LEXINGTON GIRLS GO BACK TO BACK, ETCH THEIR PLACE IN HISTORY; BOYS BATTLE TO BRONZE
Meet Information
MIAA Division 1 Championship
February 15, 2025
the TRACK at New Balance - Boston, MA
RESULTS
BOSTON, MA - Last year's MIAA Division 1 Championship wound up being the coming out party for a Lexington High School girls' squad that had not finished even in the top 10 in the team competition the previous two winter seasons. Since that day at the Reggie Lewis Center, when they took home their first title in over a decade by over 20 points, the Lex girls have been a juggernaut in every sense of the word. They went undefeated in the Middlesex League throughout the spring on their way to a 40.5-point victory at the Division 1 Outdoor Championship. During the fall the Lex girls capped off an undefeated season in Massachusetts with the Division 1 Cross Country state title. This winter, it has been more of the same, as they steamrolled through a talented Middlesex League with an average margin of victory of over 50 points, took home the MSTCA Division 1 Relay title with a 32-point victory, and scored 154 points, a record total, to secure their fourth consecutive League Championship. As if they needed the help headed into Sunday's Division 1 Championship, the MIAA decided to move its championship meets to the TRACK at New Balance beginning this year, which meant that the biggest meet of the season would be a de-facto home meet for LHS. While the home track advantage might have been at play, the fact was that no team on Sunday was going to deny the Lexington girls of the title. The team scored a mind-blowing 113 points, which more than doubled the point totals of the Central Catholic and Newton North squads who tied for the runner-up position with 51 points. While the Lex girls were dominant from start to finish, there was plenty of drama for The Minutemen, as they fought tooth and nail to finish third overall. St John's Prep took home the title with 68 points, just ahead of the boys from Brookline (64).
The saying goes that big time players make big time plays in big time moments. On a team full of big time players, that could not have been more true on Sunday. Superstar sophomore Amelia Whorton led the team with a sensational effort across three events. She began the day as the top seed in the mile where she dueled with Cambridge senior Sophia Juanes Seto. Whorton went to the lead from the gun, and held back a talented field that included three of her teammates. Whorton maintained the lead through much of the race, but with 400m to go she had whittled the field down to just her and Juanes Seto. In the end, the LHS sophomore unleashed a 34-second final lap that the Cambridge senior could not match, and took the victory along with 10 points for her team in a time of 5:03.33. Less than an hour later, Whorton was back for the 1000m, where she faced Newton South senior Emily Frawley. Despite a strong late charge by Frawley, Whorton held on for the win, as she took the race from wire-to-wire with a time of 2:54.10. That mark broke the previous LHS record in the event set back in 2014 by Olivia Manickas-Hill (LHS '15). In her final event of the day, the 4x800m, Whorton anchored the relay of sophomores Ceci Kvaal and Natalie Bielat, along with junior Erin Ehmann. After Frawley gave the Newton South girls a large lead going into the final leg, Whorton had work to do to bring the Lex girls back from a 7-second deficit. In the end she made quick work of that gap, and with a 2:15.4 split, the LHS sophomore crossed the line 10 seconds ahead of second place to put an emphatic stamp on a triple gold performance.
While Whorton was lit the oval on fire, senior captain Ainsley Cuthbertson was stalking the ground in the throws area. The only thing in Massachusetts that has been able to hold back the dominance that Cuthbertson showed this winter is the MIAA itself. While Cuthbertson is the #1 high school weight thrower in the United States, the MIAA does not include her signature event in the team-scored divisional championships. The event is competed in a limited capacity at the Meet of Champions, where no team title is on the line. So unfortunately, the captain was limited in how much of an impact she could have on her team's ultimate goal. Despite the restrictions, Cuthbertson made quick work of the shot put field on Sunday. Her first throw of the competition landed at 37'8.25", which took the air right out of her competitors. That mark ended up being nearly two feet farther than any of her competitors six throws on the day. After a 39'4.25" throw in the third round, Cuthbertson held a nearly six-foot lead entering the finals. In the end, the LHS senior's best throw landed at 39'6", which sealed the 10 points she could contribute to the cause.
Perhaps the highlight of the meet for the Lex girls came in the 2 mile. At that point Lexington already had scored 71 points, and all but guaranteed the team title. As the seeded section of the 2 mile was lining up on the starting line, Weymouth girls' head coach, Mike Miller, jokingly said the quiet part out loud, "It's ridiculous! It's like a cross country race. They have seven girls out there." In perhaps an unprecedented show of depth, LHS did in fact of 7 of the 15 girls in the seeded section. Five of whom went on to place in the top eight, as Lexington secured 28 points in the event. Sophomore Janie Conrad and Ella Tyson tangoed with Newton North's Esty Dudnik throughout the first mile of the race, each jockeying to the lead at various points. However, with just over four laps to go, Conrad and Tyson began to put daylight between them and the Tigers' junior. In the end, Conrad took home the victory with a time of 11:09.47, which qualified her for the New Balance Indoor Nationals in the event. Tyson earned the silver medal with a personal best time of 11:10.39. Junior Alycia Charest (11:27.07), and Ehmann (11:35.91) were able to overtake Weymouth's Sonia Souto over the final laps of the race to secure fourth and fifth place respectively. Then, junior Callie Glenn (11:47.69) battled her way through illness to pickup a point with an eighth place finish.
While the quote from Miller was in jest, it signaled what is at the core of this historic team. LHS scored points across every event group (sprints, jumps, hurdles, throws, middle and long distance, and relays) on their way to victory. They were, in every sense of the word, a team. They cheered each other on, challenged each other to be at their best, and in the rare cases where they did not perform at their to their abilities, had each other to pick them up. It will be for others to discuss where this team ranks in the history of Massachusetts track & field, but in our minds, their performance at the 2026 Division 1 Championship will be immortal.
Seeded seventh as a team entering the meet on Sunday, The Minutemen knew they would need to be at the top of their game, and perhaps get a little bit of help to contend for the title. After the first two events, that was exactly how things began to play out. Senior captain Simon Tandeih has been at the helm of the team since his sophomore spring. A ferocious competitor, he is the heartbeat of The Minutemen, and was at his absolute best on Sunday. In his first of three events on the day, the captain was the fastest qualifier out of the prelims of the 55m hurdles, as he ran a PR of 7.53 seconds. In the finals, he simply was not going to be denied. While his competitors hustled around him preparing for the race, Tandeih stood stoically in front of his blocks at the center of the straightaway awaiting the officials call to the start. When it came, he loaded into the blocks, and at the sound of the gun, fired out and over the five barriers to victory with a new LHS record of 7.51 seconds. That mark took down the mark set by Jon Cunha (LHS '05) over 20 years ago, and let the rest of the teams know that Lexington would in the meet all afternoon. Junior Cayden "Showtime" Chambers was next on the track for The Minutemen. Seeded eighth in the 55m dash with a PR of 6.64 seconds, in the prelims he delivered a PR of 6.61 seconds, which punched his ticket to the finals. Meanwhile, St. John's Prep, expected to have three athletes in the finals, but only two made it through. In those finals, Chambers overcame a poor start, and ran his way to a fifth place finish with a time of 6.601 seconds. That mark was just three-thousands-of-a-second ahead of Guoyu Lin of Shrewsbury, and earned his team four big points. LHS got another three points right off the bat when senior Franz Schroeder placed sixth in the shot put with a throw 50'6.25". From there, it became a bit of a waiting game as The Minutemen did not have anyone entered with a chance to score in the first three events on the oval. However, they did have their captain over in the long jump.
Tandeih took an early lead with a first round leap of 21'6". That mark held until the final round of the prelims, where New Bedford's Michael Antunes delivered a jump of 21'11". Tandeih responded immediately. In the first round of the finals, the captain got himself out to a mark of 22'5". Then, on his final attempt, with only Antunes left to go, he moved that mark out just a bit farther, as he crashed down 22'9.75" into the sand pit. From there, all he, and the rest of the Lexington contingent, could do was wait and hope that the New Bedford senior would not snatch victory with his final attempt. Despite a strong jump from Antunes, the official's red flag went up, which signaled a foul, and with that, Tandeih secured 10 more points for The Minutemen. Just as this unfolded on the infield, Chambers was lining up to compete in the unseeded section of the 300m. Chambers competing in the event was a bit of a roll of the dice, as the junior struggled in his last two attempts at the distance. However, the difference between those races and the one on Sunday was that he would not have to compete against Reading's Ryan Pulpi, who is ranked US #8 in the event. With the weight of not having to face down one of the best in the nation lifted off his shoulders, Chambers ran an immaculate race from start to finish. He crossed the line first with a huge personal best, and New Balance Nationals qualifying time of 35.16 seconds. From there, Lexington had to play the waiting game again, and watch the clock as the seeded section flew around the track. In the end, only Acton-Boxborough's Liam Lemke had enough to best Chambers' performance, which meant silver for the LHS junior, and eight much needed points for The Minutemen. With that, Lexington was back in the mix for the team title. However, despite the tremendous effort by junior Trevor Stevens, who ran a personal best of 9:37.63 to place fifth in the 2 mile, that event is where Prep and Brookline pulled away for good, as both had multiple athletes combine to score double-digit points. The Minutemen's last gasp came in the 4x200m relay where the team of Chambers, juniors Sheryas Hanchinamani and Luis Linares Gutierrez, and Tandeih were on the verge of a massive momentum swing. However, as Tandeih went to make the pass on B.C. High's Joaquin Barros, the two's feet were tangled, and LHS's captain crashed down to the track on the final turn. A heartbreaking end to what was nothing less than an all-time performance by Tandeih. Despite the disappoint, Lexington was able to scrape out a single point in the 4x800m relay, as the team of sophomore Matteo Sanchez de Rojas, senior Will Parker, and juniors Arjun Raha and Eric House ran 8:22.14 to place eighth overall. That point brought the team up to a total of 40, and secured their third place finish, just a single point ahead of Central Catholic.
Other Highlights for the Girls
Final Girls Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Lexington - 113
2. Newton North - 51
2. Central Catholic - 51
4. Natick - 38
5. Wachusett - 33
6. Needham - 25
6. Newton South - 25
8. Boston Latin - 21
9. Lowell - 18
10. Franklin - 17
Other Highlights for the Boys
Final Boys Team Scores (Top 10)
1. St. John's Prep - 68
2. Brookline - 64
3. Lexington - 40
4. Central Catholic - 39
5. B.C. High - 34
6. Lowell - 31
7. Xaverian - 29
8. Natick - 23
9. Attleboro - 21
9. Newton North - 21
Up Next
The LHS Bomb Squad's annual tradition known as "Weight Week" gets underway this Wednesday, February 18th as the Lexington throwers will compete at the Massachusetts Scholastic Weight Throw Championships at Reggie Lewis, and the New England Indoor Weight Throw Championships in Providence.
MIAA Division 1 Championship
February 15, 2025
the TRACK at New Balance - Boston, MA
RESULTS
BOSTON, MA - Last year's MIAA Division 1 Championship wound up being the coming out party for a Lexington High School girls' squad that had not finished even in the top 10 in the team competition the previous two winter seasons. Since that day at the Reggie Lewis Center, when they took home their first title in over a decade by over 20 points, the Lex girls have been a juggernaut in every sense of the word. They went undefeated in the Middlesex League throughout the spring on their way to a 40.5-point victory at the Division 1 Outdoor Championship. During the fall the Lex girls capped off an undefeated season in Massachusetts with the Division 1 Cross Country state title. This winter, it has been more of the same, as they steamrolled through a talented Middlesex League with an average margin of victory of over 50 points, took home the MSTCA Division 1 Relay title with a 32-point victory, and scored 154 points, a record total, to secure their fourth consecutive League Championship. As if they needed the help headed into Sunday's Division 1 Championship, the MIAA decided to move its championship meets to the TRACK at New Balance beginning this year, which meant that the biggest meet of the season would be a de-facto home meet for LHS. While the home track advantage might have been at play, the fact was that no team on Sunday was going to deny the Lexington girls of the title. The team scored a mind-blowing 113 points, which more than doubled the point totals of the Central Catholic and Newton North squads who tied for the runner-up position with 51 points. While the Lex girls were dominant from start to finish, there was plenty of drama for The Minutemen, as they fought tooth and nail to finish third overall. St John's Prep took home the title with 68 points, just ahead of the boys from Brookline (64).
The saying goes that big time players make big time plays in big time moments. On a team full of big time players, that could not have been more true on Sunday. Superstar sophomore Amelia Whorton led the team with a sensational effort across three events. She began the day as the top seed in the mile where she dueled with Cambridge senior Sophia Juanes Seto. Whorton went to the lead from the gun, and held back a talented field that included three of her teammates. Whorton maintained the lead through much of the race, but with 400m to go she had whittled the field down to just her and Juanes Seto. In the end, the LHS sophomore unleashed a 34-second final lap that the Cambridge senior could not match, and took the victory along with 10 points for her team in a time of 5:03.33. Less than an hour later, Whorton was back for the 1000m, where she faced Newton South senior Emily Frawley. Despite a strong late charge by Frawley, Whorton held on for the win, as she took the race from wire-to-wire with a time of 2:54.10. That mark broke the previous LHS record in the event set back in 2014 by Olivia Manickas-Hill (LHS '15). In her final event of the day, the 4x800m, Whorton anchored the relay of sophomores Ceci Kvaal and Natalie Bielat, along with junior Erin Ehmann. After Frawley gave the Newton South girls a large lead going into the final leg, Whorton had work to do to bring the Lex girls back from a 7-second deficit. In the end she made quick work of that gap, and with a 2:15.4 split, the LHS sophomore crossed the line 10 seconds ahead of second place to put an emphatic stamp on a triple gold performance.
While Whorton was lit the oval on fire, senior captain Ainsley Cuthbertson was stalking the ground in the throws area. The only thing in Massachusetts that has been able to hold back the dominance that Cuthbertson showed this winter is the MIAA itself. While Cuthbertson is the #1 high school weight thrower in the United States, the MIAA does not include her signature event in the team-scored divisional championships. The event is competed in a limited capacity at the Meet of Champions, where no team title is on the line. So unfortunately, the captain was limited in how much of an impact she could have on her team's ultimate goal. Despite the restrictions, Cuthbertson made quick work of the shot put field on Sunday. Her first throw of the competition landed at 37'8.25", which took the air right out of her competitors. That mark ended up being nearly two feet farther than any of her competitors six throws on the day. After a 39'4.25" throw in the third round, Cuthbertson held a nearly six-foot lead entering the finals. In the end, the LHS senior's best throw landed at 39'6", which sealed the 10 points she could contribute to the cause.
Perhaps the highlight of the meet for the Lex girls came in the 2 mile. At that point Lexington already had scored 71 points, and all but guaranteed the team title. As the seeded section of the 2 mile was lining up on the starting line, Weymouth girls' head coach, Mike Miller, jokingly said the quiet part out loud, "It's ridiculous! It's like a cross country race. They have seven girls out there." In perhaps an unprecedented show of depth, LHS did in fact of 7 of the 15 girls in the seeded section. Five of whom went on to place in the top eight, as Lexington secured 28 points in the event. Sophomore Janie Conrad and Ella Tyson tangoed with Newton North's Esty Dudnik throughout the first mile of the race, each jockeying to the lead at various points. However, with just over four laps to go, Conrad and Tyson began to put daylight between them and the Tigers' junior. In the end, Conrad took home the victory with a time of 11:09.47, which qualified her for the New Balance Indoor Nationals in the event. Tyson earned the silver medal with a personal best time of 11:10.39. Junior Alycia Charest (11:27.07), and Ehmann (11:35.91) were able to overtake Weymouth's Sonia Souto over the final laps of the race to secure fourth and fifth place respectively. Then, junior Callie Glenn (11:47.69) battled her way through illness to pickup a point with an eighth place finish.
While the quote from Miller was in jest, it signaled what is at the core of this historic team. LHS scored points across every event group (sprints, jumps, hurdles, throws, middle and long distance, and relays) on their way to victory. They were, in every sense of the word, a team. They cheered each other on, challenged each other to be at their best, and in the rare cases where they did not perform at their to their abilities, had each other to pick them up. It will be for others to discuss where this team ranks in the history of Massachusetts track & field, but in our minds, their performance at the 2026 Division 1 Championship will be immortal.
Seeded seventh as a team entering the meet on Sunday, The Minutemen knew they would need to be at the top of their game, and perhaps get a little bit of help to contend for the title. After the first two events, that was exactly how things began to play out. Senior captain Simon Tandeih has been at the helm of the team since his sophomore spring. A ferocious competitor, he is the heartbeat of The Minutemen, and was at his absolute best on Sunday. In his first of three events on the day, the captain was the fastest qualifier out of the prelims of the 55m hurdles, as he ran a PR of 7.53 seconds. In the finals, he simply was not going to be denied. While his competitors hustled around him preparing for the race, Tandeih stood stoically in front of his blocks at the center of the straightaway awaiting the officials call to the start. When it came, he loaded into the blocks, and at the sound of the gun, fired out and over the five barriers to victory with a new LHS record of 7.51 seconds. That mark took down the mark set by Jon Cunha (LHS '05) over 20 years ago, and let the rest of the teams know that Lexington would in the meet all afternoon. Junior Cayden "Showtime" Chambers was next on the track for The Minutemen. Seeded eighth in the 55m dash with a PR of 6.64 seconds, in the prelims he delivered a PR of 6.61 seconds, which punched his ticket to the finals. Meanwhile, St. John's Prep, expected to have three athletes in the finals, but only two made it through. In those finals, Chambers overcame a poor start, and ran his way to a fifth place finish with a time of 6.601 seconds. That mark was just three-thousands-of-a-second ahead of Guoyu Lin of Shrewsbury, and earned his team four big points. LHS got another three points right off the bat when senior Franz Schroeder placed sixth in the shot put with a throw 50'6.25". From there, it became a bit of a waiting game as The Minutemen did not have anyone entered with a chance to score in the first three events on the oval. However, they did have their captain over in the long jump.
Tandeih took an early lead with a first round leap of 21'6". That mark held until the final round of the prelims, where New Bedford's Michael Antunes delivered a jump of 21'11". Tandeih responded immediately. In the first round of the finals, the captain got himself out to a mark of 22'5". Then, on his final attempt, with only Antunes left to go, he moved that mark out just a bit farther, as he crashed down 22'9.75" into the sand pit. From there, all he, and the rest of the Lexington contingent, could do was wait and hope that the New Bedford senior would not snatch victory with his final attempt. Despite a strong jump from Antunes, the official's red flag went up, which signaled a foul, and with that, Tandeih secured 10 more points for The Minutemen. Just as this unfolded on the infield, Chambers was lining up to compete in the unseeded section of the 300m. Chambers competing in the event was a bit of a roll of the dice, as the junior struggled in his last two attempts at the distance. However, the difference between those races and the one on Sunday was that he would not have to compete against Reading's Ryan Pulpi, who is ranked US #8 in the event. With the weight of not having to face down one of the best in the nation lifted off his shoulders, Chambers ran an immaculate race from start to finish. He crossed the line first with a huge personal best, and New Balance Nationals qualifying time of 35.16 seconds. From there, Lexington had to play the waiting game again, and watch the clock as the seeded section flew around the track. In the end, only Acton-Boxborough's Liam Lemke had enough to best Chambers' performance, which meant silver for the LHS junior, and eight much needed points for The Minutemen. With that, Lexington was back in the mix for the team title. However, despite the tremendous effort by junior Trevor Stevens, who ran a personal best of 9:37.63 to place fifth in the 2 mile, that event is where Prep and Brookline pulled away for good, as both had multiple athletes combine to score double-digit points. The Minutemen's last gasp came in the 4x200m relay where the team of Chambers, juniors Sheryas Hanchinamani and Luis Linares Gutierrez, and Tandeih were on the verge of a massive momentum swing. However, as Tandeih went to make the pass on B.C. High's Joaquin Barros, the two's feet were tangled, and LHS's captain crashed down to the track on the final turn. A heartbreaking end to what was nothing less than an all-time performance by Tandeih. Despite the disappoint, Lexington was able to scrape out a single point in the 4x800m relay, as the team of sophomore Matteo Sanchez de Rojas, senior Will Parker, and juniors Arjun Raha and Eric House ran 8:22.14 to place eighth overall. That point brought the team up to a total of 40, and secured their third place finish, just a single point ahead of Central Catholic.
Other Highlights for the Girls
- Senior captain Aubrey Deardorf earned silver in the 55m dash with a time of 7.25 seconds; sophomore Sabina Green (7.60) was 13th.
- Before their 2 mile heroics, Conrad (5:07.88) and Tyson (5:09.06) placed third and fourth respectively in the mile; Glenn (5:30.58) was 14th.
- Kvaal ran a personal best, and New Balance Nationals qualifying mark of 2:59.02 to place fourth in the 1000m; fellow classmate Mackenzie Callahan (3:02.12) won the unseeded section with a PR to place seventh; sophomore Natalie Bielat (3:07.81) finished 11th; senior Prachi Aggarwal ran a PR of 3:16.19 to finish 17th.
- The 55m hurdles saw freshman Abbey Kohut (8.86) place fourth; junior Emily Hoefkens ran a PR of 9.09 seconds in the prelims, and placed eighth in the finals; sophomore Cynthia Xu (9.47) finished 13th; senior Monjola Finnih ran a PR of 9.52 to finish 15th.
- In the 300m, senior Felice Haverly (41.32) placed fourth overall.
- Deardorf (17'1.75") placed fifth in the long jump; Gu (15'8.75") finished 14th; Kohut (15'6") landed in 16th place.
- The 4x200m of Green, Hoefkens, Kohut, and senior Julianna Mathurin placed fifth with a time of 1:47.84.
- Sophomore Isabella Gorospe (11:48.78) and junior Josie Bettencourt (12:06.12) both ran personal bests in the 2 mile as the pair finished ninth and 11th in the event respectively.
- Green was 16th in the high jump with a leap of 4'8".
Final Girls Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Lexington - 113
2. Newton North - 51
2. Central Catholic - 51
4. Natick - 38
5. Wachusett - 33
6. Needham - 25
6. Newton South - 25
8. Boston Latin - 21
9. Lowell - 18
10. Franklin - 17
Other Highlights for the Boys
- Freshman Kiran Green finished 17th in the mile with a PR of 4:37.92, which qualified him for the freshman division at the New Balance Nationals.
- In the 55m hurdles, senior captain Aidan Raney (8.26) ran a personal best to finish 16th.
- Senior Cleavon Manor Jr finished 10th in the long jump with a leap of 20'2.50"; Linares Gutierrez (19'9.75") was 14th.
- Over in the shot put, senior Christian Brown (43'7.75") landed 17th overall.
- Along with Stevens, sophomore Andrew Zhang finished 17th in the 2 mile with a time of 10:16.19.
- The 4x400m relay of Hanchinamani, junior Eli Selsky, House, and Raha ran 3:37.40 to finish 10th overall.
Final Boys Team Scores (Top 10)
1. St. John's Prep - 68
2. Brookline - 64
3. Lexington - 40
4. Central Catholic - 39
5. B.C. High - 34
6. Lowell - 31
7. Xaverian - 29
8. Natick - 23
9. Attleboro - 21
9. Newton North - 21
Up Next
The LHS Bomb Squad's annual tradition known as "Weight Week" gets underway this Wednesday, February 18th as the Lexington throwers will compete at the Massachusetts Scholastic Weight Throw Championships at Reggie Lewis, and the New England Indoor Weight Throw Championships in Providence.