January 6th, 2012
The indoor track at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham was the site for NYA’s first regular season races on Friday afternoon at 3:30. The meet was made up of mostly smaller teams which allowed our athletes to see how they stack up against teams of similar sizes. In the end both teams had phenomenal days with the boys team finishing 3rd, just a few points out of 2nd while the girls team finished a strong 4th (against 8 teams). NYA competes in Class B Indoor Track & Field against some very talented teams in southern Maine each week. Full results can be found here.
The meet started off for NYA with the field events. While everyone competing was setting a benchmark to base the rest of the season on and, for the new athletes, learning their away around the track and a meet, several athletes had notable places and performances. In the boys shotput Cam Rayder finished 2nd in the boys Sr. Division while Muriel was able to grab a 4th place finish in the Jr. Girls. Over on the mats we had a guest pole vaulter attend the meet (Evan Kendall) who was able to win the event with a height of 8’3″. In the High Jump our team grabbed a ton of points on the boys and the girls side with Nick Rayder finishing 2nd while on the girls side Moira Lachance tied her previous top 5 performance of 4’8″ and qualified for the state meet placing 2nd. Nyajal Ngoal overcame a rough opening to her jumping career with a clearance good for 5th place in the Sr. division. Meaghan O’Leary, our sole competitor in the Jr. girls division rounded out our scoring with a 3rd place finish. In the long jump the boys grabbed 2 places with Bill Tao jumping almost a foot and a half further than his career best to place 5th with a jump of 17’1.5″ while Jake Burns jumped over a foot and a half better to finish 6th. On the girls side Meaghan O’Leary had our best jump of the day and was quite a distance behind the board on her take-off for a 9th place finish.
On the track Jillian Bjorn-Caron got the team started off on the right foot by placing 3rd in the Jr. girls 55m hurdles setting a new school record and breaking her career best by over half a second. Bailey Clock and Maura Anderson ran the Sr. girls hurdles for NYA finishing 6th and 7th respectively. This was Maura’s first ever 55m hurdle race while Bailey was only .1 seconds off her best time from last year. On the boys side Jake Burns continued his onslaught of the hurdle record board started last year with a 2nd place finish and a new school record in the Sr. boys hurdle race. Next on the track were the 55m dashes. Many athletes ran this event for the first time, and the results were impressive. Sarah Jordan led the way for the girls with a 5th place finish and career best time while Nyajal Ngoal was 3rd for NYA with a time just .01 seconds off her career best. On the boys side Nick Rayder blitzed the finish line with a stellar time of 7.25 putting him 5th on our all time record board and finishing 5th overall at the meet. Close behind was Bill Tao who dropped almost a quarter of a second off of his time from last year.
In the distance races Alex Coffin, a clear favorite coming into the meet, lived up to his reputation with a decisive win in the boys mile while George Doolan raced a strong steady race to break under 6 minutes for the first time. On the girls side Hillary Detert overcame an amazingly fast (too fast) start to finish in just over 6 minutes and finish 4th. In the 800 the NYA girls went 2,4,7 (Hannah Twombly, Katie Cawley, Jillian Bjorn-Caron respectively) with Hannah Twombly’s time of 2:39.87 just missing qualifying her for the state meet in February. On the boys side both John LeBlanc and Duncan George (both freshman!) were able to place in the event. John finished 2nd almost 10 seconds faster than his best from middle school while Duncan was 4th. In the 2 mile Brian Trelegan struggled through some cramps that appeared halfway through the race to hang on for 2nd while Hannah Austin ran her first ever race on an indoor track which, oddly enough, was the 2 mile, and was able to finish 3rd in a competitive field.
In the longer sprints Muriel ran a strong and evenly paced 400m in the Jr. division for a 3rd place finish while Sarah Jordan and Bailey Clock were able to pull off a 3-5 punch to give NYA some additional points. On the boys side Aldis Gamble was NYA’s sole representitive in the event and was able to finish 4th in the Sr. division. In the 200m dash NYA only had Sr. division competitors for both the boys and the girls which hurt the team point-wise but we were able to secure some top finishes. On the girls side Moira Lachance finished 6th with her career best time followed by Nyajal Ngoal in 9th. On the boys side Jake Burns finished 3rd and, once again, placed himself on our all-time top 5 list with a time of 25.32 while Nick Rayder was not far behind running almost a full second faster than he did last year to finish 5th.
In the relays the Jr. Girls 4×200 pulled out a 3rd place finish despite a last minute substitution in the line-up while the Sr. girls pulled out a 6th as well even though the race was run in an “odd” fashion. On the boys side the Sr. relay was disqualified for a handoff violation but, the first 2 legs who competed successfully looked to be very strong.
Overall the races and events were a great start for NYA. I am looking forward to next weeks meet now that the butterflies are gone and people know what to expect from a night of racing. Hope to see you all at the track next Friday at 3:30 for some great competition.