Girls - 4th place (32 points)
With ten individual qualifiers and two relays spanned over nine events, the predominantly underclassmen squad showed their depth is one to be aware of, skyrocketing to a 4th place finish; only 19 points out of first.
Junior Michaela Whiteside (29'-6.25") got the meet moving early in the cage as she competed in the shot put. Despite having her wisdom teeth extracted a week prior, Whiteside showed her devotion to the sport and deserving position in the meet. Seeded 22nd, she shot up to grab a 15th place finish on the morning.
In the infield, Heather Kurland (8.80) made a splash early in shaving a tenth of a second off her 55m hurdle best in qualifying for the finals. In between the hurdle trials and finals, she nearly made another final by placing 9th in the 55m dash preliminaries (7.69), pacing senior captain Eve Rodriguez (7.90) to a solid performance, besting her seed by eight positions to earn 22nd. But in the finals, Kurland (8.79) managed to come on late in her race in joining a blanket finish to earn 6th place medalist honors.
The oval events started with the mile, with all Lancer competitors making their debut at the state championships. In the unseeded section, Destiny McGrath (5:43.54) made her dominance known in commanding the lead back-and-fourth to finish second in her heat and 13th overall, six spots up from her seed and two seconds under her previous best. While in the seeded section, an early fall by freshman Shea Podbelski (5:32.55) called the race back. Scraped knee in tow, Podbelski was not at all phased in pushing her group and making her presence known. Skye Goba (5:35.59) came on late to join the fun and shatter her previous best by seven seconds, missing out on medalist honors by less than a second. Podbelski, however, had her early work payoff as she finished as the top freshman in the field, earning a fifth place medal.
 |
| Podbelski on her first states podium |
Next on the track came another three competitors in the girls 1,000m. In the unseeded section, senior captain Ashley Schepis (3:21.37) worked the heat hard early but could not find the right rhythm. Though consistent, it was not fastly won in order to PR, leaving her to finish fifth in the heat and 17th overall, nevertheless, still ten spots up from her seed. While in the seeded section, sophomore Megan Cross (3:08.33) made her return to the states stage along with Isabella Pietrasiewicz (2:59.34). While Cross rolled into states last year, she qualified outright and dug deep early to stick to a pack of girls four seconds quicker than her. In doing so, she was in medal contention by the last lap and got to cross the line leading her pack for a sixth place medal.
Last year, Pietrasiewicz won runner-up honors last year but with reigning champ Burlington's Julia Hovasse graduating, the race was her's for the taking. Mixing in with the lead pack, she pushed it to wane down to only three with two laps to go. As she took off at 350, Melrose's Anne Mackey fought back with Nauset's Isabella Nobili in tow. Pietrasiewicz could not shake them despite moving gears. At the bell, Mackey attempted to seize the lead with Pietrasiewicz needing to fight back, forcing her into lane 2. She somehow found another gear with 80m left to blow past Mackey in claiming her first individual indoor track state title.
 |
| Pietrasiewicz atop the podium; Cross making friends amongst the podium placers |
On the infield, Kurland (16'-9") returned back to early season form in the long jump preliminaries, easily qualifying for the finals. She inched up further in the finals in an indoor personal best of 16'-10.25" but remained in fourth till the end, claiming her second medal and four more points on the day.
Rodriguez (45.16) then returned on the oval with a personal best time in the 300m, once again besting her seed to place 21st overall. Freshman Ali Murphy (42.65) made her states debut in the seeded heat, going out hard early, while fading slightly at the end. She still managed to make the podium in earning her first states medal in sixth place.
 |
| Murphy receiving her states medal |
With individual events concluded, the Lancers moved to the relays. The group of Goba, Schepis, McGrath and Podbelski joined forces to run the second 4x800m relay team of the year. Goba (2:34.7), McGrath (2:43.1) and Podbelski (2:38.0) all competed in their first 800m race as part of the relay and all showed that they had plenty left in the tank following their individual events. Along with Schepis (2:44.4), the girls posted a season's best time in moving up a spot from their seed, running a respectable 10:40.14 for 12th place.
 |
| Podbelski anchoring the 4x800m relay |
Closing the day in the seeded 4x400m relay section was the quartet of Lindsey Bingel, Kylie Dion, Pietrasiewicz and Murphy. With the second fastest seed in the field, the team had school record aspirations. Bingel (62.8) opened up in a personal best 400 leg handing the baton off to Dion in fourth place. Dion (64.0) kept the team in contention as Amherst-Pelham and Nauset began to pull away from the rest of the field. Regardless, Pietrasiewicz (63.4) took the stick and did her best to hold off Medfield and Melrose. Anchor Murphy (62.2) took it out hard and Melrose fell off only for Medfield to find a final gear in the last 50m edging the Lancers by 0.20 seconds. The four in purple still earned a school record-tying time of 4:12.58, good enough for fourth place in the field.
 |
| Murphy closing the 4x400m to a school record-tying mark |
Boys - 18th place (11 points)
A poorly-timed injury scratched the boys 4x800m relay team, leaving the boys qualifiers down to juniors Paul Wisnaskas and Sean Wynne. When all was said and done, Wisnaskas single-handidly outscored 22 teams by himself, while Wynne just missed out on adding to the team's total.
Wisnsakas (7.87) opened with his strongest preliminary race ever run in the 55m hurdles. With only a bum clearance over the first hurdle, Wisnaskas flew through his preliminary heat, winning by almost half a second and shaving 0.05 seconds off his previous best and school record time. With no time to waste, he took to the finals comprised of all seniors, save him and a hurdler from Wayland. But in striving with strong competition, Wisnaskas (7.85) showed up to challenge Wiliam Lord of North Reading and Nicholas Woolsey of North Middlesex. While destroying his school record, Wisnaskas earned a third place finish.
He returned to the oval in the 600m seeded section. Though the group went out quick, Wisnaskas (1:26.74) was unable to hold on, finishing a third of a second outside of scoring in grabbing a ninth place finish. In a similar predicament, Wynne (2:42.12) took to the seeded section of the 1,000m run. The field did go out quick and Wynne held himself in the mix and avoided getting caught behind slower runners. Unfortunately, just like Wisnaskas, Wynne fell short by a half second of scoring, finishing in ninth place. However, the junior's personal best puts him in a promising position heading into the spring.
Wisnaskas (20'-8.5") shook off back issues to qualify for the finals in the long jump. He was unable to improve on his preliminary best but it still held for him to earn a podium position, with him earning a fourth place medal.
 |
| Wisnaskas mid-long jump flight |
Up Next: Lancer qualifiers will be competing at the MIAA All-State Championships this upcoming Saturday, with infield events beginning at 10:30 am and the oval at 11:00 am.
Kurland (55m H; LJ), Pietrasiewicz (1,000m), Wisnaskas (55m H; LJ) and the girls 4x400m relay (Bingel, Dion, Pietrasiewicz and Murphy) will all be competing for a spot amongst the top six in the state to compete at the New England Championships.
No comments:
Post a Comment