May 03, 2008

Weston Twilight Meet Preview

Cool temperatures, overcast skies, and scattered showers are in the forecast most of the day, with the chance of partial clearing towards evening -- conditions that will make for chilly spectating at the Weston Twilight meet.

Even on warm spring days, you need to wear warm clothes for Weston. The meet begins in the late afternoon (4:30 for the field events, 5:00 for the running), and continues into the dark, and it can be COLD! It doesn't help that the meet notoriously runs behind schedule, making it tricky to know when to warm up.

Last year's meet featured a breakthrough performance for Carolyn Ranti in the 800 (to take second), and a tremendous race in the girls 2-Mile, with Emily Jones holding off Jess Barton, and both well ahead of Bridget Dahlberg and Colleen Weatherbee.

Jones and Dahlberg are back, but entered in the mile this time, along with All-State indoor 1000m champ Emily Mepham. Odd as it seems, although Dahlberg has won three state titles in the mile, she might be considered the underdog against Jones. It should be a great race. In the girls 2-Mile, state runner-up Kelsey Karys will take on state 3rd-place finisher Rebecca White. Although Karys has a seed time twenty seconds faster, this should be a closer race than that. In all, there are nine girls seeded faster than 11:30. Tenth seed is Newton North freshman Margo Gillis. It will fascinating to see how she handles what is sure to be a demanding pace.

Omar Aden will be the heavy favorite in the boys mile. Aden, the All-State champ is seeded at 4:13, eight seconds faster than Dracut's Dan Roarke. Actually, Aden's main competition is likely to come from Chelmsford's Chris Brown. If the weather is cold and even a little bit breezy, I don't expect a really fast time but it should be a good race.

Bay State rivals Seb Putzeys and Robert Gibson will tangle again in the boys 800, and will be joined by "Lil Stizz" -- Wayland's Brett Stein. Gibson beat Putzeys in the team's dual meet a couple of weeks ago, but everyone should be a bit faster now.

Carolyn Ranti is in 800 again where she'll take on Lincoln-Sudbury's Ellie Hylton and Newton South's Diana Braver.

One of the deepest fields, at least going by the seed times, is the girls 400m. It's hard for me to believe that Emma Kornetsky is seeded only 13th with a 60.80!

The girls long jump is also very deep, with 23 athletes seeded at 15-0 or better! Coaches' exaggeration? I suspect so, but there's no question it is a good field. Seventh-seeded Allison Hollland (Watertown) finished fourth in the indoor All-State meet.

This year's meet entries

Last year's Weston results

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