LHS BLASTS PAST EXPECTATIONS; BOYS FINISH 3RD, GIRLS 7TH AT D1 CHAMPS
Meet Information
MIAA Division 1 Championships Day 2
May 26, 2024
Alumni Stadium - Westfield, MA
RESULTS
WESTFIELD, MA - The Minutemen had work to do after Day 1 of the MIAA Division 1 Championships. The Boys had performed well in a number of events, but fell a few points shy of expectations on Friday. That changed on Sunday, as LHS's boys were relentless, and exceeded all expectations in nearly every event in which they competed. In the end their 56 points landed them in third place behind a pair of tremendous teams. Acton-Boxborough won the crown with 70 points, and Saint John's Prep earned the runner-up trophy with 61 points of their own. Unsurprisingly, because in Lexington the Boys and Girls teams are united by the same guiding principles that preach a team first mindset that helps each student-athlete raise their performance to a higher level in order to support the team, the Lex Girls were also at their absolute best on Sunday. LHS blew past projections and finished in seventh place with 38 points. Franklin's girls won the title with 74 points. And, with 62 points each, Lowell and Westford Academy earned a share of the a runner-up trophy.
When it comes to drama, there are few events in track & field that match the Pole Vault. To paint the scene, sophomore Aidan Raney came in as LHS's lone participant in the event. Meanwhile, LHS's chief competitor, Acton-Boxborough had four athletes on the runway. Raney came in with a lifetime best of 12'6", but had two misses at 12'0" on Sunday while A-B's full crew had cleared the height. On his final attempt, Raney delivered for his team with a clean jump to advance in the competition. After clearing 12'6" on his second attempt, Raney once again had the weight of his team firmly on his young shoulders. This time, he stared down the runway at a 13-foot bar. Four other athletes, including two from A-B, had failed to make the height. If Raney was able to clear the bar, he guaranteed himself at least fourth place and five points for his team. If he missed, he would fall to eighth, and score just one point. With his teammates and coaches cheering him on, the sophomore did what champions do. He performed his best in the highest pressure situation, vaulted himself over the bar, and roared in excitement as he came crashed down to the mat with the bar still holding on its standards up above. In the end, Raney did finish fourth in the event after a tremendous competition. Back on the track things began to break LHS's way. Senior Jacob Pan (15.11) edged out Prep's Lincoln Massaro by two-hundredths of a second to get the last spot in the 110m Hurdle finals along with sophomore captain Simon Tandeih (14.79). Senior captain Joey "The Candyman" Ryan (4:20.99) rebounded from a tough day in the 2 Mile on Friday to turn in a PR and grab two unexpected points with a seventh place finish in the Mile. Then the meet took its biggest swing. In the 400m, seeded seventh, and running in lane one, senior McKenna O'Hare Gibson was ready to make some more magic after he won the 400m Hurdles in state record fashion on Friday. As the race charged down the backstretch, the Indoor 300m State Champ, Haverhill's Natanael Vigo Catala pulled up with an apparent injury in lane four. Running in lane one allowed O'Hare Gibson to see what happened, and immediately try to seize the opportunity to win the race outright with the heavy favorite now out. LHS's senior flew around the turn and with 100m to go, saw a victory and 10 points for his team within his grasp. He stormed down the final stretch and ran down the 200m Champ, Lincoln Sudbury's Nico Begic to win the race in a personal best time of 49.39 seconds. After that The Minutemen were back in the thick of things in the team competition, and when Tandeih ran a PR of 14.74 seconds to edge out A-B's Christoph Osselmann Chai in the 110m Hurdle final, there was still a chance of walking away with some hardware.
In the relays, The Minutemen competed their hearts out. Juniors Will Fletcher, Zach Barry and Max Zhang, along with Ryan ran a massive season best of 8:03.27 to place sixth out of the unseeded section of the 4x800m. That earned LHS another three unplanned points. After the five events of the Pentathlon on Friday, and trials and finals of the 110m Hurdles earlier in the day, Tandeih delivered one final epic performance as he anchored the 4x100m relay of freshman Cayden Chambers, junior Tim George, and senior Khai Uda-Thach to a bronze medal by one-hundredth of a second over Brockton with a time of 42.82 seconds. Like the 4x8, the 4x400m squad was scheduled to run from the unseeded section to try and grab what would be the final points for their team. Chambers, Uda-Thach, junior James Joseph, and O'Hare Gibson got the call to try to deliver one final epic performance. And, the quartet did everything that could have been asked of them and more. Chambers got the team off to a strong start, before he handed off to Uda-Thach. The senior ran his team back into the thick of a loaded section with a 49.9 split. That was followed up by another great leg by Joseph, who got the baton to O'Hare Gibson. LHS's top performer all season long ran an inspired leg. He flew around the track, and picked off a handful of teams along the way. In the end, he crossed the line with a 48.8 split that gave his team a final time of 3:25.89. The season best performance held up to place the squad seventh overall, and sealed his team's third place overall finish in what was nothing short of an amazing effort by the boys in blue and gold.
The Lex Girls were led as they have been all season by Aubrey "Bubbles" Deardorf. One of an incredibly talented group of sophomores, Deardorf began her day by qualifying seventh - by one-thousandth of a second - for the finals of the 100m with a PR of 12.72 seconds. In the finals, she was even better. The sophomore stormed her way to fifth place with a huge personal best of 12.58 seconds. With her performances on Sunday, Deardorf passed her sprints coach, Alex Cox (LHS '16) on the school's all-time list. After she lit things up on the track, Deardorf headed over to her signature event, the Long Jump. As has become her style, the young athlete popped a huge one on her first attempt - 18'2" - that put the pressure on the entire field. That mark held up through the next five rounds of the prelims and finals to earn her a silver medal. However, she was not done yet. The super sophomore crew of Deardorf, Felice Haverly and Bruguers Sagues teamed up with senior captain Jada Solomon in the 4x100m Relay. Sagues blasted out of the blocks and ran a great opening leg to get the baton to Haverly who flew down the backstretch. On the third leg, Solomon was simply electric as she charged her way around the final turn to move LHS up to the head of the field. On the anchor, Deardorf brought it home for the Lex Girls. She crossed the line in a time of 49.92 seconds, which earned the team a silver medal in the third fastest time in LHS history. In the final event of the day for The Minutemen, it was Haverly and Solomon who were called on to join freshman Marissa Hao and sophomore Anika Steinbrecher in the 4x400m Relay. Despite having failed to break 4:16 in the event all season, the crew knew that in the right circumstances they were capable of making their mark at this level. Haverly made that statement loud and clear on the opening leg as she passed the baton off first in the unseeded section after a 59.4 split. Solomon did well to deliver a 64.3 split of her own. Next up was Hao, who simply found a home on the 4x4 this championship season. The freshman, who ran 64.1 in the team's final dual meet and 62.5 at the League Championships, delivered a 61.3 split on Sunday. Steinbrecher gutted her way through her anchor leg with a time of 63.0, which gave the team a final time of 4:08.24. That performance held up through the seeded section to place eighth overall. Despite not scoring a point, a final recap of the Division 1 Championships would not be complete without a nod to LHS's captain, senior Katie Atkins. In her the final Javelin competition of her high school career, Atkins was at her best. In her first round she threw 99'1", which was over a half-foot farther than her previous lifetime best in the event. That mark qualified her for finals where she finished ninth. The captain also finished 13th in the 100m Hurdles with a time of 16.66 seconds. She will compete at the MIAA Meet of Champions next week in her best event, the Pole Vault. However, Divisionals marked the final time Atkins competed in her signature Pole Vault-100m Hurdle-Javelin triple in an LHS uniform.
Other Highlights for the Boys
Final Boys Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Acton-Boxborough - 70
2. Saint John's Prep - 61
3. Lexington - 56
4. Brockton - 43
5. Brookline - 43
6. Lowell - 36
7. Westford Academy - 35
8. Taunton - 32
9. Boston Latin - 31
10. Newton North - 30
Other Highlights for the Girls
Final Girls Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Franklin - 74
2. Lowell - 62
2. Westford Academy - 62
4. Newton North - 58.50
5. Central Catholic - 41
6. Wachusett - 40
7. Lexington - 38
8. Natick - 37
9. Framingham - 33
10. Weymouth - 32
Up Next
With no more team titles on the line this season, a select group of LHS student-athletes will continue on to compete at the MIAA Meet of Champions. Day 1 of the two-day meet will take place this Thursday, May 30th beginning at 3:00pm. Action will take place at the Elliott Field Athletic Complex on the campus of Fitchburg State University.
MIAA Division 1 Championships Day 2
May 26, 2024
Alumni Stadium - Westfield, MA
RESULTS
WESTFIELD, MA - The Minutemen had work to do after Day 1 of the MIAA Division 1 Championships. The Boys had performed well in a number of events, but fell a few points shy of expectations on Friday. That changed on Sunday, as LHS's boys were relentless, and exceeded all expectations in nearly every event in which they competed. In the end their 56 points landed them in third place behind a pair of tremendous teams. Acton-Boxborough won the crown with 70 points, and Saint John's Prep earned the runner-up trophy with 61 points of their own. Unsurprisingly, because in Lexington the Boys and Girls teams are united by the same guiding principles that preach a team first mindset that helps each student-athlete raise their performance to a higher level in order to support the team, the Lex Girls were also at their absolute best on Sunday. LHS blew past projections and finished in seventh place with 38 points. Franklin's girls won the title with 74 points. And, with 62 points each, Lowell and Westford Academy earned a share of the a runner-up trophy.
When it comes to drama, there are few events in track & field that match the Pole Vault. To paint the scene, sophomore Aidan Raney came in as LHS's lone participant in the event. Meanwhile, LHS's chief competitor, Acton-Boxborough had four athletes on the runway. Raney came in with a lifetime best of 12'6", but had two misses at 12'0" on Sunday while A-B's full crew had cleared the height. On his final attempt, Raney delivered for his team with a clean jump to advance in the competition. After clearing 12'6" on his second attempt, Raney once again had the weight of his team firmly on his young shoulders. This time, he stared down the runway at a 13-foot bar. Four other athletes, including two from A-B, had failed to make the height. If Raney was able to clear the bar, he guaranteed himself at least fourth place and five points for his team. If he missed, he would fall to eighth, and score just one point. With his teammates and coaches cheering him on, the sophomore did what champions do. He performed his best in the highest pressure situation, vaulted himself over the bar, and roared in excitement as he came crashed down to the mat with the bar still holding on its standards up above. In the end, Raney did finish fourth in the event after a tremendous competition. Back on the track things began to break LHS's way. Senior Jacob Pan (15.11) edged out Prep's Lincoln Massaro by two-hundredths of a second to get the last spot in the 110m Hurdle finals along with sophomore captain Simon Tandeih (14.79). Senior captain Joey "The Candyman" Ryan (4:20.99) rebounded from a tough day in the 2 Mile on Friday to turn in a PR and grab two unexpected points with a seventh place finish in the Mile. Then the meet took its biggest swing. In the 400m, seeded seventh, and running in lane one, senior McKenna O'Hare Gibson was ready to make some more magic after he won the 400m Hurdles in state record fashion on Friday. As the race charged down the backstretch, the Indoor 300m State Champ, Haverhill's Natanael Vigo Catala pulled up with an apparent injury in lane four. Running in lane one allowed O'Hare Gibson to see what happened, and immediately try to seize the opportunity to win the race outright with the heavy favorite now out. LHS's senior flew around the turn and with 100m to go, saw a victory and 10 points for his team within his grasp. He stormed down the final stretch and ran down the 200m Champ, Lincoln Sudbury's Nico Begic to win the race in a personal best time of 49.39 seconds. After that The Minutemen were back in the thick of things in the team competition, and when Tandeih ran a PR of 14.74 seconds to edge out A-B's Christoph Osselmann Chai in the 110m Hurdle final, there was still a chance of walking away with some hardware.
In the relays, The Minutemen competed their hearts out. Juniors Will Fletcher, Zach Barry and Max Zhang, along with Ryan ran a massive season best of 8:03.27 to place sixth out of the unseeded section of the 4x800m. That earned LHS another three unplanned points. After the five events of the Pentathlon on Friday, and trials and finals of the 110m Hurdles earlier in the day, Tandeih delivered one final epic performance as he anchored the 4x100m relay of freshman Cayden Chambers, junior Tim George, and senior Khai Uda-Thach to a bronze medal by one-hundredth of a second over Brockton with a time of 42.82 seconds. Like the 4x8, the 4x400m squad was scheduled to run from the unseeded section to try and grab what would be the final points for their team. Chambers, Uda-Thach, junior James Joseph, and O'Hare Gibson got the call to try to deliver one final epic performance. And, the quartet did everything that could have been asked of them and more. Chambers got the team off to a strong start, before he handed off to Uda-Thach. The senior ran his team back into the thick of a loaded section with a 49.9 split. That was followed up by another great leg by Joseph, who got the baton to O'Hare Gibson. LHS's top performer all season long ran an inspired leg. He flew around the track, and picked off a handful of teams along the way. In the end, he crossed the line with a 48.8 split that gave his team a final time of 3:25.89. The season best performance held up to place the squad seventh overall, and sealed his team's third place overall finish in what was nothing short of an amazing effort by the boys in blue and gold.
The Lex Girls were led as they have been all season by Aubrey "Bubbles" Deardorf. One of an incredibly talented group of sophomores, Deardorf began her day by qualifying seventh - by one-thousandth of a second - for the finals of the 100m with a PR of 12.72 seconds. In the finals, she was even better. The sophomore stormed her way to fifth place with a huge personal best of 12.58 seconds. With her performances on Sunday, Deardorf passed her sprints coach, Alex Cox (LHS '16) on the school's all-time list. After she lit things up on the track, Deardorf headed over to her signature event, the Long Jump. As has become her style, the young athlete popped a huge one on her first attempt - 18'2" - that put the pressure on the entire field. That mark held up through the next five rounds of the prelims and finals to earn her a silver medal. However, she was not done yet. The super sophomore crew of Deardorf, Felice Haverly and Bruguers Sagues teamed up with senior captain Jada Solomon in the 4x100m Relay. Sagues blasted out of the blocks and ran a great opening leg to get the baton to Haverly who flew down the backstretch. On the third leg, Solomon was simply electric as she charged her way around the final turn to move LHS up to the head of the field. On the anchor, Deardorf brought it home for the Lex Girls. She crossed the line in a time of 49.92 seconds, which earned the team a silver medal in the third fastest time in LHS history. In the final event of the day for The Minutemen, it was Haverly and Solomon who were called on to join freshman Marissa Hao and sophomore Anika Steinbrecher in the 4x400m Relay. Despite having failed to break 4:16 in the event all season, the crew knew that in the right circumstances they were capable of making their mark at this level. Haverly made that statement loud and clear on the opening leg as she passed the baton off first in the unseeded section after a 59.4 split. Solomon did well to deliver a 64.3 split of her own. Next up was Hao, who simply found a home on the 4x4 this championship season. The freshman, who ran 64.1 in the team's final dual meet and 62.5 at the League Championships, delivered a 61.3 split on Sunday. Steinbrecher gutted her way through her anchor leg with a time of 63.0, which gave the team a final time of 4:08.24. That performance held up through the seeded section to place eighth overall. Despite not scoring a point, a final recap of the Division 1 Championships would not be complete without a nod to LHS's captain, senior Katie Atkins. In her the final Javelin competition of her high school career, Atkins was at her best. In her first round she threw 99'1", which was over a half-foot farther than her previous lifetime best in the event. That mark qualified her for finals where she finished ninth. The captain also finished 13th in the 100m Hurdles with a time of 16.66 seconds. She will compete at the MIAA Meet of Champions next week in her best event, the Pole Vault. However, Divisionals marked the final time Atkins competed in her signature Pole Vault-100m Hurdle-Javelin triple in an LHS uniform.
Other Highlights for the Boys
- Sophomore Sam Myerberg had a strong 16th place finish in the Javelin with a throw of 138'0".
- The Mile saw freshman Patrick Noonan (4:31.65) land 16th overall.
- In the 110m Hurdles, junior Ryan Zhang finished 18th overall with a time of 15.53 seconds.
Final Boys Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Acton-Boxborough - 70
2. Saint John's Prep - 61
3. Lexington - 56
4. Brockton - 43
5. Brookline - 43
6. Lowell - 36
7. Westford Academy - 35
8. Taunton - 32
9. Boston Latin - 31
10. Newton North - 30
Other Highlights for the Girls
- The Shot Put saw sophomore Ainsley Cuthbertson finish 11th with a mark of 33'4".
- In the 100m prelims, Sagues ran a huge personal best of 12.88 seconds to finish 13th overall.
- Freshman Emily Hoefkens managed a 27th place with a time of 17.94 in the 100m Hurdles.
Final Girls Team Scores (Top 10)
1. Franklin - 74
2. Lowell - 62
2. Westford Academy - 62
4. Newton North - 58.50
5. Central Catholic - 41
6. Wachusett - 40
7. Lexington - 38
8. Natick - 37
9. Framingham - 33
10. Weymouth - 32
Up Next
With no more team titles on the line this season, a select group of LHS student-athletes will continue on to compete at the MIAA Meet of Champions. Day 1 of the two-day meet will take place this Thursday, May 30th beginning at 3:00pm. Action will take place at the Elliott Field Athletic Complex on the campus of Fitchburg State University.