THE BOYS 4X4 EARNS ANOTHER SILVER MEDAL, THIS TIME AT THE NE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Meet Information
New England Championships
June 11, 2022
Willow Brook Park - New Britain, CT
RESULTS
NEW BRITAIN, CT - Saturday The Minutemen traveled down to the home of New Britain High School to compete against the best the six New England states had to offer at the New England Championships. LHS was represented by two athletes competing in individual events as well as its two 4x400m Relays that all placed in the top six at last week's MIAA Meet of Champions.
Ever since the quartet of senior captain Josh Lee, and juniors Jayden Bai, Alexios Kontothanassis, and Branndon Uda-Thach came together at the Division 1 Relays back in April, they have been all but unbeatable in the 4x400m Relay. In fact, the only team that has been able to best The Minutemen's A-Team this season has been the boys from Newton North. The Tigers decided not to send their team down to Connecticut for New Englands, which left LHS's boys as the top seed going into the race. Lee got the boys off to a hot start with a personal best split of 49.4 seconds, which had the team sitting in second place behind the team from Naugatuck (CT). Bai - who ran the 300m Intermediate Hurdles earlier in the day - made a bold charge on the backstretch, but was held off as the two teams approached the turn. From there it was a battle that left The Minutemen still in second place after his 50.4 split. Kontothanassis made a near identical move to Bai's on the backstretch, but Naugatuck's third leg again held off the charge. As the two teams approached the top of the homestretch, the team from Hall (CT) surged by them both, leaving The Minutemen in third place going into anchor leg after Kontothanassis's 51.6 split. After getting the baton, Uda-Thach took off with reckless abandon after the leaders. Unfortunately for LHS, Hall's anchor was Samuel Sandler - the open 400m Champion with a time of 47.93 - and he was simply too far gone for Uda-Thach to run down, and Hall would take the title with a near Championship Record time of 3:18.92. However, with his second sub-49 second split in three weeks, Uda-Thach was able to run down Naugatuck's anchor and hold off the surging Kaiden Nobrega from Central Catholic (MA) to earn his team the silver medal with a season best time of 3:20.35. With that performance, Lee, Bai, Kontothanassis, and Uda-Thach became the first LHS boys to land on the podium at an Outdoor New England Championship since Peter Katsarakes (LHS '13) earned a bronze medal in the 300m Hurdles in 2012.
Along with the boys' big performance, Saturday also saw senior captain Elena Sabin compete for the final time for the Lex Girls, as she graduated last weekend. Sabin led off the 4x400m Relay, and then watched her teammates - sophomores Maya Dubrovsky and Gabby Fainelli, and fellow classmate and captain Mari McBride - race their way to a ninth place finish with a time of 4:04.87. In her four years at LHS Sabin has quite simply been everything the Lex Girls have needed and much more. Coming into LHS as a 400m runner and Long Jumper, she made the leap to the 400m Hurdles as a freshman, and during her career scored points in the 55m Hurdles, 300m, 400m, 400m Hurdles, 600m, 4x400m Relay, Long Jump, and even Discus. Never one to shy away from the moment, when the coaches needed someone to come up with a big performance, they could always count on Sabin to be nails in the most high pressure situations. What she has meant to her team for the last four years goes far beyond performances on the track. She has been the emotional leader of the program, and her ability to lift her teammates up over the years with her gritty performances and infectious positivity has been immeasurable. Sabin will be impossible to replace here at LHS when she takes her talents to Emory University in the fall, but as evidence by the underclassmen on her relay, she leaves the program in very capable hands.
Other Highlights from the Track
Up Next
The Minutemen will now travel to the site of the 2022 IAAF World Athletics Championships - Historic Hayward Field - on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon for the Nike Outdoor Nationals. Student-athletes from Lexington High School will compete under the banner of Lexington Elite TC beginning on Thursday June 16th. All four days of competition can be livestreamed for free HERE beginning Thursday at 1pm.
New England Championships
June 11, 2022
Willow Brook Park - New Britain, CT
RESULTS
NEW BRITAIN, CT - Saturday The Minutemen traveled down to the home of New Britain High School to compete against the best the six New England states had to offer at the New England Championships. LHS was represented by two athletes competing in individual events as well as its two 4x400m Relays that all placed in the top six at last week's MIAA Meet of Champions.
Ever since the quartet of senior captain Josh Lee, and juniors Jayden Bai, Alexios Kontothanassis, and Branndon Uda-Thach came together at the Division 1 Relays back in April, they have been all but unbeatable in the 4x400m Relay. In fact, the only team that has been able to best The Minutemen's A-Team this season has been the boys from Newton North. The Tigers decided not to send their team down to Connecticut for New Englands, which left LHS's boys as the top seed going into the race. Lee got the boys off to a hot start with a personal best split of 49.4 seconds, which had the team sitting in second place behind the team from Naugatuck (CT). Bai - who ran the 300m Intermediate Hurdles earlier in the day - made a bold charge on the backstretch, but was held off as the two teams approached the turn. From there it was a battle that left The Minutemen still in second place after his 50.4 split. Kontothanassis made a near identical move to Bai's on the backstretch, but Naugatuck's third leg again held off the charge. As the two teams approached the top of the homestretch, the team from Hall (CT) surged by them both, leaving The Minutemen in third place going into anchor leg after Kontothanassis's 51.6 split. After getting the baton, Uda-Thach took off with reckless abandon after the leaders. Unfortunately for LHS, Hall's anchor was Samuel Sandler - the open 400m Champion with a time of 47.93 - and he was simply too far gone for Uda-Thach to run down, and Hall would take the title with a near Championship Record time of 3:18.92. However, with his second sub-49 second split in three weeks, Uda-Thach was able to run down Naugatuck's anchor and hold off the surging Kaiden Nobrega from Central Catholic (MA) to earn his team the silver medal with a season best time of 3:20.35. With that performance, Lee, Bai, Kontothanassis, and Uda-Thach became the first LHS boys to land on the podium at an Outdoor New England Championship since Peter Katsarakes (LHS '13) earned a bronze medal in the 300m Hurdles in 2012.
Along with the boys' big performance, Saturday also saw senior captain Elena Sabin compete for the final time for the Lex Girls, as she graduated last weekend. Sabin led off the 4x400m Relay, and then watched her teammates - sophomores Maya Dubrovsky and Gabby Fainelli, and fellow classmate and captain Mari McBride - race their way to a ninth place finish with a time of 4:04.87. In her four years at LHS Sabin has quite simply been everything the Lex Girls have needed and much more. Coming into LHS as a 400m runner and Long Jumper, she made the leap to the 400m Hurdles as a freshman, and during her career scored points in the 55m Hurdles, 300m, 400m, 400m Hurdles, 600m, 4x400m Relay, Long Jump, and even Discus. Never one to shy away from the moment, when the coaches needed someone to come up with a big performance, they could always count on Sabin to be nails in the most high pressure situations. What she has meant to her team for the last four years goes far beyond performances on the track. She has been the emotional leader of the program, and her ability to lift her teammates up over the years with her gritty performances and infectious positivity has been immeasurable. Sabin will be impossible to replace here at LHS when she takes her talents to Emory University in the fall, but as evidence by the underclassmen on her relay, she leaves the program in very capable hands.
Other Highlights from the Track
- McBride medaled in the final open 400m race of her LHS career; her time of 58.18 second placed sixth overall.
- Because not all of New England runs the 400m Hurdles - as Massachusetts does - Bai's run in the 300m Hurdles was his first time competing in the event; his time of 40.66 seconds landed him in 10th place.
Up Next
The Minutemen will now travel to the site of the 2022 IAAF World Athletics Championships - Historic Hayward Field - on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon for the Nike Outdoor Nationals. Student-athletes from Lexington High School will compete under the banner of Lexington Elite TC beginning on Thursday June 16th. All four days of competition can be livestreamed for free HERE beginning Thursday at 1pm.