The Newton North boys rode a surge of points in the shot put and two second-place finishes in the 4x2 and 4x4 relays to score 40 points and tie Lowell for the runner-up trophy at the DI Championships Sunday.
The final scores for the top three teams were the result of a bizarre finish in the 4x400 relay that propelled Acton-Boxborough to its first-ever indoor state title, and left Lowell stunned. Heading into the final event, Lowell (40 points) held a 5-point lead over A-B (35) and an 8-point lead over Newton North (32) and Brookline (32). With the second-seeded relay, the championship was within reach.
And everything seemed to be going right through the first three legs, with their anchor runner taking the baton cleanly only tenths of a second behind Newton North. But 100 meters into the race and needing only to play it safe, Lowell's runner tried to pass without a full stride and made contact with North's anchor. A yellow flag went up, meaning that the referee would have to decide whether the infraction was grounds for disqualification. But it never came to that. In the final strides of the race, as A-B took the lead, and Lowell and NN battled for 2nd, the Lowell runner lost his balance, stumbled, and fell to the track, inches from the finish line. He never crossed it. A-B got the win and the team title. North got 8 points for second. With a DNF, Lowell had to settle for sharing the runner-up team position with Newton.
The drama notwithstanding, it was a terrific race for North, who ran a season's best time of 3:26.67. North's 4x200 team had also come through in a big way, with Ryan Lucken, Nate Menninger, Shawn Seamans, and Daniel Swain taking second behind Chelmsford in a time of 1:31.93.
North had scored its first points of the afternoon in the 1000, with Justin Keefe taking a hard-fought 4th in 2:32.67. Keefe had been in 2nd most of the race behind Framingham's Ben Groleau, but was caught in the final strides by A-B's Tim Cox and Haverhill's Mike McNaughton. NN sophomore Gabe Montague finished 9th in 2:34.93.
In the shot put, Swardick Mayanja rocked the gym with his fifth throw, a monster personal best of 58-11.5. You can watch it yourself, below. Meanwhile, Young Guang threw 50' even to take 3rd, and Leslie Whitham threw 47-2 to take 6th, giving the Tigers a total of 19 points in the event.
Congratulations to the NN boys, almost all of whom will compete at the State Meet next Sunday.
2012 DI Indoor Track and Field Championships - Results
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
The Lowell finish was so tragic.
All I can imagine is that he was so dazed by the fall and the race loss that he didn't realize he was a foot short of the finish line.
It was like a prize fighter getting counted out. He had ~5 seconds to crawl over for the meet win points but didn't move.
1-2-3-4-6 (meet win gone) 7-8 (meet 2nd gone) 9-10...open qualifier gone...
I thought he did get up and cross around 3:42 after all the other heat teams had finished.
D1 Meet Photos.
To credit North's win to Lowell's slip at the finish line without also considering the impact of his "contact" with Newton's anchor (Swain) doesn't quite tell the entire story. Swain was able, just barely, to remain upright, but without a doubt, it hurt North's time.
if you watch the video closely, you can see the north kids celebrating the big throw! :)
Post a Comment