Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Palin Qualifies for New Balance Indoor Nationals & Pereira is Crowned 300m Champion at TVL Championships

On a busy Saturday night, the Lancers crammed into the Reggie Lewis Center as their post-season hunt began at the Tri-Valley League Championships. Despite the meet being delayed an hour, the Lancers pounced at the opportunity to claim some titles. Led by a trio of scoring distance runners and a young thrower, the Lady Lancers grabbed a 6th place finish in the league, scoring 27 points. For the Men of Norton, an even distribution of points across all disciplines compiled a hearty 3rd place finish, scoring 48 points.

Girls

With the TVL meet concluding in less than three hours, there was little time for athletes to prepare in between events. But the Lady Lancers still fought hard to a large degree of success! With the 55m hurdles kicking off the night, Lily Holloway led the charge with her 9.64 time to claim 10th overall in the event. Both senior captain Mary Diestel and Julia Newell ran to season-best identical 9.79 times, earning 14th and 13th place finishes respectively. Diestel would later join Holloway in the high jump, reaching the height of 4'-8" to claim a 7th place finish as Holloway jumped 4'-4" to earn 22nd. Following the hurdles, Newell doubled-back to run a personal best 7.98 in the 55 meter dash, placing 13th overall. Close behind her were teammates Alexa Sousa-Schumosic (8.00; 14th) and Carly Murphy (8.02; 16th), both running or matching their personal bests set earlier this year.

As the sprints were occuring, oval action started with the girls' mile being the first final of the night. Racing down to grab a quick time, Isabella Pietrasiewicz found herself running through the pack halfway through the race. But with one lap to go, and leading the chase pack, she took control and closed in a 37-second 200 to run a personal best by five seconds. Her time of 5:25.86 earned her a 3rd place finish in her first TVL Indoor Track Championship. She would later join Diestel, Kylie Dion, and Katie Bradley to run a season-best 4:21.49 in the 4x400 meter relay, finishing in 7th place and improving their state-qualifier in the process.

Following a coaching-error, senior captain Katie Bradley was tasked to run a fast 600 meter race despite being placed in the slower section. Making up the stagger in her heat less than 100 meters in, Bradley fought against the clock for the entirety of the race, running a season's best 1:43.32. Winning her heat by three seconds, Bradley narrowly missed the runner-up finish by only 0.02 seconds. She wasn't the only Lancer in the 600 meter run, however, as Murphy came back from the 55 meter dash not too long earlier to place 10th overall with a 1:51.09 showing.

Bradley closes the finish of her heat in the 600 meter run
With a small field for the freshmen mile, Hope LeClaire was the Lancers lone representative shooting for one last personal best time to close the indoor season. On pace through 800 meters, LeClaire closed her last 200 with her goal in sight to break 7:00. In the end she would do just that, running 6:58.35 to earn 3rd in the freshmen mile.
LeClaire holding strong during the freshmen mile
Concluding the girls sprints on the night, teammates Kylie Dion and Kirsten Loring compete in the 300 meter run. With both Lady Lancers saving the best for the TVL Championships, both ran to season-best times with Dion's 45.05 earning her 12th and Loring's 46.02 earning her 14th in the 24-girl field.

The Lady Lancers earned their lone TVL Champion of the night in dominant fashion. Aiming for the New Balance Indoor National standard of 2:58.6, senior captain Julia Palin went out with the field through 400 meters before she started to pull away. From there on out, it was a race against the clock. Leaving her nearest competitor in her wake, Palin pulled away to win the TVL Championship by five seconds. But most importantly, her time of 2:58.51 set a new NHS school record, TVL Championship meet record, and qualified her for the Emerging Elite division of the New Balance National Indoor Track and Field Championships!

Teammate Mary Diestel embraces Palin after she qualifies for NBIN!
Wrapping up the girls' distance events on the evening, Hannah Delea returned back to the two mile for one last performance on the indoor season. Despite her shoe nearly falling off and having to run the entire race with it untied, Delea fought back from a hard start and ran a season-best 13:06.98, good for 10th overall in the field.

And last but certainly not least, the Lady Lancers saved one last podium finish for the last event of the night in the girls shot put. After Erica Ransom threw 24'-8" to finish 15th in the field, freshman Michaela Whiteside qualified for the final and finished in 3rd place with a massive PR toss of 30'-11". Her throw was the top freshman throw in the TVL as she improved on her previous personal best by nearly two feet. Although Whiteside did not reach an automatic state-qualifier, the young Lancer will wait to hear if her throw will qualify her as an at-large bid to compete in the Division 4 State Championships next week.

Boys

With high seeds in numerous events, the Men of Norton took to the oval to grab a podium finish in the Tri-Valley League Championship. Starting off strong from the beginning, the hurdling duo of Paul Wisnaskas and Corey Stalters once again had their best performances on display. The two qualified for the finals in personal best fashion, running 8.20 and 8.70 respectively. Teammate Jacob Peers just missed the finals, running 9.91 for 16th place overall. As the only freshman in the finals, Wisnaskas ran head-to-head with Medfield's Ryan Eng, losing a close battle but clearing the rest of the field, as his 8.27 grabbed him the runner-up finish in the finals. Although the finals were only 15 or so minutes following the trials, Stalters rallied back to place 8th in the final in 9.24 seconds.

To the dash, senior captain Ian Pereira returned to running the 55m dash as he had one of the top seeds in the Tri-Valley League this winter. Joined by junior captain Peter Rivard, the two cruised to the final in 6.91 and 7.02 respectively. Pereira's new personal best would be replicated in the final as he ran 6.91 again to earn a 3rd place finish in the field, with Rivard running 7.05, just 0.04 seconds away from scoring, in a 7th place finish. The pair along with Wisnaskas and Aidan Lerner would close the night teaming up for the 4x400 meter relay. With the fastest seed in the league, all four guys ran incredible splits to keep it neck-and-neck to Hopkinton. Fighting them off back-and-fourth, along with a couple of impeding shoves, the Lancers would have to "settle" for an incredible season-best performance to place 2nd to the Hillers. The Lancers finishing time of 3:36.39 improved their state-qualifier by over four seconds as they broke 3:40 for the first time this season.

Adding to the scoring, senior captain Pat Bingel had another busy day for the Lancers. In his final TVL Indoor Track Championships, Bingel ran a personal best and state-qualifying time in the mile, finishing 4th in 4:48.37. He would then go to the high jump with teammate Alex Wisnaskas. Though both had off-days, they managed to clear opening height amidst the nerves of their last TVLs. Wisnaskas would finish at 5'-2" for 13th place while Bingel would grab two points at 5'-8" for 5th place. And doing his best to help his Lancers catch back up to Medfield and Hopkinton, Bingel threw himself into the two-mile trying to scrap together every last point. However, his exhaustion caught the best of him as he still ran a respectable 11:05.61 for 10th place, capping off a busy and successful night on the track.
Bingel mid-run during his 4th place finish in the Mile
Meanwhile in the shot circle, the Men of Norton sent three "Throws Bros" representatives to finish off their season on a high note. Nick Denham led the way with a 19th place finish, putting the shot 29'-11". Freshman Ryan Carroll and senior captain Chris Dennehy finished not too far behind him with throws of 26'-8" and 26'-0" to finish 22nd and 23rd respectively. Though the weather and implements put the throwers at a disadvantage this season, they fought hard through the season and trained equally hard in the weight room to improve their selves heading into the outdoor season.

Going up to the mid-distance events, senior captain Aidan Lerner led the Norton contingency in the 600 meter dash. Running through heavy legs, Lerner just missed his season's best as he ran a 1:31.71 for 9th place in the field. Sophomore teammate Ben Pescod also missed his personal best by just 0.2 seconds, finishing in 1:37.32 for a 16th place finish.
Pescod sprints to the finish in his heat of the 600 meter run
Headlining the lone "freshman" event of the night, Sean Wynne and Nick Janineh led the Lancers of the future in the freshmen mile. With a crowded mix-gender field, both had to fight in-and-out of lapped runners to stay on pace. But both still fought furiously to a hard finish for their indoor seasons. In chasing the lead pack at the bell lap, Wynne sprinted to a personal best 5:04.74 finish for 4th place. Janineh also ran a hard last lap to catch back up to the field, crossing the line at 5:24.54 for 10th place.

Pereira returned back to the track for the 300 meter run following his third place finish in the 55m dash. Coming out of the curve strong and heading into the final straight, Pereira trailed only Ryan Sofoul of Holliston. But showing his 55 meter turnover, Pereira kicked it into high gear and edged Sofoul at the line. Winning by 0.08 seconds, Pereira claimed the 300 meter TVL Championship in a state-qualifying and personal best 36.82. 

And in the last scoring event of the day, the Lancer distance squad lined up in the 1,000 meter run. All out of the same heat, junior Austin Carroll led the charge. Hoping to break the school record, Carroll quickly fell off pace as the race resorted back to traditional championship tactics. Eric Linden of Dover-Sherborn controlled the race, dictating how fast he wanted it to go out. Carroll settled in the pack and waited till 300-400 meter to go to establish himself as a contender and fought through the final lap chasing Linden. Not far behind him, teammates Dj Nihill and Ethan Tetrault fought fights of their own to pick off those falling off the chase pack. Running past several fading runners, Nihill secured a 5th place finish in a personal best time of 2:47.48, just five seconds behind Carroll's runner-up 2:42.98. And continuing his personal record improvement throughout the winter, Tetrault crossed the line in 9th place in a time of 2:52.54, shaving another three seconds off his personal best time.

Carroll put down the chase on D-S's Linden

UP NEXT: With the conclusion of the TVL Championships, the qualifying Lancers will be heading over to the MIAA Division 4 State Championship meet on Valentine's Day. Entry lists will be sent out once they are accepted by the meet director.

-Coach Al

No comments: