Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, Roxbury, MA
Saturday, February 26, 2011 @ 11:00 AM
Mansfield accomplished something that hasn't been done since 2005 and that is win both the boys and girls All-State Championships. Newton North was the last team to do this and it was Newton North that stood in the way of the girls in joining the boys on the victory stand. The boys had a relatively easy time winning with a team score of 50, again beating Andover (last year's runnerup), who finished with 29 points. New Bedford, one of the premeet favorites was third with 27 points.
The girls side of the meet was expected to have very tough competition from Newton North, Andover and Lincoln-Sudbury, all division one powerhouse teams, and Mansfield, the division 2 champion. The first event was the high jump, a pivotal event, as Mansfield had Kristen McDonagh, while Andover had Jess Salley and Moira Cronin and Newton North had Lucia Grigoli. Neither Salley or Cronin had a good day, as both were missing at the lower heights, while McDonagh skied her first two heights (5-2 and 5-4). By that time, it was down to only five jumpers left, with Haley Laird of Algonquin having cleared 5-6 at last week's division meet. McDonagh cleared 5-6 on her first jump and that was all that was needed as Mansfield picked up its first 10 points of the meet.
The next Mansfield scorer was Jen Esposito, again facing her arch nemesis, Rebecca Robinson of Arlington. Also in the competition was Eve Bishop of Andover and last year's winner Cory Ryan of Norwood. Esposito, Robinson and Bishop all got out to a quick start with the three barely separated as they headed for the 200 meter mark. Robinson made a quick move going into the turn with Bishop in quick pursuit. Esposito was a few steps back of Bishop, but her long easy strides took affect around the final turn and down the straight, closing and then passing Bishop and again finishing second to Robinson, but picking up another 8 points for the team.
Esposito had a make a quick turn around as the hurdle trials were only 15 minutes later. The time was enough rest for Espo as she won her heat, upsetting Melissa Isidor of New Bedford. Kristen McDonagh had the luck to be in the fastest heat as Vanessa Clerveaux of Brockton won, with McDonagh finishing 3rd with the 6th qualifying mark. Paige Grimes, who helped with the division 2 title for the team last week with her 5th place in the hurdles, just missed making the final this week, finishing 10th overall.
The final was very interesting as all the top hurdles from the state made the final, with Vanessa Cleveaux running a terrific 8.14, just of the meet record of 8.11. Esposito outleaned Isidor for second place and MdDonagh held on for 7th place and another two points, for a total of 10 points.
The 55 meter dash was next and Kayla Comer, who had missed almost half the season with a muscle strain, ran a personal best in the trials (7.31) to advance to the finals and then ran another 7.31 in the finals to get 5th place overall. The 4 points Kayla scored brought the team total up to 32 points.
Things were quiet for the rest of the meet until the 4x200 team came on the track. The team of Jess Verbic (26.9), Emily Broyles (26.7), Julia Jones (27.3) and Kayla Comer (25.7) finished third in 1:46.72 to pick up their final points to make it 38 points.
Newton North had a very strong 4x400 relay team, but despite winning in an excellent time of 3:55.89, their 10 points could not get them close enough to Mansfield to win.
Lauren Columbare ran in the mile and recorded a time of 5:20.32, while the 4x400 team of Brittany Greene (63.5), Molly Jenssen (65.4), Amanda Zieselman (64.8) and Julia Jones (60.5) ran 4:13.40.
Boys win second consecutive All State Title
The boys team was the pre meet favorite, but that did not cause the usual jitters that comes with that designation. Instead, the team went into "battle" with anticipation and enthusiasm as they wanted to be rewarded for all the hard work the undertook during the indoor season.
The action began early on as the mile run took center stage. Josh Lampron, the state leader was facing fast improving Dan Zawalich of St. John's Shrewsbury for the second week in a row, plus Division 4 champ Wes Gal lagher of Pembroke and Andover's Simon Voorhees. As usual, Joash was not shy about taking the lead, going through the 800 in 2:10 and the 1200 in 3:16. Zawalich and Gallagher gallantly held on, keeping the race close, until Lampron unleashed a 30 second 200 and followed that up with a 29 last 200 to win in a school record 4:15.16. His 59 last 400 looked effortless.
The 300 was next up and Nick King, who was third in last week's Div 2 race was Mansfield's representative, as it was decided to have Div 2 runnerup Steve Gannon concentrate on the 4x200 and 4x400. King had his hands full as state leader, Charles Ruffin from King Philip, was back to full strength. Pat Farnham of Andover had also been running well. King flew out of the blocks and came through the 200 in 22.5, a step or two ahead of Ruffin. However, Ruffin was not to be denied, as he gradually went around King at the 220 mark and pulled away for the win. Farnham and King battled down the final straight, with Farnham just outleaning King for second place.
The next big event for the Hornets was the 2 mile. Although the mile was fun to watch, the 2 mile was a classic race to behold. John Murray the state 2 mile champion, who has run 9:05 was finally in his element, as he had been running mainly 1 mile races during the indoor season. Shayne Collins, likewise, had worked on improving his speed and was looking to make a major breakthrough in the 2 mile. He had a great race last week, but facing Murray was a dream come true for Collins. The two did not disappoint as lap after lap of 34 second 200 meter times were cranked out. The one surprise along the way was that David Melly of Newton South was also in the mix and not giving up an inch. In the middle of the race, Murray decided to pop in a 31 second 200, but Collins came right back and retook the lead with 4 laps to go. Murray make one more big move on the backstretch and overtook Collins, but Colllins was relentless in pursuing Murray down the final backstretch. Come home, Murray held on with Collins oh so close in second place. Collins' time was another school record, breaking his older brother's 2007 record by just over a second. Melly hung on for third place. Both front runners deserve lots of credit for a gutsy, competitive race that was fun to watch.
The relays were still on tap and Mansfield was determined to wrap up the championship prior to the 4x400 (which was needed last year to win the tittle). The 4x800 has up first and after a late Friday night decision to change the personnel, due to illness, the Hornets were on a tear to win their second consecutive title. Ryan Petrella, who ran a solid 600 meters the previous week, was taken out of the 600 and put on the lead leg of the 4x800. Although not a stranger to the 800, Petrella had run only a few 800 legs in his career. The competition was fierce as the 10 teams took off from the starting line and galloped through the first 400 in 58 seconds. Petrella bided his time, hanging in 3rd or 4th place through the 600 and then began his final surge, as was the race plan. He moved to the front with 180 meters to go and finished up with a solid 2:01 lead off leg as he passed the baton to Kam Haleudeth. Kam ran a very nice first 400, hanging in at 58.5, continued to fight the competition through the 600, but then struggled a bit over the final lap. His 2:03.7 put the team back a bit and third leg Shayne Collins, still a bit tired from his 2 mile, was facing the formidable task of getting back near the front so the Josh Lampron would have a good shot at winning on the anchor. Collins took his time through the 400, still managing a peppy 58.8, and then started to show some of the residual of the hard 2 mile. He fought hard, managing a 2:01 leg, but Lapron was quite a ways out of the top three when he got the stick on the anchor leg. Lampron has not going to sit back and watch the action at hand. He wanted to be in the thick of things and went out in 27 for the first 200 meters and just kept on rolling. His 400 time was 54 and then he tagged on another 29 second 200 to come through the 600 in 1:23.7. This enabled him to move from about 6th place up to third, with 200 meters to go. Lampron continued his rhythmic pace and finished up with a 1:53 leg and a school record 2nd place finish of 8:00.10.
The 4x200 relay team, fortified with the addition of Gannon was in for a tough race as New Bedford and Andover had run better times in recent competition. Gannon took off on the lead leg and came through with a 22.7 that but second leg Griffin Robertson in front with Andover (seems as if Mansfield continuously bangs heads with that team). Robertson, looking silky smooth, stay with Andover and New Bedford, which moved up along the backstretch, brining in the baton a close 2nd (23.1) and passes off to Andrew Kuras, who has been coming along very nicely this season. Kuras ran a very competitive leg, but with 3 teams all tying to come down the homestretch at the same time, Ian Cauldwell had to do some quick maneuvering to get position to take a clean handoff from Kuras. Cauldwell, a senior with lots of experience, got through the congestion and came back to pass Chelmsford on the backstretch and hold on for a third place finish. That result pretty much did it for the team championship, but the Hornets were not quite done yet.
The 4x400 team was itching to crank a good race and what better time to do so than the All State meet. Nick King ran leadoff and popped a solid 50.0 run against Acton=Boxboro, who put their best runner on leadoff. Ryan Petrella, fresh off his tough 800 leg took a clean handoff and ran a creditable 51.4. Griffin Robertson was determined to improve his position and fired off a 50.3 leg that opened up about a 20 meter lead for anchor Steve Gannon. ran a super anchor, all by himself, clocking a 49.8 leg, a personal best.
Along the way, Patrick Greaney picked up 2 points with his 7th place finish in the long jump, while Brian Ferreira, who had a super meet last week, just failed to qualify in the hurdles as he turned in a 8.04 time.
With both teams going home with a championship trophy, Mansfield can be proud of the great team effort put in by the teams.
This conludes the indoor team championship portion of the season. Some athletes will participate in next Friday's New England meet, while a few others willl take a week off from the competition and travel down to New York City for the indoor nationals in 2 weeks.
Congratulations to both teams for a terrific indoor campaign.
From Coach Julie Collins
2011 Boys Indoor Track & Field Championships
FINAL SCORE—MANSFIELD 50 points !! Andover 29 New Bedford 27 Woburn 23
In a fantastic TOTAL TEAM effort, the Mansfield Boys asserted their dominance over the state of Massachusetts for the 2011 indoor season by scoring in 7 events at the All-State Championships.
Once again, team depth played a role as the Hornets placed in the top 3 in all three relays (24 relay pts.)
at the end of the day. Josh Lampron started the scoring machine rolling. Josh ran like a true champion; leading from the gun—pulling the deep field of milers to multiple personal best performances. Josh improved on his school record by 2 seconds running 4:15.16 by running strong negative splits.
Nick King got a super start in the 300m dash besting the group to the break point. Nick was clipped on the final turn loosing a bit of momentum but held on well for third place and 6 points (36.02). Patrick Greaney leaped 20’11” to secure 7th place and 2 more points in the long jump. In the 2 mile run, Matt Cioe ran a big personal best by 8 seconds in the unseeded section—running 9:42.41! Shayne Collins and John Murray (Shrewsbury) waged an epic battle for the 2 mile crown in the seeded section. Shayne courageously led for most of the first 1 ½ miles with Murray taking over with 800m left…desperately trying to shake of the Hornet. Shayne would not let go, finishing up in runner-up position with a new school record of 9:09.33 to Murray’s 9:08.69 Junior Brian Ferreira competed in the High Jump and the 55m Hurdles for the guys in green.
Ryan Petrella agreed to a last minute change in 4x800m relay roster…running an outstanding lead-off leg, Ryan handed off the baton in the front of the pack (2:01.7), Kham Haleudeth ran a season’s best split (2:03.6) before handing off to a tired Shayne Collins. Shayne ran a gutsy leg (2:01.6) to hang on well enough to give squad a shot at a high placement with Josh Lampron on the anchor leg. Josh (1:52.9!!) wowed the crowd by moving past 3 teams in securing 2nd place and 8 super points. The Hornet time of 8:00.10 is a new school record and actually surpassed the old meet record along with the winning team from Westwood HS.
The 4x200m relay of Steve Gannon (22.8), Griffin Robertson (23.1), Andrew Kuras (23.7) and Ian Cauldwell (23.2) battled for the win with Andover, New Bedford etc. The quartet got the baton around safely and put Mansfield over the top with 6 points (1:32.99)
Once again, the 4x400m relay (3:21.78) returned Mansfield to the top of the podium. Nick King (50.0!), Ryan Petrella (51.5), Griffin Robertson (50.4) and Steve Gannon (49.7!!) shattered the school record and also managed to break the meet record set in 2008 by Woburn. Ryan, Griffin and Steve did a nice job doubling on 2 relays.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE STATE CHAMPS!