Your Guide to the All-State Meet

The Basics

2008 Mass. All-State Indoor Track Meet
NOW MONDAY - FEBRUARY 25, 2008
Reggie Lewis Center - Roxbury, Mass.
Field Events begin at 4:30p; Running events at 5:00p

Schedule

4:30 PM LONG JUMP AND SHOT PUT: Girls followed by Boys
4:30 PM HIGH JUMP: Boys and Girls compete simultaneously.
5:00 PM ALL TRACK EVENTS: Girls followed by Boys
ONE MILE RUN FINAL
600M RUN FINAL
1000M RUN FINAL
300M RUN FINAL
TWO MILE RUN FINAL – Girls
55M HURDLES TRIALS
55M DASH TRIALS
TWO MILE RUN FINAL – Boys
55M HURDLES FINAL
55M DASH FINAL
4x800M RELAY FINAL
4x200M RELAY FINAL
4x400M RELAY FINAL

Who is Competing?

Here are links to the boys and girls performance lists:

Girls performance list
Boys performance list

Athletes qualified by finishing in the top five in their events at the divisional State meets (AKA "the Class meets"), or by having one of the next top four best performances.

Preview: Girls Meet

Lincoln-Sudbury had a banner day last Sunday at the D1 meet, and the team hopes to wrap up the state title on Friday. Standing in their way will be Andover and Dual-county rival Newton South, North Reading, and .

Action gets under way with the field events. L-S hopes that Maggie Fleming, who won D1 with a jump of 5-3 can equal or beat her PR 5-5, because it will take a higher jump to place in the top three here. Tewksbury's Kristin Judge has gone 5-7 this year, and Wellesley's Hanna Muir has jumped 5-6.

Newton North's Amy Ren and Vicki Marone compete in the long jump. Winchester's Krista Woodward has the top seed and the longest jump in the state in this, the first year of the post-Aranxta King era. The latest word is that Dana Jamieson WILL compete this week, although she hurt her hamstring jumping last week.

In the shot put, Holliston junior Emmaline Berg is nearly three feet better than anyone else, having thorwn 41-2 last week.

On the oval, the meet begins with the 1-mile run. Newton South junior Bridget Dahlberg is the odds-on favorite to win her third straight indoor mile state championship. L-S hopes that freshman Andrea Keklak can be in the top three. Weymouth freshman Jill Corcoran will also be competing for a medal.

In the 600, Bishop Feehan's Meg Looney is the dominant force. The only runner who might have challenged her - L-S's Dana Jamieson -- won't be running after suffering an injury last week. L-S will be looking to Jess Griffin to pick up some points from this event. Weymouth's Sam Bennett will be running in the next to last heat, but could very well finish in the top six by time.

The 1000 will be one of the best races of the day with a very deep and competitive field. Emily Mepham is the top seed and favorite, and she has both strength and a killer finishing kick. Carolyn Ranti is the master of the fast even pace, and managed 2:59.40 last week despite the flu. If she has recovered, she could push Mepham to an even faster time. if either of these two falter, there are half dozen girls waiting to take their places, including L-S' Molly Binder, Marlborough's Cathy withers, and Framingham's Camille Murphy.

The 300 will be headlined by North reading's Shannon Conway who ran 40.61 last week, the the fastest time in the state this year. Acton-Boxboro's Casey Hsiung won D1 out of the slow heat, but it looks like this week its finals only.

The 2-mile is intriguing for one reason: the second-best runner in the state will be running in the unseeded heat. Kelsey Karys was very ill last week, but still managed to qualify with a gutsy 7th-place finish in D1. if she's feeling better, she'll be WAY out in front in the unseeded heat. In the seeded heat, Emily Jones is by far the best runner in the field and should win easily.

The 55 hurdles should be fun, with Newton's Michelle Kaufman seeded 6th and owning the fourth-best time in the state this year. Michelle has really improved over the last several weeks, and ran her personal best in the trials last Saturday. Mansfield's Meghan Ferreira is the top seed.

The 55 dash is wide, wide open. North Reading's Alexis Capozzi has the top seed, but Andover's Christina Muccio has run faster. Five girls are bunched between 7.31 and 7.38 so we'll need to go to the photo to pick the winners.

In the relays, L-S is the favorite in the 4x800, with Newton South capable of making it a race. Newton North is a surprising 4th seed, but will need improvements across the board to compete with a reseted Franklin, Hingham, and Bromfield. In the 4x200,m Andover has the top seed and is just better than everyone else. In the 4x400, L-S might be the team to beat IF Jamieson runs. If not, top seed Andover gets the nod.


Preview: Boys Meet

Woburn is the team to beat for the all-state title, but it's going to be one of the most competitive team competitions in years, with St John's Shrewsbury and Brookline nipping at Woburn's heels, and Reading, Newton North, and BC High in the hunt.

The first event for the boys is the high jump and it has HUGE implications for the team title. St John's Andrew Powell beat BC High's Corey Thomas in a jump-off last week, with Brookline's Alex Lippincott third. Anything can happen in this event, though, and a good showing for Powell is essential for SJS team chances. Likewise, another great performance from Lippincott, and Brookline might leapfrog the other teams.

The shot put and long jump are also highly significant in the team competition. In the LJ, Newton North's trio of outstanding jumpers are seeded 5th, 6th, and 9th in a crowded field with no clear favorite. A few inches could make the difference between NN scoring lots of points or scoring none at all. in the SP, Mansfield's Mike McPherson threw 58 feet last week, and that's four feet better than anyone else. Newton's Steve Long is seeded 7th, and realistically could finish as high as 4th.

On the oval, the mile will be intriguing, as there is no dominating presence and everyone seemed to run slow last week. Charlestown's Omar Aden is the favorite and has the fastest time in the field (4:19). Chris Brown won D1 last week and should be in the top three. Watch out for Carlos Montrond to rebound from a sub-par race last week. Brookline's Elliot Lehane should score, and I think Seekonk's super soph Johnny Gregorek will be up there as well. There are a lot of guys I haven't mentioned who could score, which makes the race really volatile and fun.

The 600 should go to Woburn's Ryad Bencheikh who owns the state's only sub 1:21 time this year. St John's Sean Mitchell and Dennis Kott went 1-2 last week in D1, but I think Chelmsford's Ryan Buckley learned his lesson last week and will run a smarter race and beat them both on Friday, hurting SJS' team chances.

The 1000 is fairly wide open, although Woburn's Brett Sullivan and Gloucester's Liam Anastasia-Murphy has been making it their private dueling ground. Seb Putzeys is capable running with those two, but if he leads, he's going to have a tough time holding them off. Anastasia-Murphy, in particular, has a positively lethal kick. St. John's Prep's Mike Masse used Seb this way last week, and ran a season's best 2:31. I think those four will take the top four spots, but maybe in a different order.

In the 300, with finals only, I don't see Brookline's Mike Bennett duplicating his D1 win (he's seeded fourth). Westborough's Ryan Ruffing has the top seed and is a clear favorite. If I had to pick one runner who could pull a stunning upset, it would be Lexington sophomore Daishawn Beaumont who very nearly overtook Bennett last week, and seems to be learning and improving with every race he runs. He's a major talent, maybe ready to emerge.

The top five seeds in the two-mile are all closely matched, and all capable of scoring big points. But the winner will be Robert Gibson, who toyed with the pace and the field in last week's D1 race before graciously giving teammate Mike Burnstein the win. Having run in Gibson's wake for most of his HS career, Burnstein is a fine runner who is having a tremendous year. He won the State Coaches meet in 9:31, and will give Dave Hausherr and Anthony Raduazo a run for their money. If Brookline gets 14 points or more from the deuce, plus 6-12 points from the HJ, 300, and mile, they'll have a shot at the team title.

In the 55 dash, Andover's Chris McConnell is the show. Only a soph, he has run 6.42 and that's more than 1/10th of a second better than anyone else.

The hurdles looks like a duel between D1 winner Bryant Wang (L-S) and runner-up Powell (SJS), with BC High's Corey Thomas waiting in the wings to pull an upset.

Ultimately, the meet will come down to the relays. Woburn has the state's fastest 4x200 and 4x400 relays BUT they have been challenged in both events. Reading came with 0.01 of beating the tanners in the 4x200 last week, and Belmont was within a second of matching them in the 4x400. Newton North has the third seed in both relays. It's tough to imagine the Tigers moving up in the 4x200 if all three teams run cleanly, but anything can happen in the 4x2. In the 4x4, Newton always runs great at the end of the year, and it is NOT har to imagine that they will be running for the win, even against the talent of Woburn and Belmont.

Brookline has the top seed in the 4x800, but two of their runners will be competing in individual events. Peabody, running fresh, might be too much for the Warriors. If Gibson can come back from the 2-mile to anchor a victorious Brookline team, it would be an outstanding performance.