Bay State Meet Results - Jan. 24, 2008

Weymouth Girls Crush Newton North

So much for the expert predictions!

I expected the contest between unbeaten Newton North and unbeaten Weymouth to be a tense battle that came down to the final event. Instead, Weymouth crushed Newton 56-30, winning the Carey Division, and establishing themselves as the strongest team in the league. The meet was all but over after the 300, a pivotal event in which Newton gambled with two of their best runners (sacrificing their 4x400 relay), and watched helplessly as Carolyn Ranti and Michelle Kaufman both set PRs, but were beaten to the line by Jenn Bell and Kayla Sullivan. Later, Weymouth would win the 55 hurdles (a Newton strength) and sweep the 55. In the sprints and relay, Weymouth outscored Newton by a staggering 27-5.

The girls meet of the day turned out to be Wellesley-Natick, which went back and forth throughout, and came down to the relay. With Natick leading 41-40, Wellesley's 4x400 quartet ran 4:13.41 (second on the day only to Weymouth's 4:13.02) to win the meet and the Herget Division crown.

Back to the Newton North-Weymouth meet: it all started well for the Tigers, with Carolyn Ranti winning the mile in 5:13.91 over Weymouth's Jill Corcoran (PR 5:18.83). It would be the last time Newton led the meet. Weymouth countered immediately with Carolyn Connolly in the 1000, and she dominated the race with a PR 3:04.93. After Nora Barnicle took second, the battle for third was revealing. Four runners from the two teams were in contention until the final meters, with Cristiana Bianco outkicking Shoshana Kruskal and Maalika Banerjee for third. A pattern was emerging. Newton North runners were running very good times, and Weymouth runners were beating them with ven better times.

In the 600, Sam Bennett won easily in 1:41.38, and Melissa Kimball ran a 3-second PR to come within 0.1 of beating Emma Kornetsky for 2nd. Weymouth now led 15-12 going into the fateful 300.

One of the best events of the meet turned out to be the shot put, where all three Newton shot putters had PR's and were in a position to sweep the meet going into the final throws. That's when Weymouth's Emily Clark and Christine Candler uncorked PR's of their own and turned a 9-0 Newton advantage into a mere 5-4 edge. it was like that all day for Weymouth, as they stepped up and showed not only their talent but their ability to rise to the competitive occasion.

When Sullivan, Bell, and Clark swept the 55 ahead of Kaufman, the meet was over. For good measure, Weymouth went 1-3 in the 2-Mile, 2-3 in the high jump, and won the relay by 25 seconds!

Newton Boys Wrap Up Carey Title

The Newton North boys made it official as they beat Weymouth 66-20 to win the Bay State Carey Division. The Tigers swept the 1M, 2M, 1000, shot put, and high jump, and won all but one event.

Notable performances for the Tigers included Dan Hamilton's terrific PR run of 10:04.88 in the 2-Mile to take 2nd overall and qualify for the meet, Alex Gurvitz, Matt Gornstein, and Eric Selke all running PRs in the 1000 (with Gornstein and Selke) going under 2:50 for the first time, and Hymlaire Lamisere's blazing 6.79 in the 55 (fastest time of the day).

It would also be easy to overlook Sam Arsenault's outstanding performance in the (NON-SCORING) long jump, as he leapt 20-8 for the win. Will Sam consider the individual Pentathlon? With PR's of 6-5 in the HJ, 20-8 in the LJ, 8.10 in the 55 hurdles, and supposedly a 40+ throw in the shot put (in practice), and excellent 400 speed that could, perhaps, be stretched to run a decent 1000, who will beat him?

Other Shout-Outs

Wellesley's Yuri Brown won the 2-mile in a PR 9:56.47. He is has been running excellent times of late, so congratulations to him on the win!

I have seen the future of girls distance running in the BSC and her name is Sarah Bowhill. The Framingham freshman still hasn't figured out how to use her arms when she runs, and racing in training shoes, but who cares? She broke 12:00 for the first time, running 11:57.46, and had a super strong finish, indicating that she can go faster. With Bowhill and junior Camille Murphy (5:21 mile), Framingham has two outstanding distance runners.