To no one's surprise, The Newton North Girls won the D1 State Relays title yesterday, earning their second straight victory and fifth in the last eight years.
To almost everyone's surprise, the Newton North boys joined them as champions, winning their first title since 2005.
The girls won with their characteristic depth, scoring 37 points in the running events and 36 points in the field events. On the track, the Tigers dominated the sprint medley (4:14.50) and shuttle hurdles (1:05.51), winning by over five seconds in the former and two seconds in the latter. The Tigers also won a close race in the 4x400 over Andover, setting a meet of 3:59.61. For good measure, the team picked up a 4th-place finish in the distance medley, a 5th in the 4x1600, and a 6th in the 4x200.
In the field events, North won the triple jump and long jumps by an average of a foot per jumper. They also won the discus, which, with a 3rd in the Javelin, clinched the meet. I've always maintained that this Newton North team can win even when things don't go perfectly. On Sunday, North surely hoped for plenty of points in the high jump, but recorded a "NH" instead. In the end, it didn't matter as the Tigers had points from so many other sources.
For the boys, highlights of the running events included a razor-thin victory in the sprint medley (3:34.78, just 0.02 ahead of Andover), a 3rd in the 4x1600 (18:15.07), and a 5th in the distance medley (10:58.02).
It was unexpected points in the field events, however, that put North over the top. Mike Bower's throwers took home a first-place in the shot put (Swardic Mayanja had the best throw of the competition with a toss of 54-4), and second in the discus. The boys scored a surprise second in the high jump, and a third in the triple. The team's 50 points was 11 better than New Bedford and St. John's Prep.
It was also a great comeback for a team that finished 9th in 2010 and only 21st in 2009.
Boston Herald coverage
Great highlight photos
Full Results - D1 State Relays May 1, 2011
4 comments:
Congratulations and thanks to the NNHS athletes and coaches! It was a terrific day, with great weather, record breaking and suspenseful finishes.... all highly entertaining for the parents.
It should be noted that North captain Amy Ren looks like she has quietly racked up 195 points in her eight State Relay competitions, averaging 24.4 points/meet (unsure of some of the 1st year points):
2008 indoor 11 pts
2008 outdoor 20 pts
2009 indoor 26 pts
2009 outdoor 24 pts
2010 indoor 28 pts
2010 outdoor 30 pts
2011 indoor 26 pts
2011 outdoor 30 pts
That seems like it must be a state record (if such a record was kept). Carla is averaging 21 in 1st 4 meets and needs to average 28 in last 4 meets to catch her.
195 points in 4 years... that outscores I'd say all but 4 teams- LS, NS, Andover, and Weymouth. Incredible. JT must just say "where are we putting Amy Ren- wherever we want to win".
Congratulations to both squads! Coach Bower does an amazing job with the throws crew. I reread the Dec. 2006 interview he had here; like Coach Blackburn, he is very humble about his staggering success. Maybe that is part of the reason they work well together.
Thanks for the write-ups Jon!
-Wofsy
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