Although many of us focused on last night's battle between the Newton North and Weymouth girls, it was the boys meet that nearly became an instant classic. Event-by-event, the Wildcats held their own against the heavily favored Tigers, and it looked like it was going to come down to the relay.
Here's how close it was: Had Weymouth's Tyler Mulcahey managed to clear any of his three attempts at 5-11, and if Ronald Homere managed to hit the finish line of the 55m dash two-hundredths of a second faster, it would have been 47-43, Newton going into that final 4x400. But those things didn't happen. And even if they had, North had the horses to run a season's best 3:33.14 in the relay, leaving no doubt about the outcome.
The Tigers won seven of the ten individual events, with particularly strong showings in the shot put (9-0), 300, and the aforementioned 55 dash. Ryan Lucken was a double winner (300 and 55), while Young Guang had another strong meet, winning the HJ and finishing 2nd in the Shot Put. I wonder if Young is planning on competing in the individual pentathlon. Here are his marks from yesterday: 5-9 high jump, 49-3.5 shot put, 9.55 hurdles (in addition to a 7.07 55 dash).
In addition to their strength in the sprints and shot put, North won three close races in the mile (Justin Keefe, over Nolan Parsley), 1000 (Gabe Montague), and 600 (Daniel Swain). Those were welcome points, as Weymouth took 2nd and 3rd in each of those events to keep the score close. The Wildcats went 1-2 in the long jump and 55 hurdles, and also won the 2M. They came very close, but in the end it wasn't quite enough to dethrone the decade-long defending Carey champs.
The girls meet had some great individual performances on both sides, but Newton North had the greater depth as well as the incomparable Carla Forbes, and in the end pulled away to leave-no-doubt 64-31 win.
The first event was a harbinger for the rest of the meet, as Evie Heffernan won a terrific battle in the mile against two of Weymoth's best, Julie Tevenan and Bridget Jaklitsch. The momentum continued in the 1000, with Miller McCarthy-Tuohy winning another close race against Allison Brady. In the 600, Jen Kimball (league best 1:39.49) raced to victory over Meghan Bellerose (1:39.86), but with the exception of the shot put and 2M, there were few other highlights for the Wildcats.
Newton dominated the sprints and jumps. Not coincidentally, that's where Carla Forbes keeps office hours, and the junior scored a career high 19 points by winning three events outright (300, 55, and LJ), and sharing first place in the high jump with teammate Lucia Grigoli. Kayla Wong won the hurdles and took 2nd in both the long jump and 55 dash, scoring 11 points.
And for good measure, North won the relay in 4:10.15.
With the Bay State Care Division well in hand, now it's on to the State Relays, and a big test against the rest of the state.
Full results are posted on Cool Running.
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6 comments:
3:33 without lucken. once he moves up, they'll contend at class a's
outdoors is gonna be close as weymouth gets Bailey-Smith and couple of sprinters back. weymouths distance is also looking better as mike miller takes control of those guys and whips them into shape.could be and interesting meet despite norths likely shot /discus sweep.
the 600 was run by daniel swain, not donald swain
First of all, I can assure you that "Mike Miller taking control" has had much less of an impact on the distance guys at Weymouth than the phenomenal XC season these guys had, qualifying for All States for the first time. Secondly, if he was such a great distance coach, then how come his girls couldn't muster more than 15 points from the 1000 up, where they needed them the most?
Thanks for the correction. I've fixed Daniel's name and several other typos.
Mike -- Knowing what you guys needed to have a chance, I thought you deployed your runners exactly right. Evie and Miller both stepped up big-time, because your squad had a very real shot at scoring 21 points in the three longer events.
well mr miller, i think you can answer your own question here. Both have to do with depth and the differences between track and cross. Both weymouth teams have pretty deep teams but no real studs (maybe parsley being the exception although he got beat) newton on the other hand has the two heffernans and that miller girl and keefe and montague. a win beats a second and a third in track. But a win in cross does very little, you need depth in cross.
So while your team is great at cross because they go at least 5 deep, no real studs to take the wins in track, thats why they only scored 15 points.
And for the guys, no real studs for weymouth (again parsley maybe) but they were deep in cross. I believe you will have them to be studs by spring with nolan winning and others winning races as opposed to second.
Agree to disagree mr miller.
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