THE MINUTEMEN GET A TASTE OF "HAYWARD MAGIC" AT THE OUTDOOR NATIONALS
Meet Information
The Outdoor Nationals
July 2-4, 2021
Hayward Field - Eugene, OR
RESULTS
EUGENE, OR - The Minutemen celebrated Fourth of July weekend by traveling to the Track & Field equivalent of Mecca. In the last few weeks "Track Town USA" has hosted the top talent at all levels of the sport with the NCAA Division 1 Championships and the US Olympic Trials both being held there in June. As the calendar turned to July it was time for the nation's top prep talent to get a taste of Hayward Magic at Historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. And Lexington's best certainly got their fair share.
Thursday things got off to a hot start for The Minutemen as the Massachusetts State Champions were on the track together for the final time in the 4x400m Relay, running in the seeded section. Having just set the LHS record in the event last week, junior captain Mari McBride, and seniors Catherine Movsessian, Aylin Bruce, and Aleia-Gisolfi McCready came to Hayward hoping to improve that record and make a run at a podium position. The gun fired and McBride was off, the junior dashed around the first turn and used a hard charge down the homestretch to handoff the baton with LHS in fourth place after a 58.3 split. Movsessian turned in another strong leg for her team, splitting 59.7 to keep The Minutemen in fourth position. Bruce got the baton and was promptly passed Hillsborough, NJ's Sia Mahajan who ran the race of her life splitting 57.9. LHS's captain battled the whole way around the track to try and keep her team close and give Gisolfi-McCready a chance to make up ground on the anchor leg. Her split of 60.9 did just that. Captain Gisolfi-McCready got the baton about 20 meters back of Hillsborough's Kirstyn Schechter - who would split 57.5 - and immediately began hunting her down. As the two came around the final curve and down the homestretch The Minutemen were still five meters back, but as she has done all season Gisolfi-McCready remained calm over the last 100m and simply ran her opponent down. Gisolfi-McCready turned in a 54.7 second anchor split to lower the team's own school record to 3:53.92 and place fourth overall, which earned them All-American honors. This was the highest a Lexington High School team has placed at Nationals since Cameron Hofland (LHS '18), Kazu Uda-Thach (LHS '19), Lucas Honohan (LHS '18), and Thomas Lingard (LHS '18) earned the bronze medal in the 1600m Sprint Medley Relay in 2018.
After a one week hiatus, on Friday Gisolfi-McCready was back in what has become her signature event, the 400m Intermediate Hurdles. While many states run the 300m Hurdle distance, on the national level the full Olympic distance is competed. Coming in with a personal best time of 1:01.96, Gisolfi-McCready was one of the only runners in her heat to have experience over 10 hurdles, which was evident in how the race unfolded. As the gun went off the field blasted out and Gisolfi-McCready was in the running in fourth place over the first half of the race. As the field came around the final turn, Gisolfi-McCready began to make-up ground and pulled even with the top two girls as they cleared the eighth hurdle. Running right next to Gisolfi-McCready, on the ninth hurdle Emma Pollak from Kentwood, WA took a hard fall. The mishap did not phase LHS's superstar as she accelerated over the barrier leaving Virigina State Champion Yasmeen Tinsely in her wake. After clearing the final hurdle Gisolfi-McCready had 40 meters left in her storied LHS career and with that time she simply poured it on. Destroying her heat and with a lean at the line, she became only the fourth prep runner in the nation to dip under 60 seconds this year with a final time of 59.90 seconds. While her work was done, it was then wait-and-see time as the seeded section went off. Charlotte, NC's Akala Garrett was the top seed in the event and performed that way winning the event in 58.99 seconds, however, no other girl could match Gisolfi-McCready's performance on Friday, which meant she would be leaving Hayward Field with a silver medal to go along with the fourth place medal from the 4x400m. To put into perspective Gisolfi-McCready's accomplishments in her first and only Outdoor Track season, she competed primarily in three events - 400m, 400IM, and 4x400m - and established new LHS records in all of them. She was the League Champion in all three events, the Division 1 Champion in the 400m and 400IM, and the All-State Champion in the 400m and 4x400m. In only her sixth time competing the event, she ran the second fastest time in history by a Massachusetts high schooler for the 400IM. And to top it all off, Friday was the first time she was beaten in an individual event all year. She leaves LHS as the school's unquestioned queen of the long sprints, having completed what is safe to say the most successful season by a Lexington High School Track & Field athlete ever.
Other Highlights from Nationals
Up Next
Now that Outdoor Track has ended, The Minutemen will look towards the Fall as the 2021 Cross Country season will begin on September 11th at Clipper Relays.
The Outdoor Nationals
July 2-4, 2021
Hayward Field - Eugene, OR
RESULTS
EUGENE, OR - The Minutemen celebrated Fourth of July weekend by traveling to the Track & Field equivalent of Mecca. In the last few weeks "Track Town USA" has hosted the top talent at all levels of the sport with the NCAA Division 1 Championships and the US Olympic Trials both being held there in June. As the calendar turned to July it was time for the nation's top prep talent to get a taste of Hayward Magic at Historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. And Lexington's best certainly got their fair share.
Thursday things got off to a hot start for The Minutemen as the Massachusetts State Champions were on the track together for the final time in the 4x400m Relay, running in the seeded section. Having just set the LHS record in the event last week, junior captain Mari McBride, and seniors Catherine Movsessian, Aylin Bruce, and Aleia-Gisolfi McCready came to Hayward hoping to improve that record and make a run at a podium position. The gun fired and McBride was off, the junior dashed around the first turn and used a hard charge down the homestretch to handoff the baton with LHS in fourth place after a 58.3 split. Movsessian turned in another strong leg for her team, splitting 59.7 to keep The Minutemen in fourth position. Bruce got the baton and was promptly passed Hillsborough, NJ's Sia Mahajan who ran the race of her life splitting 57.9. LHS's captain battled the whole way around the track to try and keep her team close and give Gisolfi-McCready a chance to make up ground on the anchor leg. Her split of 60.9 did just that. Captain Gisolfi-McCready got the baton about 20 meters back of Hillsborough's Kirstyn Schechter - who would split 57.5 - and immediately began hunting her down. As the two came around the final curve and down the homestretch The Minutemen were still five meters back, but as she has done all season Gisolfi-McCready remained calm over the last 100m and simply ran her opponent down. Gisolfi-McCready turned in a 54.7 second anchor split to lower the team's own school record to 3:53.92 and place fourth overall, which earned them All-American honors. This was the highest a Lexington High School team has placed at Nationals since Cameron Hofland (LHS '18), Kazu Uda-Thach (LHS '19), Lucas Honohan (LHS '18), and Thomas Lingard (LHS '18) earned the bronze medal in the 1600m Sprint Medley Relay in 2018.
After a one week hiatus, on Friday Gisolfi-McCready was back in what has become her signature event, the 400m Intermediate Hurdles. While many states run the 300m Hurdle distance, on the national level the full Olympic distance is competed. Coming in with a personal best time of 1:01.96, Gisolfi-McCready was one of the only runners in her heat to have experience over 10 hurdles, which was evident in how the race unfolded. As the gun went off the field blasted out and Gisolfi-McCready was in the running in fourth place over the first half of the race. As the field came around the final turn, Gisolfi-McCready began to make-up ground and pulled even with the top two girls as they cleared the eighth hurdle. Running right next to Gisolfi-McCready, on the ninth hurdle Emma Pollak from Kentwood, WA took a hard fall. The mishap did not phase LHS's superstar as she accelerated over the barrier leaving Virigina State Champion Yasmeen Tinsely in her wake. After clearing the final hurdle Gisolfi-McCready had 40 meters left in her storied LHS career and with that time she simply poured it on. Destroying her heat and with a lean at the line, she became only the fourth prep runner in the nation to dip under 60 seconds this year with a final time of 59.90 seconds. While her work was done, it was then wait-and-see time as the seeded section went off. Charlotte, NC's Akala Garrett was the top seed in the event and performed that way winning the event in 58.99 seconds, however, no other girl could match Gisolfi-McCready's performance on Friday, which meant she would be leaving Hayward Field with a silver medal to go along with the fourth place medal from the 4x400m. To put into perspective Gisolfi-McCready's accomplishments in her first and only Outdoor Track season, she competed primarily in three events - 400m, 400IM, and 4x400m - and established new LHS records in all of them. She was the League Champion in all three events, the Division 1 Champion in the 400m and 400IM, and the All-State Champion in the 400m and 4x400m. In only her sixth time competing the event, she ran the second fastest time in history by a Massachusetts high schooler for the 400IM. And to top it all off, Friday was the first time she was beaten in an individual event all year. She leaves LHS as the school's unquestioned queen of the long sprints, having completed what is safe to say the most successful season by a Lexington High School Track & Field athlete ever.
Other Highlights from Nationals
- Winning the unseeded section, the boys 4x800m Relay of junior Traver Smith III (2:00.88), senior captain Reed Solomon (1:59.14), senior Stephen Joseph (2:00.11), and junior captain Evan Eberle (1:59.12) finished seventh overall with a season best time of 7:59.26; with that The Minutemen are the only team in Massachusetts to have a 4x8 break the 8-minute mark in each of the last two years.
- In the girls High Jump McBride finished 20th with a leap of 1.59m (5'2.50"), defeating Massachusetts State Champ Sophie Albright in the process.
- The boys 1600m Sprint Medley Relay of senior captains Ryan Atkins and Alex Murphy along with junior Josh Lee and Eberle finished 14th with a time of 3:44.52.
Up Next
Now that Outdoor Track has ended, The Minutemen will look towards the Fall as the 2021 Cross Country season will begin on September 11th at Clipper Relays.