Girls SMR Compete at New Balance Grand Prix

Concluding the busy Saturday of running, the Lady Lancers made their return to the New Balance Grand Prix as they earned an invitation to compete in the HS Girls SMR. Competing against athletes from Massachusetts and New York, the quartet of Eve Rodriguez, Heather Kurland, Ali Murphy and Isabella Pietrasiewicz put in the effort in hopes of improving their NBNI seed to get them into the Championship Race.

Rodriguez (27.05 via FAT timing) got the team out quick with a season's best 200m leg as she handed off with the team in 5th place. Kurland (28.06) picked up ground and moved the team into third as NY's Bishop Loughlin began to pull away. Murphy (1:01.73) went out conservatively in her 400m leg but began moved the purple up to command the chase pack, fading slightly right before the exchange to Pietrasiewicz's anchor. From there, after running a 1,000m earlier in the day, Pietrasiewicz (2:19.49) led the chase pack outright in a distance second behind Bishop Loughlin. Coming through 400m slow, she tried to come back in the third lap as Tewksbury's anchor Mikayla Paige began bringing her team back from a distance sixth into the chase pack conversation. At the bell, Pietrasiewicz did her best to compete with Paige but she pulled away to run a 2:10 split. Pietrasiewicz held off a surging North Andover to squeeze into third, running 4:16.40.

Though missing the Championship Event standard (4:14.00), the team put together a performance worthy of a US#23 mark, per MileSplit.com. They still sit at US#18 thanks to their 4:14.17 from the D4 State Relays.


Up Next: Qualifying individuals will seek out championships are the Lancers compete at the TVL Showcase on Saturday at Reggie. The meet will begin at 5:30 pm; bus leaves NHS at 3:30 pm.