NYA Track and Field – New England Championships Results 3

All Photos from the meet and the night before 

Henry Sterling and Hannah Bewsey both had great days down in New Britain, CT at Willow Brook Park on Saturday.

The high jump opened at 5′ and Hannah cleared it on her first attempt along with about 2/3 of the beginning field of 36 athletes.  The bar was then raised to 5’3″ and Hannah’s first attempts, though close, were not enough to cleanly clear the bar.  On her third attempt she pulled her approach together to clear and advance to the next height – 5’5″.  Only 13 girls remained in the competition at this point.  Each of Hannah’s attempts at 5’5″ improved until her 3rd and final attempt (pictured at the right) when she was clear over the bar but just caught it on her way down.  Hannah finished in a tie for 12th place based on misses at previous heights.  The 5th place medal winners actually only cleared 5’3″ as well but were able to do so on their 1st attempt.

Henry Sterling had a break out day in the 1600m run.  Henry came into the race seeded 12th in the fast heat.  The skies had opened up by this point and it was pouring rain but the meet continued.  From the gun Henry ran to the lead running through the first 400m in a brisk 60.0 far into first place.  Henry held that lead through the next lap coming through the 800 in 2:06.  Around 900m in he was passed by 2 other Maine athletes and started to fall back a bit for the remainder of the 3rd lap (3:12.8).  At the bell Henry started to pick the pace back up and moved himself into 5th place closing fast in the final 200m (62s last 400) to finish in a new school record and career best time of 4:15.62.  This place earned Henry All-New England honors and makes him the only the 2nd athlete ever from NYA to place in an Outdoor New England Championship meet.  You can see a video of the race here

Henry doubled back for the 3200m later in the day but admitted after the race that his legs were spent after Wednesday nights state efforts, the cold rain, and the mornings 1600m.   His time of 9:32.99 is still one of his better race times and was good for 22nd.

Overall a great day and I can’t give enough thanks for the support of Ali, Nick, and Alex for coming down and providing constant humor, distraction, and most of all support.  It helps to have familiar faces at big meets and I know we all appreciated it.  Full meet results