By Dan Epstein
Sports Reporter
Last Saturday, on a blistering hot afternoon at Westfield State University, the Newton South girls’ track and field team pushed to a fourth place finish at the MIAA All-State Championships.
All-States is a true test of a team’s ability, as it is a challenge just to make it to the event. For any individual event, or relay, a person must run, jump, or throw a qualifying standard in order to compete at their respective divisional championships. Then, only the best performers out of a strong field at the divisional meets may advance to the All-State Championships.
Many schools struggle to get one runner or relay to All-States. However, the Lions impressively qualified two runners in individual events along with two relays.
South had junior Clare Martin at the meet as the second seed in the 800m and senior Rebecca Grusby as the third seed in the two-mile. The Lions were also represented by two relays including the 4x800m relay consisting of Martin, Grusby, and sophomores Hannah Fraser and Emily Bulczynski in the seventh seed. The other 4x100m relay team was in attendance as well, comprised of senior Lizzie Walkes, and juniors Allie Arruda, Alana Bojar and Calene Lazare, the 12th seed.
Coming into the meet, the goal was to be competitive and place high as a team, as well as to get Martin, Grusby, and the relays to place and advance to the New England Championships the following weekend. However, Coach Steven McChesney knew that being a competitive team in the meet would not come easily.
“In terms of score, I was hoping for [team points] somewhere in the mid-twenties, but thought that we would have to have a perfect day to get that,” he said. “That meant that we had to meet our seed or beat our seed in all the events, and have a 4x100m outcome that placed.”
Come Saturday, the girls were determined and beat all of McChesney’s expectations.
The 4x100m relay crushed their seed and placed 7th overall, with a season-best time of 49.77 seconds, good for a medal, two points towards the team score, and a New England’s qualification. McChesney described the race going as well, if not better than what he imagined.
“Lizzie got us off to a great start,” he said. “Calene looked like she was shot out of a cannon; she just looked propelled like she had a jetpack on. But [Arruda and Bojar] had big improvement… and a big part of us making it to New Englands is the two middle legs, that not everyone gives the most credit to, but these are two dependable kids who have just gotten faster.”
The girls have their eyes set on placing this weekend at New Englands. They are the 17th seed coming in, but as last weekend showed, they have the potential to crush their seed again.
Another strong performance came from Grusby, who raced in the very first event of the day, the two-mile. It was scorching hot, yet Grusby rallied and ran an incredible time of 10:45.77. This all-time personal best earned her third place at the meet and a well-deserved school record, going to New England’s.
The other individual performer for South, Martin, also had an impressive showing at All-States. In the heat and tough competition, Martin unfortunately came up just shy of repeating her win at the same meet last year. In the final 150m of her 800m race, Martin was able to close down on the leader and the two battled to the wire, Martin just coming up short for a second place finish. However, Martin did not beat herself up after the race, and instead looked toward the future.
“She won fair and square, and that tells me that in future races I just need to start my kick sooner, and follow through the line,” she said.
The 800m is a demanding race, and after pushing herself to the limit for her speedy time of 2:11.79, Martin was not settled with a second place finish. Luckily, she had her opportunity for redemption in the 4x800m. The challenging part; only 30 minutes of rest after the 800m until the gun goes off for the relay.
McChesney said that a few coaches asked him if he was sure about putting Martin in the relay after her 800m race, but McChesney was very confident in her ability.
“About ten minutes after her race I went up to [Martin]…and she just looked so much more recovered than she did the week before, and I kind of walked away smiling to myself thinking, ‘I think we got this,”’ he said.
From the beginning, there was no clear winner in the relay race, as the Lions ran fast and comfortablely. But by the time Martin received the baton as the anchor leg, it was all over for the other teams. She had caught the leaders on her first lap of two, and showed great strength to hold on for the win. With a time of 9:19.78, the team just barely reached their ultimate goal of running a sub-9:20 time. According to McChesney, it was an amazing performance from all four to achieve such an incredible time.
Youngsters Bulczynski and Fraser both proved to be very strong 800m runners and ran very well as the lead-off and third legs, respectively. Grusby came back from her two-mile earlier to help the relay tremendously as well. Martin capped it off with a fast anchor-leg, wrapping a very successful race.
In the enemy territory of western Massachusetts, the eight girls from Newton South showed the rest of the state that they are a force to be reckoned with. Coach McChesney did not believe it would be easy, and it definitely was not, but the girls pulled together 26 points, for a fourth place finish in the overall team scores, a big confidence boost going to New Britain, Connecticut on Saturday for the chance to leave their mark on the rest of New England.
“It was the perfect storm in terms of the kids,” McChesney said. “It’s wonderful when all of the work that you’ve done throughout winter and spring track pays off for every kid. Every girl that went to the meet and competed scored.”
