April 06, 2009

NN Prepares for Brookline

On Tuesday, Newton North travels to Brookline for a dual meet with the Warriors.

The Tiger boys will have their hands full, especially given the uncertain status of Sam Arsenault. Assuming Sam is still limited to the throwing events, the Tigers will have to rely on others to pick up the slack in the hurdles and jumps. Looking over the results of North's first meet against Dedham, it seems that North is deep enough to score a lot of points in the sprints, with Troy Peterson (100), Ben Kiley (100), Isaiah Penn (200/400), Tony Chen (110H), Neil Fulwiler (400H), Hao-Kai Wu (200).

In the field events, Brookline certainly has the edge in the high jump (Joel Parent) and triple (Ian Sandler), but in the three throwing events, North could score a lot of points. Connor Ebbs had a throw of 129' in the discus against Dedham, and Neil Fulwiler threw the javelin 144'. North's shot putters have an excellent chance to sweep that event, putting the pressure on Brookline to find points elsewhere.

One of the most surprising things to me was to see how deep Newton North's distance runners are at such an early stage of the season. The same nucleus of runners that qualified for the State cross-country meet last fall is reunited this Spring and the Tigers had 3 runners at 4:50 or better in the 1M and 2 runners at 10:16 or better in the 2-mile. Jarad Forman (4:34 miler) is back, and won the mile last week, with Dan Ranti and Jake Gleason right behind him. Gleason's time of 4:50 is a huge PR, and shows that he is a threat to score points in either the mile or 2-mile. Michael Goldenberg is back on the track after a successful winter doing Nordic skiing, and his 10:16 in the 2-mile is scary for so early. Dan Hamilton's 10:03 is the fastest in the league so far.

On paper, the Newton North girls look a lot stronger and deeper than the Warriors. Joe Tranchita has talked about the team's balance, and that's probably the key here. The Tigers have strong distance runners (Gillis, Ranti, Barnicle, Heffernan), solid sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers, and good coverage in the field events.

The meet is scheduled to begin at 3:45 at Downes Field in Brookline.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't see how this is much of a contest. NN's distance crew stymies Brookline's strength especially without Grove and Wilson. The beat marches on for NN.

M. Glennon said...

Wow! Someone seems confident.Will you be officiating if weather holds out for the meet? See you then if you are.

Anonymous said...

Good luck boys. Keep the streak going. I don't know I have an eery feeling about this one, just because Brookline "Has the no one believes in us" factor going with their guys that are hurt. Thankfully, you know the coaches will have the team ready.

Anonymous said...

This wont even be close. North approaches 100 points, Arsenault and Kiley quadruple for no reason.

Anonymous said...

No mention of Ethan Goldman or Ezra Lichtman in your post?

Dan Hamilton said...

For the record, according to Athletic.net, I have the fastest time in the state.

Somehow though, with 10:03, I doubt this is completely accurate.

Anonymous said...

Athletic.net only has teams that have posted their times on it, and not every team has done it.

egyptian prince said...

no love.