Girls
Junior hurdler Lily Holloway led off the day for the Lady Lancers competing in the 55m hurdles. Competing in the sixth heat, Holloway got out quick and hit the finish line in 9.77, good for third overall in the heat. She placed 24th overall in the field of 45 girl field, as she still maintains the 7th fastest hurdles seed heading into the TVL Championships.
In the dash, the Lancers had two entries on the day in freshman Carly Murphy and junior Julia Newell. Competing in the ninth heat, Murphy ran 8.16 to place sixth in the heat and 69th overall. One heat later, Newell matched her season's best in 8.04, also placing sixth in the heat and 53rd overall. Murphy would return to the track a few events later to compete in the 600 meters. Despite not racing the event in two weeks, she ran a respectable 1:51.01 to place 35th in the field. With a little more mileage, her transition to mid-distance will be complete!
For the first distance event of the day, senior captain Katie Bradley ran in the seeded heat of the girls' mile. A large 20-girl field split, forcing Bradley to chase the lead pack solo while runners slowly crept up on her. She went for the time fought through a hard second 800 to finish in 5:32.13, placing 16th overall in the event.
Heading back to the 600 meters, senior captain Julia Palin took to the track with the top seed in the field. Racing in the fast section, Palin patiently waited in the pack through 200 at 31.95. Making moves at 260, moving through the field, Palin found herself up to leader Elise O'Leary of Milton. Hitting the bell lap at just over 1:04, she flew with O'Leary down the back straight fighting for the lead. Unfortunately, running out of space down the front stretch it became a race to the clock. O'Leary won in 1:36.52 with Palin a tad over a second later in 1:37.69. Her runner-up time not only betters her state's auto-qualifier and establishes a new personal best, but also sets a new school record, previously held by teammate Katie Bradley from the 2014-15 season.
Kylie Dion was next on the track to compete in the girls 300 meters. Finishing a close third her heat in 45.44, Dion finished 39th overall in the field. As Dion sprinted, teammate and senior captain Mary Diestel competed in the high jump, easily clearing the opening height of 4'-9". Looking to match her season's best, Diestel also cleared 4'-10" before having to leave the event to compete in the 4x200m relay. Despite a clean clear at 4'-10", exhaustion from the 4x200 set in and forced Diestel out at 4'-11", with her 4'-10" earning her a tie for 15th place in the event.
In the 4x200m relay, Diestel teamed up with Dion, Newell and Kirsten Loring in hopes of posting a state-qualifying time. Facing the outside lane and almost running into slower legs, the Lady Lancers still managed a season's best, running a collective 1:53.41: less than a second off the automatic state-qualifying mark of 1:52.87.
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| Kirsten Loring heads down the straightaway during the 4x200 relay |
To close out the day for the Lady Lancers, a new face joined the girls 4x800m relay as Murphy replaced Pietrasiewicz's leg after her two-mile run. Receiving from Bradley after a dominant opening leg, Murphy ran a strong second leg handing over to Hannah Delea who split her best 800 of the season (2:34.92 unofficially) passing the stick over to Palin. Despite Palin too not having fresh legs, she negative splitted her 800 leg (1:17-1:12) to close in a 2:29 giving the girls a solid 10:18.59 finish, placing 8th overall in the field of 19 teams.
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| Palin mid-4x800 at Coach and Meet Director Kent Taylor looks on |
Boys
The hurdle duo of Paul Wisnaskas and Corey Stalters once again starred on the infield at the Reggie Lewis Center to start off the meet for the Men of Norton. Both running out of the first heat, Wisnaskas broke the tape first in another personal best time. His 8.32 bettered his previous personal best by 0.15 seconds and left him just 0.03 seconds off from qualifying for the final, leaving him to finish in 9th place overall. Stalters ran another clean race, clearing nearly all the hurdles smoothly, running a superb 8.88 in his lead up to the TVL Championships.
Not to be out-done, junior captain Peter Rivard joined the hurdle boys in the infield for the 55 meter dash. Coming in with a 7.14 seed time, Rivard ran exactly that out of the first heat, placing 44th overall in the field of 72 runners. Rivard will take his 55m dash to the TVL Championships as he currently sits 9th overall in the TVL Rankings.
After setting a personal best earlier in the week, senior captain Pat Bingel earned one of the final seeds in the boys mile. Waiting patiently in his heat, Bingel hung on to the back of the pack, on pace for another personal best. With 200 meters to go, Bingel made his kick passing four runners in the process to place 38th overall in another personal best of 4:48.74; just a third of a second off the automatic qualifier for Division 4 states.
In the 600 meters, Wisnaskas returned to the track with teammate and senior captain Aidan Lerner. In Heat 3, Lerner ran near-even splits while moving through the field in the later 400 to finish in a hard-fought 1:31.66 to place 30th on the day. Wisnaskas, racing out of the following heat, fought through a tight field that gave him no room to maneuver his speed. Caught up behind competitors and fighting the railing, Wisnaskas raced to a somewhat contained 1:31.09, earning him a 27th place finish in the field of 40.
Coming off a fresh personal best and near school record, junior Austin Carroll lined up for the 1,000 meters with the school record of 2:39.08 on the line. Having the speed ready, Carroll was unfortunately tasked to do so out of the slower heats. With no one willing to take the race out, Carroll was immediately off-pace and forced to fight for the time himself. Closing in a hard 31.57, Carroll placed second in his heat with a hard-earned 2:44.26. His time was still strong enough to place him 10th overall in the event.
Capping off the individual events, senior captain Ian Pereira returned back to the 300 meters looking to improve his time before the TVL Championships. Already with the top time in the league, Pereira bettered it by a half second, placing third in his heat and 9th overall in a personal-best time of 37.11.
The Lancer Boys did pull off a podium finish on the day. The boys 4x800 meter relay has been consistently improving their collective time in preparation for Division 4 States and continued to do so on Saturday. Leading off, Carroll ran another reliably quick split handing off to teammate Ethan Tetrault. In another superb race, Tetrault went out hard and held together in a PR split of 2:12. Bingel seconded that effort to run another even 2:12 split during his third leg before handing the baton to anchor Dj Nihill. Fighting off a charging Catholic Memorial, Nihill ran a season's best split of 2:10 to close the 4x800 to a strong fourth place finish. His split brought the Lancers to an 8:40.38 time, a six second improvement from their previous season's best on State Relays.
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| Another podium finish for Carroll, Bingel, Tetrault, and Nihill! |
UP NEXT: The Lancers begin their championship conquest this Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center as they compete in the Tri-Valley League Championships. The meet will begin at 4:00 pm; bus departure will be determined this week.
-Coach Al
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