THE MINUTEMEN WIN THE DIVISION 1 TRACK & FIELD STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Meet Information
MIAA Division 1 Championships
May 27, 2023
Duane Stadium - North Andover, MA
Photo cred (right): WINSLOW TOWNSON FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
RESULTS
NORTH ANDOVER, MA - After what could be described as a lack luster performance on Day 1 of the MIAA Division 1 Championships, the team title looked like it might once again be just out of reach for Lexington's boys. However, The Minutemen showed up on Saturday and were simply relentless. They competed their hearts out for each other, and won the Division 1 State Championship in one of the most dramatic finishes to a meet that one could fathom. The final score of the four-horse-race that was the Boys' Meet had Lexington edging out the competition with 92 points. Acton-Boxborough was second with 87, and St. John's Prep and Newton North tied for third with 84 points each. Not to be overshadowed, the Lex Girls brought the exact same intensity that won the Boys the title on Saturday. The talented young team blasted past all expectations, and placed seventh overall with 44 points as a team. Andover's Girls' Team took the title with 81.50 points.
Things got started for The Minutemen on Saturday in the Shot Put circle, where the Bomb Squad breathed life back into their team's chances. Senior Allen Jiang has been all but unbeatable in the event this season, and while Newton South's Zezo Beshir took the lead from him on three separate occasions during the competition, each time Jiang immediately responded with a throw to retake the lead. In the final round he put an exclamation point on his historic season, as he dropped a 53'10.50" bomb to pickup 10 points for his team. Along with Jiang, senior Kaden "The Sundance Kid" Cassidy, who was competing in the event for only the fourth time this season turned in a personal best 50'2.50" throw that earned him the bronze medal to go along with his gold in the Discus. "The Captain" Jack Ngo (47'4.50") came back from a disappointing showing in the Discus on Thursday and placed fifth in the Shot Put. All together LHS's Bomb Squad 20 points in the event, which was more than any other team scored in any of the 19 events at the meet. While The Minutemen were back in it, they still needed a big swing in the meet to give them a chance to take home the title. That swing came in the 400m. Senior Branndon Uda-Thach has struggled to find himself in the event this season. However, throughout his career he has always shown a flair for the dramatic, and that came out again Saturday. Coming in seeded 12th in a loaded field, Uda-Thach had to run from the unseeded section. The senior loaded into the blocks right in front of where his team was stationed on the first turn, cheering for him to pull out one more electric performance for them. The gun fired and he blasted out of the blocks into a lead that held until 400m Hurdle State Champ Noah Stegmeier from Acton-Boxborough pulled even with him in the final stretch. That pressure fueled Uda-Thach's fire to finish, and finish he did. Uda-Thach crossed the line first with a lifetime best 49.21 seconds, and would eventually score three points for his team as only five of the eight athletes in the seeded section could best his efforts. Next up for The Minutemen was the 110m Hurdles, where senior captains Michael Gerfen and Jayden Bai were hoping to vault their team into the lead. Unfortunately Acton-Boxborough junior Christopher Osselmann Chai had other plans. He bested both of them for second place, while Gerfen (15.09) and Bai (15.10) placed third and fourth respectively. While not the outcome they had hoped for, The Minutemen still had life going into the relays.
First up for The Minutemen was the 4x800m Relay. The coaches rolled the dice, and called upon junior McKenna O'Hare Gibson to lead off this relay. One of the toughest competitors on a team full of them, O'Hare Gibson was coming off a bronze medal in the 400m Hurdles on Thursday, and had never truly raced an 800 in his life. You would have never known it by the way he battled his way around the track. The junior ran an incredible 2:00.2 split to hand off the baton in fifth place behind Prep and Newton North. Sophomore Zach Barry carried the baton to a 2:02.1 split before handing off to fellow classmate Max Zhang. The young harrier brought his team back into the mix with a blistering 54-second first 400m. He battled through the second half of the race to pass the baton to The Minutemen's anchor Joey "Candy Man" Ryan after a 1:58.9 split. Needing to secure points for his team, the Candy Man turned in the best performance of his career. He ran a perfectly even split 1:59.1 leg, and crossed the line with a time of 8:00.43. That was 13 seconds faster than their seed time, and earned the team fifth place and four points in another loaded race. After the 4x8, The Minutemen's vaunted sprint squad was back on the track for the 4x100m Relay. Senior captain Alexios Kontothanassis, junior Victor Yu, senior Jake Wheaton, and Bai got the call for this one knowing that without a big performance their hopes of the team title were probably lost. To say they turned in a big performance, would be a gross understatement. Kontothanassis, Yu, and Wheaton ripped around the track on the first three legs and got the baton to Bai who was able to hold off the charge of 100m Champ Darwin Jimenez from Methuen to earn his team the silver medal and eight points. The Minutemen's time was 42.21 seconds, which destroyed the old LHS Record set in 2007 by a team that included legends Darius Walker (LHS '07) and Meikle Paschal (LHS '07). To put more context into how epic that race was, it took a State Record by St. John's Prep (41.92) to beat The Minutemen. As for where things sat in the team scoring, the charge by Methuen into third place bumped down Acton-Boxborough to fourth in the event they were seeded second in, and gave LHS the opening they needed to have a chance to seize victory going into the 4x400m Relay. There the team of Uda-Thach, Kontothanassis, Khai Uda-Thach, and O'Hare Gibson were tapped to get the job done against talented Newton North and A-B squads. The entire race was an all out fight that saw the first three legs all split 50-point for LHS, and the three teams hand off the batons to their anchor legs in unison. Coming back off his run in the 4x8, O'Hare Gibson gave everything he had to run a massive PR split of 49.7 seconds. However, Newton North and A-B simply had too much and The Minutemen finished third with a season best time of 3:21.42. At that point the team scoring had A-B in first with 87 points, Newton North second with 83, and Lexington third with 82. However, what almost no one at the time knew, was that freshman Amari Mow, who was seeded 10th coming into the Long Jump had flown nearly a foot farther than he ever had before - 22'8" to be exact - on his first jump of the competition. That jump bested top seed Kymari Latney of Springfield Central by 2cm, and Brockton's Christensen Paul by 1cm for the lead in the event with still two rounds of jumping to go. As for The Minutemen's chief competitors, only Newton North's Matthew Randall was still looming in the finals with the potential to play spoiler. It was not to be though, as Mow's performance held up to win the event and incredibly lifted his team to victory with his 10 points.
What made yesterday so tremendous was the total team effort by The Minutemen. In a state that values distance events first and foremost, The Minutemen won their State Title by scoring 51 points in the field events and 41 points on the track. They were led by a senior class that was the final LHS class that experienced the loss of high school athletics during the COVID-19 pandemic. That 2020 team that they were a part of as freshman might have been the most talented one in school history, but never got the chance to show it. This year's team showed it. They walked into Duane Stadium on Saturday after a lackluster Day 1, with a new found sense of what it means to compete for each other, and proved that they are the best Track & Field team in Massachusetts. Fact. Not opinion.
For the Lex Girls, there were a number of standout performances on Saturday. And, while they were not expected to factor into the team title discussion, the group full of young and upcoming stars showed flashes of what the Bay State will be dealing with in years to come. Perhaps no one embodied that more than freshman Aubrey Deardorf. The ninth grader came into the Long Jump as the 11th seed. But, like her male counterpart, put the field of competitors on notice with her very first jump. She turned in a personal best as she flew 17'4.75" on her first attempt. That mark would hold up to place fourth overall in the event, and was even more impressive considering she was one of only two freshman in the field. After running a PR of 13.01 in the 100m Dash, Deardorf was back with fellow classmate Felice Haverly, and juniors Amandine Mangon and Noa Helmbrecht in the 4x100m Relay. The team ran a ridiculous PR of over a second in the event to place fifth with a time of 50.21 seconds. That time earned them a spot at next week's Meet of Champions. While the underclassmen were putting the state on notice, no one seized the opportunity given to her more than senior captain Annie Smith. She has struggled to find the form she had as a junior in the Javelin all year long, and has not come within 10-feet of her best throws from last year. Despite this, her attitude and work ethic never waivered. Throughout the entire season she has been a model that others should follow for what it means to be a teammate and a leader even when things are not going their way individually. After barely sneaking into the event with a mark of 82'3" that qualified her by less than two feet, she unleashed her first throw of the metal spear 92'9" and vaulted herself into the finals. In the end, her best throw of her final competition of her LHS career flew a lifetime best of 93'11", which earned her an eight place finish, and her team one point. Also competing in the Javelin, and the Pole Vault, at the same time, was junior captain Katie Atkins. LHS's multi-talented star is making a habit of getting her work done early in the event. The junior ran over from the Pole Vault runway after clearing 10'0" to throw 98'6" on her first attempt. That mark was a PR, and would hold up to place seventh overall. She then headed back over to her primary event and got over the bar at 10'6" to earn the silver medal.
Other Highlights for the Boys
Final Boys Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Lexington - 92
2. Acton-Boxborough - 87
3. St. John's Prep - 84
3. Newton North - 84
5. Andover - 40
6. Methuen - 29
7. Attleboro - 26
8. Lowell - 25
9. Wachusett - 22
10. Needham - 21
Other Highlights for the Girls
Final Girls Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Andover - 81.50
2. Lowell - 70
3. Brookline - 65
4. Franklin - 61
5. Newton North - 56
6. Cambridge Rindge & Latin - 51
7. Lexington - 44
8. Needham - 42.33
9. Wachusett - 39.50
10. Newton South - 38
Up Next
The Minutemen return to action next week at the MIAA Meet of Champions. The meet will follow the same format as Divisionals, with Day 1 beginning Thursday, June 1st at 3pm. However, unlike at Divisionals, no team champion will be crowned. Action will take place at the Elliot Field Athletic Complex on the campus of Fitchburg State University.
MIAA Division 1 Championships
May 27, 2023
Duane Stadium - North Andover, MA
Photo cred (right): WINSLOW TOWNSON FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
RESULTS
NORTH ANDOVER, MA - After what could be described as a lack luster performance on Day 1 of the MIAA Division 1 Championships, the team title looked like it might once again be just out of reach for Lexington's boys. However, The Minutemen showed up on Saturday and were simply relentless. They competed their hearts out for each other, and won the Division 1 State Championship in one of the most dramatic finishes to a meet that one could fathom. The final score of the four-horse-race that was the Boys' Meet had Lexington edging out the competition with 92 points. Acton-Boxborough was second with 87, and St. John's Prep and Newton North tied for third with 84 points each. Not to be overshadowed, the Lex Girls brought the exact same intensity that won the Boys the title on Saturday. The talented young team blasted past all expectations, and placed seventh overall with 44 points as a team. Andover's Girls' Team took the title with 81.50 points.
Things got started for The Minutemen on Saturday in the Shot Put circle, where the Bomb Squad breathed life back into their team's chances. Senior Allen Jiang has been all but unbeatable in the event this season, and while Newton South's Zezo Beshir took the lead from him on three separate occasions during the competition, each time Jiang immediately responded with a throw to retake the lead. In the final round he put an exclamation point on his historic season, as he dropped a 53'10.50" bomb to pickup 10 points for his team. Along with Jiang, senior Kaden "The Sundance Kid" Cassidy, who was competing in the event for only the fourth time this season turned in a personal best 50'2.50" throw that earned him the bronze medal to go along with his gold in the Discus. "The Captain" Jack Ngo (47'4.50") came back from a disappointing showing in the Discus on Thursday and placed fifth in the Shot Put. All together LHS's Bomb Squad 20 points in the event, which was more than any other team scored in any of the 19 events at the meet. While The Minutemen were back in it, they still needed a big swing in the meet to give them a chance to take home the title. That swing came in the 400m. Senior Branndon Uda-Thach has struggled to find himself in the event this season. However, throughout his career he has always shown a flair for the dramatic, and that came out again Saturday. Coming in seeded 12th in a loaded field, Uda-Thach had to run from the unseeded section. The senior loaded into the blocks right in front of where his team was stationed on the first turn, cheering for him to pull out one more electric performance for them. The gun fired and he blasted out of the blocks into a lead that held until 400m Hurdle State Champ Noah Stegmeier from Acton-Boxborough pulled even with him in the final stretch. That pressure fueled Uda-Thach's fire to finish, and finish he did. Uda-Thach crossed the line first with a lifetime best 49.21 seconds, and would eventually score three points for his team as only five of the eight athletes in the seeded section could best his efforts. Next up for The Minutemen was the 110m Hurdles, where senior captains Michael Gerfen and Jayden Bai were hoping to vault their team into the lead. Unfortunately Acton-Boxborough junior Christopher Osselmann Chai had other plans. He bested both of them for second place, while Gerfen (15.09) and Bai (15.10) placed third and fourth respectively. While not the outcome they had hoped for, The Minutemen still had life going into the relays.
First up for The Minutemen was the 4x800m Relay. The coaches rolled the dice, and called upon junior McKenna O'Hare Gibson to lead off this relay. One of the toughest competitors on a team full of them, O'Hare Gibson was coming off a bronze medal in the 400m Hurdles on Thursday, and had never truly raced an 800 in his life. You would have never known it by the way he battled his way around the track. The junior ran an incredible 2:00.2 split to hand off the baton in fifth place behind Prep and Newton North. Sophomore Zach Barry carried the baton to a 2:02.1 split before handing off to fellow classmate Max Zhang. The young harrier brought his team back into the mix with a blistering 54-second first 400m. He battled through the second half of the race to pass the baton to The Minutemen's anchor Joey "Candy Man" Ryan after a 1:58.9 split. Needing to secure points for his team, the Candy Man turned in the best performance of his career. He ran a perfectly even split 1:59.1 leg, and crossed the line with a time of 8:00.43. That was 13 seconds faster than their seed time, and earned the team fifth place and four points in another loaded race. After the 4x8, The Minutemen's vaunted sprint squad was back on the track for the 4x100m Relay. Senior captain Alexios Kontothanassis, junior Victor Yu, senior Jake Wheaton, and Bai got the call for this one knowing that without a big performance their hopes of the team title were probably lost. To say they turned in a big performance, would be a gross understatement. Kontothanassis, Yu, and Wheaton ripped around the track on the first three legs and got the baton to Bai who was able to hold off the charge of 100m Champ Darwin Jimenez from Methuen to earn his team the silver medal and eight points. The Minutemen's time was 42.21 seconds, which destroyed the old LHS Record set in 2007 by a team that included legends Darius Walker (LHS '07) and Meikle Paschal (LHS '07). To put more context into how epic that race was, it took a State Record by St. John's Prep (41.92) to beat The Minutemen. As for where things sat in the team scoring, the charge by Methuen into third place bumped down Acton-Boxborough to fourth in the event they were seeded second in, and gave LHS the opening they needed to have a chance to seize victory going into the 4x400m Relay. There the team of Uda-Thach, Kontothanassis, Khai Uda-Thach, and O'Hare Gibson were tapped to get the job done against talented Newton North and A-B squads. The entire race was an all out fight that saw the first three legs all split 50-point for LHS, and the three teams hand off the batons to their anchor legs in unison. Coming back off his run in the 4x8, O'Hare Gibson gave everything he had to run a massive PR split of 49.7 seconds. However, Newton North and A-B simply had too much and The Minutemen finished third with a season best time of 3:21.42. At that point the team scoring had A-B in first with 87 points, Newton North second with 83, and Lexington third with 82. However, what almost no one at the time knew, was that freshman Amari Mow, who was seeded 10th coming into the Long Jump had flown nearly a foot farther than he ever had before - 22'8" to be exact - on his first jump of the competition. That jump bested top seed Kymari Latney of Springfield Central by 2cm, and Brockton's Christensen Paul by 1cm for the lead in the event with still two rounds of jumping to go. As for The Minutemen's chief competitors, only Newton North's Matthew Randall was still looming in the finals with the potential to play spoiler. It was not to be though, as Mow's performance held up to win the event and incredibly lifted his team to victory with his 10 points.
What made yesterday so tremendous was the total team effort by The Minutemen. In a state that values distance events first and foremost, The Minutemen won their State Title by scoring 51 points in the field events and 41 points on the track. They were led by a senior class that was the final LHS class that experienced the loss of high school athletics during the COVID-19 pandemic. That 2020 team that they were a part of as freshman might have been the most talented one in school history, but never got the chance to show it. This year's team showed it. They walked into Duane Stadium on Saturday after a lackluster Day 1, with a new found sense of what it means to compete for each other, and proved that they are the best Track & Field team in Massachusetts. Fact. Not opinion.
For the Lex Girls, there were a number of standout performances on Saturday. And, while they were not expected to factor into the team title discussion, the group full of young and upcoming stars showed flashes of what the Bay State will be dealing with in years to come. Perhaps no one embodied that more than freshman Aubrey Deardorf. The ninth grader came into the Long Jump as the 11th seed. But, like her male counterpart, put the field of competitors on notice with her very first jump. She turned in a personal best as she flew 17'4.75" on her first attempt. That mark would hold up to place fourth overall in the event, and was even more impressive considering she was one of only two freshman in the field. After running a PR of 13.01 in the 100m Dash, Deardorf was back with fellow classmate Felice Haverly, and juniors Amandine Mangon and Noa Helmbrecht in the 4x100m Relay. The team ran a ridiculous PR of over a second in the event to place fifth with a time of 50.21 seconds. That time earned them a spot at next week's Meet of Champions. While the underclassmen were putting the state on notice, no one seized the opportunity given to her more than senior captain Annie Smith. She has struggled to find the form she had as a junior in the Javelin all year long, and has not come within 10-feet of her best throws from last year. Despite this, her attitude and work ethic never waivered. Throughout the entire season she has been a model that others should follow for what it means to be a teammate and a leader even when things are not going their way individually. After barely sneaking into the event with a mark of 82'3" that qualified her by less than two feet, she unleashed her first throw of the metal spear 92'9" and vaulted herself into the finals. In the end, her best throw of her final competition of her LHS career flew a lifetime best of 93'11", which earned her an eight place finish, and her team one point. Also competing in the Javelin, and the Pole Vault, at the same time, was junior captain Katie Atkins. LHS's multi-talented star is making a habit of getting her work done early in the event. The junior ran over from the Pole Vault runway after clearing 10'0" to throw 98'6" on her first attempt. That mark was a PR, and would hold up to place seventh overall. She then headed back over to her primary event and got over the bar at 10'6" to earn the silver medal.
Other Highlights for the Boys
- Wheaton finished ninth in the 100m Dash with a time of 11.06 seconds.
- In the prelims of the 110m Hurdles, junior Jacob Pan ran a PR of 15.71 seconds to finish 12th overall; freshman Simon Tandeih was 20th with a time of 16.04 seconds; senior Naresh Vytheswaran closed out his career in the open hurdles with a time of 16.36 seconds to finish 26th.
- Senior Andrew McDonnell finished 18th in the Javelin with a throw of 125'8".
Final Boys Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Lexington - 92
2. Acton-Boxborough - 87
3. St. John's Prep - 84
3. Newton North - 84
5. Andover - 40
6. Methuen - 29
7. Attleboro - 26
8. Lowell - 25
9. Wachusett - 22
10. Needham - 21
Other Highlights for the Girls
- Senior captain Ava Criniti anchored the 4x800m Relay with a 2:14.9 split; fellow classmate and captain Serena Caira (2:27.8), and juniors Samara McVey (2:24.6) and Adia Singh (2:22.5) all combined to place third with a time of 9:29.80, which is second fastest in school history.
- The 4x400m Relay of Singh, freshman Anika Steinbrecher, senior Uma Sanker, and Haverly placed fifth with a season best and Meet of Champions qualifying time of 4:05.70.
- Mangon placed fifth in the 100m Hurdles with a time of 15.55.
- In the 100m Dash, Helmbrecht finished 10th with a PR of 12.94 seconds, making her the first LHS girl since India Johnson (LHS '17) to dip under the 13-second barrier; freshman Bruguers Sagues turned in a personal best time of 13.37 to finish 28th; sophomore Laya Barghuthi (13.39) was 29th.
- Senior Jasmine Sun finished 17th in the final One Mile race of her career with a personal best time of 5:23.28.
- Junior Quin Tandeih was 21st with a throw of 28'11" in the Shot Put.
Final Girls Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Andover - 81.50
2. Lowell - 70
3. Brookline - 65
4. Franklin - 61
5. Newton North - 56
6. Cambridge Rindge & Latin - 51
7. Lexington - 44
8. Needham - 42.33
9. Wachusett - 39.50
10. Newton South - 38
Up Next
The Minutemen return to action next week at the MIAA Meet of Champions. The meet will follow the same format as Divisionals, with Day 1 beginning Thursday, June 1st at 3pm. However, unlike at Divisionals, no team champion will be crowned. Action will take place at the Elliot Field Athletic Complex on the campus of Fitchburg State University.