Another big weekend of indoor track, with the Mass. State Division Championships happening all weekend at the Reggie Lewis Center. The D2 Championships were last night, D3 and D4 today, and the D1 Championships get underway at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Every year, I plug in the top performers (taken from the published performance lists), and do a mock team score. This isn't exactly a prediction, since seed times don't tell the whole story, but it does give a general idea of which teams are in the hunt for the championship.
In Boys Division I, five teams stand out. Newton North, St John's (Shrewsbury), Brookline, BC High, and Brockton are the ones to watch.
Newton North has a lot of potential points with top performers Sam Arsenault (55 hurdles, LJ), Seb Putzeys (1000m), Ivan Kostadinov and Adam Bao (LJ), and Steve Long (SP). In addition, North has two strong relays, the top-seeded 4x200, and the second-seeded 4x400. The 4x200 is a tough event to count on, though. With three potential scorers in the long jump, that will likely be the key event for the Tigers. Anything they can get in the hurdles would be a bonus.
St. John's Shrewsbury will be counting on Andrew Powell (top seed in HJ, third seed in 55 hurdles), and their outstanding long sprinters (Dennis Kott and Sean Mitchell are seeded 2nd and 3rd in the 600, and their 4x400 team could definitely finish higher than their 4th seed).
Brookline has formidable strength in the 1M (Elliot Lehane, seeded 3rd) and 2M (Robert Gibson and Michael Burnstein seeded 1st and 2nd). They need all those points, plus a good 4x800 relay and they'll be in business. The Warriors will also be hoping for points in the 300 (Michael Bennett, seeded 5th), 1000 (Chris Mercurio, seeded 5th), and high jump (Alex Lipincott, seeded 3rd). They are also seeded 4th in the 4x400 relay, but might struggle there without Gibson, who will run the 4x800.
BC High is kind of the sleeper in this group. But they are a threat because they have Corey Thomas, the top-seeded hurdler and a 6-8 high jumper. If he scores 18 points for them (and it could be 20!), they'll be looking for points from Mike Murphy (50' shot put) and their strong 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams. I don't see them getting more than 40 points, though, so unless NN, SJS, and Brookline all have bad days, I think BC High won't be the top team.
Brockton is always dangerous and this year is no exception. They have a sub 36 300 runner (Jimm Guerrier), a 4:21 miler (Carlos Montrond), a 22' long jumper (Dean Gregory), and a slew of 6.7x guys in the dash. Basically, they are going to score points with Guerrier and Montrond, and they have HUGE potential if their guys can step up in the other events. They also have a very strong 4x800 relay, and could place higher than their fifth seed in the 4x200.
Going ONLY by the performance lists, the teams score as follows:
Newton North 55
SJS 43
Brookline 41
BC High 40.5
Brockton 37.5
However, these teams are so close that there will be surprises and shake-ups, and any team could emerge on top.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment