a very good 4x800 team. They project to 49 points, and no one else is close, not even Xaverian. As long as Meikle Paschal stays healthy, they should win.

The Newton North boys, alas, don't have quite enough potential scorers to overcome Lexington's depth. They do have excellent chances for high finishes in the mile (Polgar), the 55 (Robinson and Forbes), the shot put (Smith), and the 4x800. It's also possibe that their 4x200 team could score, but probably not high enough to get major points.