New Balance Nationals Day #2 Highlights: State records for Lincoln-Sudbury & Wachusett 4x800m teams

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Day #2 Massachusetts Highlights

  • Lincoln-Sudbury finished 4th with a US#8 and Massachusetts State Record time of 9:01.78 in the girls 4x800m.  Megan Broecker led-off with a 2:19.75, and was followed by Marika Crowe (2:13.84), Sarah Mepham (2:21.54), and Andrea Keklak (2:06.67). 
  • Wachusett found themselves in the perfect race for fast splits in the boys 4x800m relay.  Hayden Frechette-McCall (1:57.01), Alex Jagelsky (1:51.28), Jeremy Bennie (1:55.03) and Colin Bennie (1:53.06) combined for a US#5 and Massachusetts State Record time of 7:36.37.   A national record and the top five times in the country were the result of this one race.
  • After running 17:15.60 last night in the 5,000m, Marissa Shoji returned to the track to run 10:37.61 in Section #1 of the Championship 2 Mile.  She now leads the state in both events.  Annika Gompers finished just behind Shoji in Section #1 with a time of 11:42.48 and is now MA#2.
  • Section #1 of the Boys 2 Mile had a pack of 7 athletes, including Chris Allen, leading at the mile mark.  That pack split 4:32 for the mile and John Murray looked to be out of the race about 15 meters back in 8th place.  But Murray started to move with 600m remaining and dropped a 62.91 final 400m to move from 8th to 4th; finishing with a final time of 9:07.56.  Allen held his spot in 5th and finish with a time of 9:14.51.  Shayne Collins would weather the blistering pace of Section #2 to finish 9th in the section and 15th overall with a 9:16.80 clocking.
  • Zach Grube of Peabody won the Emerging Elite High Jump at 6'6".
  • Peabody and Methuen battled for 3 legs in section #1 of the Emerging Elites 4x800m.  Peabody pulled away after a strong 3rd leg by Nick Ingham (2:01.02) and hand the baton to Nick Christensen in the lead.  Christensen was challenged late by Ryan Moynihan of Gensco TC (NY) but held on for 2nd place in the section. Their time of 7:58.98 was good enough for 3 place overall.  Methuen would struggle late in the race and finish 16th overall at 8:07.88.  Lincoln-Sudbury also had a nice showing in Section #2 behind the 1:55.68 split of Clayton Russell.  They finished 5th overall at 8:00.97.
  • Weymouth had 4 very consistent splits in the girls Emerging Elite 4x800m.  They finished 4th overall at 9:30.42.
  • Hulerie McGuffie finished 6th in the Emerging Elite 400m in a MA#5 time of 57.39.
  • Andover finished 3rd in the boys Emerging Elite 4x200m relay with a new MA#1 time of 1:29.92.
  • Simon Voorhees finished 6th in the Emerging Elite Mile in a MA#12 time of  4:21.85.
  • Nicole Genard and Kristen McDonagh posted season best times of 14.60 and 14.75 respectively to advance to the finals in the Emerging Elite 100m hurdles.  Genard ran 15.03 for 7th place in the finals and McDonagh finished 8th in 15.18.
  • Mackenzie Copley came on strong in the last two events of the Championship Decathlon to finish 9th (5273 total points).  Copley won the javelin with a throw of 144'2" (500 pts) and then finished 2nd in the 1500m in 4:38.73 (688 points) to move up two spots in the final two events.
  • The future looks very bright for the Lowell distance program.  They had 3 athletes in the Freshman Mile, led by Johnny Abraham at 4:36.05.  He was followed by teammates Randy Nong (4:45.03) and Andrew Whitney (4:46.33).  But they were not the top Massachusetts finishers.  Andrew Doherty finished 5th in 4:28.60 and Christian Stafford was 6th in 4:29.14.
  • Oliva Brackett finished 4th in the Emerging Elite 2 mile with a time of 11:14.07.
  • Andover improved on their MA#1 time in the boys 4x100m relay by finishing 4th in Section #1 (42.48).