1/2/2015
The NYA Boys and Girls Indoor Track & Field teams competed in their first meet on Friday afternoon at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham. 8 teams competed in the meet including NYA. We had strong showings from many of the athletes that resulted in a phenomenal finish for both teams. In the end the girls’ team was 2nd, just 9 points out of first, while the boys team finished in a strong 5th with only 6 boys.
In the sprints Emily Taylor ’16 was able to place 3rd in a state qualifying time of 7.97. This time is also the #2 All-Time performance in the senior division. Mackenzie Sangster ’16 ran the 55m dash for the first time in her career and was able to sneak in a 5th place finish against the same strong field. On the boys’ side Devlin O’Keefe ’18 placed 3rd in his first ever attempt at the 55m dash in the junior division while Peter Li ’16 had the fastest time for NYA in the senior division. In the 55m Hurdles Adrienne Tracy ’16 had a strong season opener finishing in 2nd with a time of 12.71. In the 200m the team points came from Emily and Mackenzie again but this time they were both able to run just under 30 seconds to place 2-3 respectively while Liz McIntosh ’16 dropped almost a quarter of a second off of her career best time. In the senior division 400m captains Muriel Adams ’15 and Maddie Cutten ’15 both ran career best times (1:10.96 and 1:12.45 respectively) and finished 4th and 6th in the meet.
In the distances Sarah Austin ’17 and Sarah Cooper ’16 teamed up for the mile and both ran personal best times. On the boys’ side Matt Malcom ’15 placed 2nd in the mile for the team while running another state qualifying time of 4:44. In the 800m it was a massive battle as 3 of our girls finished within 1 second of each other and just missed running personal bests. On the boys’ side Xander Bartone ’17 and Henry Quesada ’17 battled it out all the way to the finish line to place 4-5 in a strong field. Their times (2:08 and 2:09) were both state qualifying times and Xander’s 2:08 is a new sophomore class school record. In the 2 mile Hannah Austin ’15 and Matt Malcom both won the event easily. Hannah’s time was over 1 minute under the state qualifying time.
The field events were strong, as usual, for NYA. To start Linnea Hull ’16 was undefeated on Friday. She won both the triple jump and the pole vault. In the vault she cleared 7’7″ which is a state qualifying height AND a new school record. In the long jump Emily Taylor hit 14′ to place 4th while on the boys’ side Peter Li and Devlin O’Keefe both jumped career bests. Peter placed 6th with a 16′ leap while Devlin jumped over a foot farther than his best. In the high jump Liz McIntosh placed 3rd and Mackenzie Sangster placed 5th in the senior division – both girls cleared 4’2″. In the throws Kieran Rowe ’18 finished in 3rd place in the junior division shot put with a throw of 21’6″ while on the girls ‘side Muriel Adams hit a career best with a toss of 29’10”. This is a state qualifying distance AND a new grade record for the senior class.
In the relays the meet started off with the girls’ 4×800. Megan Alberding ’18 started it off with a stellar 800m leg in just under 2:50. Megan passed the baton to Sarah Austin, who passed a runner to put us in contention to win the event. However, after her 4th lap the officials made a mistake and would not let her hand off the baton, forcing her to run an extra lap. After her 5th lap she passed the baton to Sarah Cooper who started strong, but since an athlete had run 5 laps, our (and all) relays were going to be disqualified so I made the decision to stop the relay early and not waste any more energy on a race that wouldn’t score for the team. So Sarah Cooper did not get to finish her 800m and Hannah Austin, who was slated for anchor, never stepped on the track. We were on track to win the event but… even officials make mistakes. In the 4x200m the junior girls (Megan, Grier, Sarah A., and Lauren T.) finished 4th as a team after never having run a sprint relay before, while the senior division relay of Emily T, Mackenzie S., Abbie H., and Muriel A. finished 3rd.
Overall it was a great first meet and I am already looking forward to next Friday at 3:30pm where, with a real meet under our belts, we can hit the track again with some peronsal and career bests ready to be broken.
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