GISOLFI-MCCREADY RE-WRITES RECORD BOOKS, LEADS GIRLS TO LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
Meet Information
Middlesex League Championships
June 10, 2021
Burlington High School - Burlington, MA
RESULTS
BURLINGTON, MA - Thursday afternoon the Middlesex League's best descended upon Burlington High School for the Middlesex League Championships. On the girls side, The Minutemen were simply unstoppable. They turned in 21 season or personal bests on their way to winning the League Meet Championship for the first time since 2016 with 139 points. The Spy Ponders of Arlington were second with 83 points. For the boys it was a three way dual between Lexington, Reading, and Burlington all day. In the end, despite 21 season or personal bests by the LHS boys, the Rockets prevailed with 118 points. The Minutemen finished second with 111.50 points. Burlington was third with 107 points.
Of all the performances from the day none stood out more than that of Lexington High School's captain Aleia Gisolfi-McCready. The superstar senior has been dominant in the 400m Intermediate Hurdles and the 400m Dash all season, but showed just what she is capable of at the League Championships. In the 400IM Gisolfi-McCready burst away from the field and ran a mind boggling 1:01.96 to win the event by nearly five seconds. That time was a new Championship record, smashed Rebecca Pion's (LHS '16) school record by five seconds, was the fastest time run in Massachusetts this year, US #9 in the event, and qualified her for The Outdoor Nationals in Eugene Oregon later this month. But she was just getting started. In the 400m Gisolfi-McCready again blasted out of the blocks making up the stagger halfway down the backstretch. She then poured it on over the final 200m to win the event in 56.88, which broke Robin Gross's (LHS '13) Championship record and Melissa Solomon's (LHS '16) school record. That time puts her MA #2. In her third and final event of the day, Gisolfi-McCready anchored the 4x400m Relay of fellow classmates Aylin Bruce, Sunny Tang, and Catherine Movsessian to victory in 4:07.28, splitting 58.8 seconds unofficially.
While Gisolfi-McCready was stellar, this was a team effort by the girls from the start. Senior Lauren Sterne (11:33,16), junior Clara Fu (11:49.34), and sophomore Uma Sanker (12:14.31) set the tone for the kind of grit The Minutemen would show in the first event on the track. The 2 Mile squad all turned in season or personal bests of 20 seconds or better, with Sterne battling her way to the silver medal and Fu placing fifth. Both girls qualified for the Divisional Championships next week. In the High Jump, junior captain Mari McBride (5'4") and sophomore Maddie Parks (5'2") both matched their PRs to place first and second overall. LHS's "Bomb Squad" was out in force in the Discus circle. Junior Raquel Batista-Vieira broke her season best by eight feet with a Divisional qualifying mark of 97'3", which placed third. Senior captain Lina Jaafar was fifth with a six foot PR of 87'1". The 4x800m team made up of freshmen Adia Singh, Sarah Wipke, Gabby Fainelli, and sophomore Mirra Payson ran a season best 10:08.82 to win the relay and qualifying for Divisionals along the way.
Perhaps the most excited race of the day was the boys 4x400m. Going into the race The Minutemen trailed Burlington by 3.5 points for second place. Sophomore Brandon Uda-Thach got things off to a fast start with a 53.7 split. Junior Hiroki Heginbotham took the baton around in 54.0 and LHS was sitting in second place behind Reading. Running his third event on the day junior Josh Lee took the baton for the third leg, and ran down Reading on the homestretch with a 51.6 split to give senior Stephen Joseph a slight lead going onto the anchor leg. Joseph ran like a man possessed. He blasted out with the baton, and kept pouring it on over the final meters of the race. After crossing the line to win the event he was mauled by the entire Lexington team. Joseph's 50.8 split for The Minutemen gave the team a new season best (3:30.27) and Divisional qualifying time. With the 10 points from that win, and Burlington finishing seventh, the Relay's efforts gave LHS second place in the overall competition.
In the 800m, Eberle took the lead from the gun followed closely by fellow captain, senior Reed Solomon. The top pack of 6 runners came through the quarter mile between 57 and 58 seconds, and the race was on from there. As the pack turned for home it was an all out battle to the finish with Eberle outlasting his competitors and taking the title with a new PR of 1:57.63. Solomon finished sixth overall, breaking the two minute barrier for the first time (1:58.82). As was the case for the girls, the Bomb Squad made big noise in the Discus. Senior captain Jarret Dlugy threw a nearly 10 foot PR to win the event with an MA #6 mark of 147'7". Not to be outdone, sophomore Jack Ngo (125'4") used his sixth and final throw to drop an 11 foot PR and move up to fourth place. In the 2 Mile, senior Nate Croke went through the mile in 4:56, and continued the pressure over the final four laps. In the end Croke won the bronze medal with a PR of 9:55.12. In his first Championship meet, freshman Nayan Das set a nine second PR (4:33.53) to place fourth overall. That time qualifies puts him US #11 among Freshmen and qualifies him for the Freshman Mile at Nationals. Along with Das, junior Graham Bracken stepped on the track for the first time this year and turned in a massive PR of his own to place fifth in 4:34.67.
Point Scorers for the Girls
Final Girls Team Scores
1. Lexington - 139
2. Arlington - 83
3. Melrose - 77
4. Wilmington 76.50
5. Burlington - 75
6. Belmont - 74
7. Woburn - 60
8. Stoneham - 37.50
9. Wakefield - 34
10. Reading - 20
10. Winchester - 20
Point Scorers for the Boys
Final Boys Team Scores
1. Reading - 118
2. Lexington - 111.50
3. Burlington - 107
4. Wilmington - 103
5. Wakefield - 69
6. Woburn - 68
7. Belmont - 40.50
8. Winchester - 27
9. Arlington - 20
10. Melrose - 16
11. Stoneham - 7
Up Next
With the Reading and Woburn Tri-Meet being cancelled, The Minutemen will host a "Last Chance" meet on Monday afternoon at 4:15pm. This will offer athletes one final shot to race during a season that interrupted by facility safety issues at the LHS track and COVID protocols.
Middlesex League Championships
June 10, 2021
Burlington High School - Burlington, MA
RESULTS
BURLINGTON, MA - Thursday afternoon the Middlesex League's best descended upon Burlington High School for the Middlesex League Championships. On the girls side, The Minutemen were simply unstoppable. They turned in 21 season or personal bests on their way to winning the League Meet Championship for the first time since 2016 with 139 points. The Spy Ponders of Arlington were second with 83 points. For the boys it was a three way dual between Lexington, Reading, and Burlington all day. In the end, despite 21 season or personal bests by the LHS boys, the Rockets prevailed with 118 points. The Minutemen finished second with 111.50 points. Burlington was third with 107 points.
Of all the performances from the day none stood out more than that of Lexington High School's captain Aleia Gisolfi-McCready. The superstar senior has been dominant in the 400m Intermediate Hurdles and the 400m Dash all season, but showed just what she is capable of at the League Championships. In the 400IM Gisolfi-McCready burst away from the field and ran a mind boggling 1:01.96 to win the event by nearly five seconds. That time was a new Championship record, smashed Rebecca Pion's (LHS '16) school record by five seconds, was the fastest time run in Massachusetts this year, US #9 in the event, and qualified her for The Outdoor Nationals in Eugene Oregon later this month. But she was just getting started. In the 400m Gisolfi-McCready again blasted out of the blocks making up the stagger halfway down the backstretch. She then poured it on over the final 200m to win the event in 56.88, which broke Robin Gross's (LHS '13) Championship record and Melissa Solomon's (LHS '16) school record. That time puts her MA #2. In her third and final event of the day, Gisolfi-McCready anchored the 4x400m Relay of fellow classmates Aylin Bruce, Sunny Tang, and Catherine Movsessian to victory in 4:07.28, splitting 58.8 seconds unofficially.
While Gisolfi-McCready was stellar, this was a team effort by the girls from the start. Senior Lauren Sterne (11:33,16), junior Clara Fu (11:49.34), and sophomore Uma Sanker (12:14.31) set the tone for the kind of grit The Minutemen would show in the first event on the track. The 2 Mile squad all turned in season or personal bests of 20 seconds or better, with Sterne battling her way to the silver medal and Fu placing fifth. Both girls qualified for the Divisional Championships next week. In the High Jump, junior captain Mari McBride (5'4") and sophomore Maddie Parks (5'2") both matched their PRs to place first and second overall. LHS's "Bomb Squad" was out in force in the Discus circle. Junior Raquel Batista-Vieira broke her season best by eight feet with a Divisional qualifying mark of 97'3", which placed third. Senior captain Lina Jaafar was fifth with a six foot PR of 87'1". The 4x800m team made up of freshmen Adia Singh, Sarah Wipke, Gabby Fainelli, and sophomore Mirra Payson ran a season best 10:08.82 to win the relay and qualifying for Divisionals along the way.
Perhaps the most excited race of the day was the boys 4x400m. Going into the race The Minutemen trailed Burlington by 3.5 points for second place. Sophomore Brandon Uda-Thach got things off to a fast start with a 53.7 split. Junior Hiroki Heginbotham took the baton around in 54.0 and LHS was sitting in second place behind Reading. Running his third event on the day junior Josh Lee took the baton for the third leg, and ran down Reading on the homestretch with a 51.6 split to give senior Stephen Joseph a slight lead going onto the anchor leg. Joseph ran like a man possessed. He blasted out with the baton, and kept pouring it on over the final meters of the race. After crossing the line to win the event he was mauled by the entire Lexington team. Joseph's 50.8 split for The Minutemen gave the team a new season best (3:30.27) and Divisional qualifying time. With the 10 points from that win, and Burlington finishing seventh, the Relay's efforts gave LHS second place in the overall competition.
In the 800m, Eberle took the lead from the gun followed closely by fellow captain, senior Reed Solomon. The top pack of 6 runners came through the quarter mile between 57 and 58 seconds, and the race was on from there. As the pack turned for home it was an all out battle to the finish with Eberle outlasting his competitors and taking the title with a new PR of 1:57.63. Solomon finished sixth overall, breaking the two minute barrier for the first time (1:58.82). As was the case for the girls, the Bomb Squad made big noise in the Discus. Senior captain Jarret Dlugy threw a nearly 10 foot PR to win the event with an MA #6 mark of 147'7". Not to be outdone, sophomore Jack Ngo (125'4") used his sixth and final throw to drop an 11 foot PR and move up to fourth place. In the 2 Mile, senior Nate Croke went through the mile in 4:56, and continued the pressure over the final four laps. In the end Croke won the bronze medal with a PR of 9:55.12. In his first Championship meet, freshman Nayan Das set a nine second PR (4:33.53) to place fourth overall. That time qualifies puts him US #11 among Freshmen and qualifies him for the Freshman Mile at Nationals. Along with Das, junior Graham Bracken stepped on the track for the first time this year and turned in a massive PR of his own to place fifth in 4:34.67.
Point Scorers for the Girls
- Before her 2:27 split to anchor the 4x800 to victory, Fainelli raced to a PR and Divisional qualifying mark of 2:25.49 to place second in the 800m.
- Parks and McBride combined with juniors Haley Creighton and Regina Tashjian to grab the silver medal in the 4x100m Relay (52.05) by two-hundredths of a second.
- In the Long Jump, junior Anna Yang hit a new PR (17'2.50") to place second overall; Creighton was fourth with a PR of her own (16'7.50").
- Freshman Quin Tandeih (29'4") was the top underclassmen in the event, and finished fifth overall; Batista-Vieira was eighth in 28'10".
- In the 400m, Movsessian (1:01.19) and Bruce (1:01.77) placed third and fourth respectively.
- Payson ran an eight second season best in the Mile to place third with in a Divisional qualifying time of 5:28.32.
- Junior Elena Sabin qualified for Divisionals by breaking the illusive 70 second barrier (1:09.04) in the 400IM to place fourth.
- Parks was seventh in the 100m in a time of 13.59 seconds.
- Sophomore Karin Minemoto placed eighth in the Javelin with a throw of 87'7".
Final Girls Team Scores
1. Lexington - 139
2. Arlington - 83
3. Melrose - 77
4. Wilmington 76.50
5. Burlington - 75
6. Belmont - 74
7. Woburn - 60
8. Stoneham - 37.50
9. Wakefield - 34
10. Reading - 20
10. Winchester - 20
Point Scorers for the Boys
- The 4x100m Relay of sophomore Miguel Jaramillo, senior captain Ryan Atkins, Lee, and senior captain Alex Murphy won the event by four-hundredths of a second with a time of 45.08 seconds.
- In the 4x800m Relay junior Traver Smith, Das, Solomon, and Eberle helped the boys break out the golden broom by winning the event in 8:22.08 in route to sweeping the relays.
- From the unseeded section, Lee ran a PR and Divisional qualifying mark of 52.15 seconds to place third overall.
- The Shot Put saw sophomore Matt Jacob (44'0"), Ngo (43'10"), and Dlugy (42'10") place 4-5-6 respectively.
- In the 110m High Hurdles, sophomore Michael Gerfen ran a PR of 16.31 to place fourth; fellow classmate Jayden Bai placed eight, with his prelim time of 17.20 being a new PR.
- Smith (1:02.28) and sophomore Alexios Kontothanassis (1:02.92) both ran PRs in the 400IM to place fifth and seventh respectively.
- Bai was seventh in the High Jump with a leap of 5'8".
- Running into a head win in the 200m, Murphy placed seventh in 24.09 seconds.
- Atkins placed seventh in the 100m; his prelim time of 11.89 was a new PR.
- Sophomore Jerry Gong was eighth in the Long Jump with a leap of 19'8.50".
Final Boys Team Scores
1. Reading - 118
2. Lexington - 111.50
3. Burlington - 107
4. Wilmington - 103
5. Wakefield - 69
6. Woburn - 68
7. Belmont - 40.50
8. Winchester - 27
9. Arlington - 20
10. Melrose - 16
11. Stoneham - 7
Up Next
With the Reading and Woburn Tri-Meet being cancelled, The Minutemen will host a "Last Chance" meet on Monday afternoon at 4:15pm. This will offer athletes one final shot to race during a season that interrupted by facility safety issues at the LHS track and COVID protocols.