Ryan Lucken (36.12) Chases History

Winter began on Thursday, December 22nd, but unseasonably warm and mild weather made it feel more like a day for outdoor track than for the rush-hour pandemonium of indoor action at the Reggie Lewis Center. Be that as it may, Newton North's boys and girls teams busied themselves once again with being faster, stronger and deeper than their opponents, on this evening Framingham, and with winning their meets easily.

In the girls meet, NN hogged all but three of the points, yielding only a single second-place finish in the 600. Carla Forbes won two events (55 and LJ) and finished second in two others (55 hurdles and HJ). Kayla Wong won the hurdles and finished second in the 55. Maggie Heffernan won the 2M, Sarah Perlo the 1M, Miller McCarthey-Tuohy the 1000, Meghan Bellerose the 600, Madi Nadeau the 300, Michaela Salvucci the SP, and Lucia Grigoli the HJ.

On the boys side, NN's top three shot putters came within six inches of averaging 50 feet, with Swardiq Mayanja winning it at 53-2. In a great race, Framingham's Ben Groleau out-duelled Justin Keefe in the mile, running 4:25.25 to Keefe's 4:27.81.

Perhaps the performer of the night was NN junior Ryan Lucken, who won the 55 (6.97) and the 300 (in a personal best 36.12). Lucken also won the 300 at last Sunday's Winterfest meet, and is making his way up the school's all-time list in the lap-and-a-half race.

NNHS historian Josh Seeherman notes that Lucken is now the sixth fastest 300 runner in school history. Here's Josh's NHS/NNHS 300 All-Time List:

1. Dan King            2002   34.93
2. Sean Herlehy        2001   35.34+ (35.1h)
3. Dave Gates          1985   35.48+ (32.2yh)
4. Isaiah Penn         2011   35.58
5. Frank Hines         1938   35.91+ (32.6yh)
6. Ryan Lucken         2011   36.12
7. John Head           1957   36.35+ (33.0yh)
8. Matt Milner         1982   36.46+ (33.1yh)
9. Allen Boyer         1971   36.57+ (33.2yh)
10. Avery Mitchell     2007   36.74

Dan King remains the only NNHS runner to go under 35 seconds for 300 meters. It's still astonishing to think that King was more than a half second faster than Isaiah Penn's best time at that distance.

Five of the other top ten marks are converted from hand times over 300 yards, and some date back many decades. Josh notes that John Head ran 33.0yh in 1957 to win the Class A meet, where he tied the record held by Somerville's Jimmy Blackburn (remember him?) from the previous year. Head's race was at the Boston Garden on a wooden 160 yard portable track with four turns instead of three.

The runner just ahead of Lucken on the all-time list, Frank Hines, held the record for over 40 years.


Bay State Meet #2 Results

Yes, Virginia, There IS an Indoor Track Program

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 17 years old and I attend Concord Academy. My friends say there is nothing to do after cross-country except play intramural basketball and write college applications, and there's no such thing as "indoor" track. My coach says we can keep running outside, and doing drills in the hallways, and strength and core in the weight room, and if we believe in it hard enough, we can even run races in places like Harvard and BU and Roxbury. PLEASE tell me the truth; is there an Indoor Track season?"

- Virginia O'Hanlon, CA Class of '2012


VIRGINIA, your friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe in what they do not see. They think that nothing can be which is not described in the CA course catalog. All course catalogs, Virginia, whether they be CA's or some great university's, are the product of convention and previous experience. In this great universe of ours, course catalogs don't even begin to capture the possibilities of sport.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is an Indoor Track Season. It exists as certainly as strength and speed and endurance exist, and you know that they abound and give to your afternoons their highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the winter world if there were no Indoor Track. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no burning light of aspiration to break 13 in the 100, no dedication to come to practice on Saturday mornings in the hopes of running faster, jumping higher, or throwing further, no controlled chaos of indoor meets to make tolerable this cold and dark time of year. We should have no enjoyment, except in watching football on TV. The eternal light with which the competitive fire of young people fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Indoor Track! You might as well not believe in winter running! Sure, you could get the maintenance man to inspect the campus to see if there are any facilities for practicing hurdles, solid floor for putting shots, or mats and pits for the high and long jumps. But even if the maintenance man found nothing but a few unused hallways and a tiny weight room, what would that prove? Nobody sees an indoor track on campus, but that is no sign that there is no Indoor Track. The most real things in the world are those that neither athletes not coaches can see. Did you ever see the invisible lift that helps a triple jumper set a PR by two feet in a championship meet -- the sudden revelation that follows months of patient effort in the weight room and on the runway? Of course not, but that's no proof that it isn't there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the soul of an athlete.

You may biopsy the muscle and see what makes it contract with such force, but there is a veil covering the unseen world of athletic aspiration which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, dedication, and training can push aside that curtain and view and picture the beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Indoor Track! Thank God! It lives, and it lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, indoor track will continue to inspire the strong and rapid beat of the hearts of athletes everywhere.

Bay State Meet #1 - 12/15/11

From afar, I check out the results online of Bay State Meet #1 and am not surprised at the times and places and points piling up for Newton North.

The first name I see is that of Justin Keefe, perhaps the first winner of the season, ripping off a 4:37 mile in his indoor track opener. Gabe Montague and Jon Long, 2:45 and 2:52 in the 1000; Dan Swain (do I know him?) 1:28.92 in the 600; Ryan Lucken 36.59 (36.59!!) in the 300, Nick Fofana in a trio of events, a phalanx of shot putters led by Swardiq Mayanja at 52 feet, and so it goes. In my mind, I start playing the game of trying to project what those times will be after a season of dual meets, invitationals, relays, and facing better and better competition. Five (or is it six?) years away from the team and I still feel confident that Keefe will be running 4:20-22 at States, that everyone will get faster...

I click on the link to see the girls results, and all those sprinter times look incredibly fast for a first meet. I know I shouldn't think it -- wouldn't think it if I were a coach and not a distant fan -- but who will beat this team? Kayla Wong, Carla Forbes, Meghan Bellerose, Evie and Maggie Heffernan, Lucia Grigoli, Madi Nadeau, and all of those freshmen and sophomores who will be developing under Joe Tranchita's program.

The Boys and Girls won their meets over Braintree with identical scores of 82-13. It's early, and Braintree isn't the strongest opponent in the BSL, but this first meet didn't serve up much hope for the rest of the league.

Results - Bay State Meet #1 - 12/15/11

[Note: I know that some of my readers (well, Kevin...) will groan at seeing H.S. meet results again, and others will complain if I don't write detailed previews of every meet. As always, I write when I feel like I have something to say and time to say it properly. I wish I had more of both, but there you go. And yes, I am hoping to use the holiday break from work to write more about Tanzania.]