Tigers Edge Warriors 44-42 in Epic Meet

It's January 2073, and best friends Seb Putzeys, Michael Bennett, Sam Arsenault, and Robert Gibson are sitting together in shirtsleeves on the front porch of the assisted living center. After lazy conversation about the weather, politics, and football, the conversation drifts back to the golden days of their youth.

"That was a hell of meet," Seb says.

"It sure was," Gibby replies. "We should have beaten you that day -- but you had that insane kick in the 1000."

Seb cackles, but then remembers how close it all was. "That was only one event -- EVERY event was close, remember? It went back and forth all day."

Bennett chimes in: "Two inches. If I had thrown the shot two more inches, I would have taken second and then..." His voice trails off, and it almost seems like he is ready to go out there and run and throw like he did when he was young and strong and full of competitive fire.

"We couldn't believe it," Arsenault says. We threw everything we had at you guys, and you almost won it in the second event - in the shot put, for god's sake."

"Yeah, well Brookline had the last laugh," says Seb. "Gibby beat me at Class A's, and then again when we went 1-2 in the All-State mile."

"Yeah," says Bennett. "We were state champions that year, but we couldn't beat you in that dual meet. You guys really stepped up that day."

Arsenault answers, "We had guys run faster that day than they ever ran again in their lives. It was a great meet. It was the BEST meet we ever had."

They all rock in silence for a few minutes, and then Gibby says, "You know, I think I'd rather have beaten you that day than win the All-State meet." Seb ponders this for a moment and then says, "The important thing was that we all cared about it so much, and you know, we were ALL part of something pretty special, not just that one meet, but that whole time in our lives, and here we are still talking about it. I'm just glad there are still a few old guys like you who remember how it was..."

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Newton North prevailed over Brookline 44-42 in a meet that was as close as they come. Anticipated from the beginning of the season, this meet lived up to all the hype. It was a GREAT meet from start to finish, full of twists and turns, and a competition that seemed to bring out great performances from both teams.

What kind of meet was it? I was standing by the railing with Susannah Gleason's aunt Kate, and we were watching the high jump. When Brookline's Alex Lippincott cleared six feet, Kate started clapping and cheering. "Wait a minute," I said, "that's a BROOKLINE jumper." "But that was such a good jump," she said, and I had to agree.

The meet started out with the excitement of the mile. With Gibson and Putzeys moving down to the 1000, Ben Chebot (#804 in your program) ran an 8-second PR (4:49.64) to take third behind Elliot Lehane and Brendan Grove. Not a big deal? It was a HUGE deal. It was the kind of meet where every third place counts.

But before anyone could get too excited about that one point in the mile, word came back from the Shot Put that Michael Bennett had broken up the expected Newton sweep and regained the lost point with a toss of 42-8. (I don't know why the shot put results havene't been posted, by the way.)

That brough us to the 1000 -- a race which matched 2007 indoor All-State mile and XC champion Rob Gibson with Newton's Seb Putzeys. I happened to be sitting near the Brookline team, and they were three deep against the track cheering the race. After a reasonably quick first lap (in which Gibson got caught on the rail and had to extricate himself from fifth place with a bug surge), the pace slowed and the race became tactical. With the runners bunching, strange things started happening at the front. Eric Selke shared the lead for a while. The lead pack split 65, then 1:39. With a little less than 400m to go, Chris Mercurio bolted to the lead, and Gibson followed. With just over a lap to go, Seb shifted to a gear that surprised almost everyone in the building. Rocketing from third into the lead, Seb covered the final 200 meters in 28.7, and the final 400 in 59.8 to win by two seconds. It was a huge swing, and a huge boost for the Tigers, who were full of hope, although they still had their work cut out for them.

(In retrospect, had Gibson stayed in the mile, with Lehane or Grove moving to the 1000, the resulting points would most likely have been the same, so it was a good risk for Brookline to take. I wonder, though, how the race would have developed differently off a very fast pace.)

So now Newton had a one point lead. That lasted exactly one event, as Brookline re-took the lead with a win in the 600 by Ian Sandler. It wasn't all bad news for Newton, as Adam Bao ran a stellar 1:28 (a PR by 2+ seconds) to take second, just ahead of Irwin Scott. Now Brookline had the lead back.

Michael Bennett came within a few hundredths of a second of adding to that lead in the 300, but Ivan Kostadinov ran brilliantly to get the inside lane and then hang on through an agonizing home stretch to win in a PR 37.18, only 0.06 ahead of Bennett. Jeremy Miller took third for the Warriors, who clung to a one point lead.

In many ways, the high jump was THE central event of the meet. It went back in forth, with first ALex Lippincott clearing a height, and then Sam Arsenault matching him. When Lippincott cleared 6-2 (I think it was 6-2) on his final attempt, the meet hung in the balance. Arsenault answered like a champion, and the bar went up for both jumpers. After Lippincott missed twice at 6-4, Arsenault cleared on his second attempt, and unwittingly set in motion a bizarre and unfortunate series of events. Here's what happened: the bar was obviously set unevenly, with one standard slightly higher than the other. After Arsenault cleared, he called the official's attention to this fact. The official should have simply let Lippincott jump, since whether it was even or not, it should be the same for both jumpers. Instead, the official raised the bar on one side, sparking a protest from Brookline. Ultimately, there was an attempt to restore the bar to the way that it had been, but the confusion must have made it tough to focus on the jump. Lippincott missed his third attempt, and the event was over.

Now Newton had a two-point lead, and they extended it to five points as Arsenault won the hurdles (8.18), with Tony Chen taking third behind Brookline's Joel Parent.

Meanwhile, the two-mile was in progress. It figured to be a strong event for Brookline, and sure enough, Mike Burnstein and Ryan Hardiman broke away from Dan Hamilton in the middle of the race and became the fourth and fifth Breookline runners to go under ten minutes this season. Hamilton hung on for a PR 10:11 to take third, but now Brookline led by two.

The 55 was next, and Bennett won decisively in 6.80, ahead of Hymlaire Lamisere and Adam Bao. It was 42-39 going into the 4x400 relay.

The relay was a microcosm of the meet itself. Brookline took a strong early lead over Newton's Ilan Sarin. Kostadinov ran a strong second leg to get Newton back into it. Seb ran brilliantly to take the lead, but Brookline responded as their third runner came back and drew even or slightly ahead at the final exchange. Now it was Arsenault vs. Gibson, and for a moment, it looked like Gibson was ready to pass, but Arsenault held him off. The moment was gone, and Arsenault lengthened his advantage inch by inch, finally pulling away in the last 50 meters to lead North to the win, and a meet victory by the slimmest of margins.

This was a meet that truly ennobled both teams. The athletes and the coaches are very competitive, but obviously have a lot of respect for each other, and the result was something special. We were all fortunate to see it.

Bay State Meet REsults - Jan 17, 2008

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I know there were 11 OTHER Meets going on. I'll talk about them in another post.