By Cameron Dubin
Sports Reporter
The Newton South boys’ track and field team captured its fourth DCL championship in five years on Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center with a score of 93 points, seven ahead of runner-up Concord-Carlisle and eight ahead of third place Cambridge.
However, South was not initially named champion. After the meet, officials announced that Cambridge had won the meet with 83 points, while South finished in second with 79 points.
“We were looking at it and it just didn’t add up,” senior sprinter Philip Batler said.
The scorers had not added in the results from the long jump, in which senior Alex Huang jumped 21 feet, 5.25 inches, worthy of first place and 10 points to push Newton South to victory. Fellow senior Dong Kim placed fifth in the event as well, jumping 19 feet, 8.5 inches, adding a total of 14 points to the Lions’ total count.
Officials corrected the mistake on Sunday, declaring the Lions league champions.
“It’s our goal every season to win DCLs,” Batler said. “To walk away with a win, it was really nice because it was a team effort.”
At DCLs, the top eight finishers in each event place, with first place getting 10 points, second getting eight, third getting six, fourth getting five, fifth getting four, and so on until eight with one.
Batler himself contributed to the 93 point effort by placing first in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.59 seconds, tying his own school record. Batler also placed second in the 300-meter dash at 35.32, while fellow seniors Alex Huang and Jake Epstein finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in the race.
“It was the guy in the 1000 meters who stepped up. it was the guy in the 600 who took three seconds off his time to get second” – Philip Batler on what pushed the team over the edge to victory
Sophomore Noah Whiting and junior Gal Fudim placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the one mile run, both coming in at 4:30. The pair were also part of the third place finishing 4 x 800-meter relay team.
“It felt amazing that all the hard work paid off,” Whiting said. “We were able to upset some of powerhouses.”
“It shows that we tried our best throughout the season. We work hard and that’s why we [won]. They all did really well because of the hard work they [put in] throughout the season” said senior captain Nelson Merino, who was unable to compete due to injury.
All three relay teams racked up key points for the Lions as well. The 4 x 200-meter team of Batler, Epstein, junior Dan Epstein, and senior Eli Braginsky placed second. The 4 x 800-meter team of Whiting, Fudim, senior Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, and junior Pete Wise placed third, while the 4 x 400-meter relay of senior Patrick Gloria, junior Kent Bara, freshmen Chris Jiang and Amos Trinidad placed fourth.
A lot of focus had been placed on the DCL Championship Meet after the Lions came up short in last year’s meet.
“We changed our training going in,” Batler said. “Usually, we go and try and hit specific times and go at certain percentages, but for the past two weeks it’s just been everything you have left, put it into this interval and go full speed.”
The recurring theme of the Lions’ success was the ability to step up when the team needed it most. After only returning seven varsity runners from last year, different members of the team made huge jumps to help the Lions capture the win.
Batler cited senior Brad Weissel and junior Pete Wise for stepping up in their events to gain key points for South. Weissel ran a personal record 2:46.07 in the 1000 meters to place eighth, while Wise knocked off almost three seconds from his PR to run a 1:26.75 in the 600 meters, placing second.
“It was the guy in the 1000 meters who stepped up. It was the guy in the 600 who took three seconds off his time to get second,” Batler said on what pushed the team over the edge for the win.
Rosenzweig-Ziff added an eighth place finish in the 600 meter run, while first year runner junior Adam DiTullio also came up big for South, placing fifth in the high jump and third in the 55-meter hurdles. Senior Patrick Gloria finished behind DiTullio for fourth in the hurdles.
Junior Aidan O’Flaherty picked up points by placing sixth in the shot put with a throw of 41 feet, 2.5 inches.
Whiting agrees that the whole team stepped up due to the motivation of being an underdog to favorites Concord-Carlisle and Cambridge.
“Altogether, our want to prove something, that we could perform even without the kids who left [motivated us],” Whiting said.
As the regular season comes to an end, some South runners are preparing for the Division 1 State Championship Meet, with the hope of extending their seasons even further.
“We’ve qualified a lot of people for states, but we need to get some people into All-States,” Whiting said. “We need to be competitive at a higher level.”
Whiting also said that building for the outdoor season is the next step for the South track and field program. With many runners returning, along with athletes who do not compete for the indoor team, high expectations are being set for the upcoming upcoming outdoor season.
“Outdoor is the big thing where we’re going to try to be state champions,” Batler said.
The Lions will compete in the MIAA State Division 1 Championship Meet on Sunday, Feb. 14 at the Reggie Lewis Center.
