LHS BOYS MAKE IT 3-STRAIGHT ML12 CHAMPIONSHIPS; LEX GIRLS FINISH THIRD
Meet Information
Middlesex League Championships
May 15, 2024
Burlington High School - Burlington, MA
RESULTS
BURLINGTON, MA - This year's installment of the Middlesex League Championships saw perhaps the finest competition in League history. Four championship records were broken on the boys' side, while another three fell in the girls' meet. In the team scoring, The Minutemen made it three-in-a-row for the boys, as they scored 156.50 points, which bested second place Winchester by over 50 points for the championship. The Lex Girls fought hard but fell to third with 104 points. The incredible efforts of Woburn (127), who took the title by a half point, and Arlington (126.50) made for a thrilling competition that saw the championship decided by the 4x400m Relay.
For The Minutemen, the unquestioned performer of the meet was senior McKenna O'Hare Gibson. The recent Northeastern University commit made a statement that he is the class of the Middlesex League with three stellar performances. He began his day by shattering the championship record in the 400m Hurdles with a time of 54.18 seconds. In addition to earning him the gold, that mark also qualified him for the New Balance Nationals in June, and currently ranks him US #17 in his signature event. But, O'Hare Gibson was just getting started. He won his second gold, this time in the open 400m, with a time of 49.73. That mark was just off the meet record set by Watertown great Mange Camara back in 2018, and ranks him MA #8. O'Hare Gibson finished off the meet, and his triple gold day in the 4x400m Relay. There he anchored LHS's relay of fellow classmates Khai Uda-Thach, as well as juniors Nathan Cunningham and James Joseph to victory with a 50.0 split. While O'Hare Gibson lit things up on the oval, sophomore Aidan Raney was at his absolute best in the Pole Vault. The young vaulter was locked in a battle with Belmont's Mitchell Woo throughout the competition. Both had a miss at 12'0", before they cleared the bar on their next attempts. Raney then pulled ahead in the competition as he cleared 12'6" on his first attempt, which set an Outdoor personal best. Woo took two misses before finally clearly on his third attempt. However, when neither athlete cleared the bar at 13'0" it meant that while the two shared have to share the new championship record, Raney walked away as League Champ because he needed fewer attempts to clear the winning height. In addition to records, there were a pair of major breakthrough performances for LHS. Freshman Trevor Stevens battled all season to qualify for the Freshman Division at Nationals in the 2 Mile. Turns out, all he needed was championship level competition to drive him. Seeded eighth, Stevens ran a perfectly even paced race throughout the eight laps of the oval. He worked his way up through the chase pack in the middle stages of the race and crossed the line in fifth overall with a time of 9:52.16. In addition to a huge personal best, that mark was good enough to punch Stevens' ticket to Nationals. Speaking of huge personal bests, sophomore Sam Myerberg showed up for The Minutemen in the Javelin better than anyone could have expected. Before Wednesday, Myerberg had barely eclipsed 124 feet in the event. On his first throw of the competition he threw the spear 137'7", which rocketed him up the leaderboard, and qualified him for finals. Once there, he could not improve on his best mark in the first two rounds. In the final round, as all great throwers do, he unleashed a bomb. The javelin stuck in the ground at 140'2", which placed him fifth overall, and earned him another week with his teammates as he qualified for the MIAA Division 1 Championships.
Throughout her career, senior captain Katie Atkins has become the standard bearer for putting the team before yourself. She competes in three completely different events at an elite level, and the Outdoor League Championships is the day she has to be at her absolute best in all of them. Wednesday, she was nearly perfect in her goal. Atkins began her day in the Javelin where she sent the spear a season best 95'8" on her second throw. That mark held up to earn her a bronze medal and six points for her team. Next up was the Pole Vault, where Atkins set a new personal best of 11'0" (besting her own LHS record) to grab eight more points with a silver medal. Finally, she made it over to the 100m Hurdle trials, where she cruised her way into finals. There, Atkins (16.84) managed a fourth place finish that brought her total contribution to her team up to 19 points. Another big performance came from sophomore Ainsley Cuthbertson. Up against two of the best shot putters in the state, Cuthbertson held her own and managed to secure six points with a throw of 34'3.25". In the Discus, the sophomore matched that effort again. Her best legal throw was measured at 102'6", which earned her another bronze medal and six more points for the Lex Girls. In her final Middlesex League Championships, senior Amandine Mangon also managed to secure 12 points for The Minutemen. She won silver in the 100m Hurdles with a season best of 15.42 seconds, and then managed to breakthrough Reading's stranglehold on the Triple Jump with a personal best leap of 33'4.25" to earn fifth place. Sophomore Felice Haverly was given a tall task on Wednesday, as she was scheduled for the 200/400 double. While in most states this is the standard sprinter double, the way Massachusetts schedules events means that the 200 trials are run first, then there is a long break before the finals. However, the 400m is the very next event, which means athletes much compete in back-to-back grueling events. LHS has seen some success with elite sprinters pulling this double off in the past, and things were off to a tremendous start as Haverly ran a blistering 25.90 seconds in the prelims, which was a PR by over a second. She then went on to earn silver in the finals. Haverly rallied herself to the line of the 400m, and was out well in the first 200, but the weight of two max efforts got the best of her and she faded in the final 100m. Regardless of the outcome, the sophomore showed true grit and commitment to her teammates by giving everything she had throughout the meet.
Point Scorers for the Boys
Final Boys Team Scores
1. Lexington - 156.50
2. Winchester - 106
3. Burlington - 94
4. Wakefield - 86
5. Reading - 77.50
6. Woburn - 69
7. Melrose - 33
8. Wilmington - 29
9. Arlington - 19
10. Belmont - 18
11. Stoneham - 11
12. Watertown - 3
Point Scorers for the Girls
Final Girls Team Scores
1. Woburn - 127
2. Arlington - 126.50
3. Woburn - 104
4. Reading - 81
5. Melrose - 50.50
6. Burlington - 49
7. Winchester - 41
8. Wakefield - 30
8. Wilmington - 30
10. Belmont - 26
11. Stoneham - 24
12. Watertown - 12
Now that the 2023-2024 Middlesex League Track & Field year has finished, a special thank you goes to LHS Athletic Director Naomi Martin. For both the Indoor and Outdoor Season she serves as League Commissioner. It is only through her vision and willingness to do whatever it takes to serve the kids of the Middlesex League that teams get to compete in the best facilities in the world during the winter, and have fully automatic timing (FAT) and the best officials in Massachusetts during for every meet throughout the year. On behalf of the LHS coaches and student-athletes, we would like to say thank you to Naomi for her tireless work for our program.
Up Next
A select group of LHS athletes will compete this weekend at the Battle Road Twilight Meet #2. The meet - at MIT - is scheduled to begin at 5pm.
Middlesex League Championships
May 15, 2024
Burlington High School - Burlington, MA
RESULTS
BURLINGTON, MA - This year's installment of the Middlesex League Championships saw perhaps the finest competition in League history. Four championship records were broken on the boys' side, while another three fell in the girls' meet. In the team scoring, The Minutemen made it three-in-a-row for the boys, as they scored 156.50 points, which bested second place Winchester by over 50 points for the championship. The Lex Girls fought hard but fell to third with 104 points. The incredible efforts of Woburn (127), who took the title by a half point, and Arlington (126.50) made for a thrilling competition that saw the championship decided by the 4x400m Relay.
For The Minutemen, the unquestioned performer of the meet was senior McKenna O'Hare Gibson. The recent Northeastern University commit made a statement that he is the class of the Middlesex League with three stellar performances. He began his day by shattering the championship record in the 400m Hurdles with a time of 54.18 seconds. In addition to earning him the gold, that mark also qualified him for the New Balance Nationals in June, and currently ranks him US #17 in his signature event. But, O'Hare Gibson was just getting started. He won his second gold, this time in the open 400m, with a time of 49.73. That mark was just off the meet record set by Watertown great Mange Camara back in 2018, and ranks him MA #8. O'Hare Gibson finished off the meet, and his triple gold day in the 4x400m Relay. There he anchored LHS's relay of fellow classmates Khai Uda-Thach, as well as juniors Nathan Cunningham and James Joseph to victory with a 50.0 split. While O'Hare Gibson lit things up on the oval, sophomore Aidan Raney was at his absolute best in the Pole Vault. The young vaulter was locked in a battle with Belmont's Mitchell Woo throughout the competition. Both had a miss at 12'0", before they cleared the bar on their next attempts. Raney then pulled ahead in the competition as he cleared 12'6" on his first attempt, which set an Outdoor personal best. Woo took two misses before finally clearly on his third attempt. However, when neither athlete cleared the bar at 13'0" it meant that while the two shared have to share the new championship record, Raney walked away as League Champ because he needed fewer attempts to clear the winning height. In addition to records, there were a pair of major breakthrough performances for LHS. Freshman Trevor Stevens battled all season to qualify for the Freshman Division at Nationals in the 2 Mile. Turns out, all he needed was championship level competition to drive him. Seeded eighth, Stevens ran a perfectly even paced race throughout the eight laps of the oval. He worked his way up through the chase pack in the middle stages of the race and crossed the line in fifth overall with a time of 9:52.16. In addition to a huge personal best, that mark was good enough to punch Stevens' ticket to Nationals. Speaking of huge personal bests, sophomore Sam Myerberg showed up for The Minutemen in the Javelin better than anyone could have expected. Before Wednesday, Myerberg had barely eclipsed 124 feet in the event. On his first throw of the competition he threw the spear 137'7", which rocketed him up the leaderboard, and qualified him for finals. Once there, he could not improve on his best mark in the first two rounds. In the final round, as all great throwers do, he unleashed a bomb. The javelin stuck in the ground at 140'2", which placed him fifth overall, and earned him another week with his teammates as he qualified for the MIAA Division 1 Championships.
Throughout her career, senior captain Katie Atkins has become the standard bearer for putting the team before yourself. She competes in three completely different events at an elite level, and the Outdoor League Championships is the day she has to be at her absolute best in all of them. Wednesday, she was nearly perfect in her goal. Atkins began her day in the Javelin where she sent the spear a season best 95'8" on her second throw. That mark held up to earn her a bronze medal and six points for her team. Next up was the Pole Vault, where Atkins set a new personal best of 11'0" (besting her own LHS record) to grab eight more points with a silver medal. Finally, she made it over to the 100m Hurdle trials, where she cruised her way into finals. There, Atkins (16.84) managed a fourth place finish that brought her total contribution to her team up to 19 points. Another big performance came from sophomore Ainsley Cuthbertson. Up against two of the best shot putters in the state, Cuthbertson held her own and managed to secure six points with a throw of 34'3.25". In the Discus, the sophomore matched that effort again. Her best legal throw was measured at 102'6", which earned her another bronze medal and six more points for the Lex Girls. In her final Middlesex League Championships, senior Amandine Mangon also managed to secure 12 points for The Minutemen. She won silver in the 100m Hurdles with a season best of 15.42 seconds, and then managed to breakthrough Reading's stranglehold on the Triple Jump with a personal best leap of 33'4.25" to earn fifth place. Sophomore Felice Haverly was given a tall task on Wednesday, as she was scheduled for the 200/400 double. While in most states this is the standard sprinter double, the way Massachusetts schedules events means that the 200 trials are run first, then there is a long break before the finals. However, the 400m is the very next event, which means athletes much compete in back-to-back grueling events. LHS has seen some success with elite sprinters pulling this double off in the past, and things were off to a tremendous start as Haverly ran a blistering 25.90 seconds in the prelims, which was a PR by over a second. She then went on to earn silver in the finals. Haverly rallied herself to the line of the 400m, and was out well in the first 200, but the weight of two max efforts got the best of her and she faded in the final 100m. Regardless of the outcome, the sophomore showed true grit and commitment to her teammates by giving everything she had throughout the meet.
Point Scorers for the Boys
- In the Mile, senior captain Joey "The Candyman" Ryan won in a personal best time of 4:21.87; freshman Patrick Noonan (4:32.47) was seventh.
- The 110m Hurdles saw sophomore captain Simon Tandeih (15.21) earn silver; junior Ryan Zhang (15.38) got bronze; senior Jacob Pan (15.61) placed fifth.
- Tandeih (22.61) ran a PR to earn silver in the 200m; junior Tim George (23.13) PRed to place fourth; freshman Cayden Chambers placed sixth, and ran a personal best of 23.33 in the prelims.
- Ryan (9:26.12) earned silver in the 2 Mile; freshman Alden Hall ran a sensational race to place seventh with a PR of 9:56.12.
- The 800m saw junior captain Max Zhang (1:58.91) place third; fellow classmate Zach Barry was sixth in 1:59.68.
- Sophomore Franz Schroeder earned bronze with a PR of 129'10" in the Discus; junior Colin Maguire (121'3") was sixth.
- Uda-Thach ran a huge personal best of 51.10 seconds in the 400m to earn a bronze medal.
- The Long Jump saw Tandeih turn in a PR of 21'8" to place fourth.
- In the Triple Jump, Pan placed fourth with a leap of 40'9.25".
- After times of 11.43 and 11.44 respectively in the preliminaries for George and Chambers, the duo placed sixth and eighth in the finals of the 100m.
- Junior Garbins Bernard jumped a personal best 9'0" in the Pole Vault to place seventh overall.
- The 400m Hurdles saw senior Clifton Reid Jr pick up a point with an eighth place finish in 1:01.18.
- In the 4x800m Relay, Max Zhang, Barry, junior Will Fletcher, and Noonan placed second with a time of 8:26.75.
- The 4x100m Relay of Chambers, George, Uda-Thach, and sophomore Amari Mow placed fifth in 44.92.
Final Boys Team Scores
1. Lexington - 156.50
2. Winchester - 106
3. Burlington - 94
4. Wakefield - 86
5. Reading - 77.50
6. Woburn - 69
7. Melrose - 33
8. Wilmington - 29
9. Arlington - 19
10. Belmont - 18
11. Stoneham - 11
12. Watertown - 3
Point Scorers for the Girls
- Sophomore Aubrey "Bubbles" Deardorf earned silver in the 100m with a time of 12.81 seconds; senior captain Jada Solomon (13.24) placed seventh; after a PR of 13.28 in the prelims, sophomore Julianna Mathurin placed eighth in the finals.
- Deardorf set a new PR, and LHS record, in the Long Jump with a leap of 18'4" to earn silver in the event.
- After a PR of 26.85 in the prelims, Mathurin landed in fifth place overall in the finals of the 200m.
- Juniors Alkisti Kokkinia (1:09.65) and Caroline Kvaal (1:10.43) placed sixth and seventh respectively in the 400m Hurdles.
- In the Pole Vault, junior Caitlin Lennox turned in a PR of 7'0" to place sixth overall.
- Junior Anika Steinbrecher ran a big PR of 1:01.61 to place sixth in the 400m.
- The 2 Mile saw freshmen Erin Ehmann (11:57.40) and Alycia Charest (11:58.48) turn in personal bests to place seventh and eighth respectively.
- Senior Quin Tandeih (89'9") placed eighth in the Discus.
- In the 4x800m Relay it was the team of senior captain Maya Dubrovsky, Ehmann and Charest, and junior Claire Cunningham that placed fourth with a Division 1 qualifying time of 10:22.08.
- The 4x100m squad of sophomore Bruguers Sagues, Mathurin, senior Noa Helmbrecht, and Deardorf earned bronze with a time of 51.52 seconds.
- Solomon, Kokkinia, freshman Marissa Hao, and Steinbrecher ran a season best time of 4:16.29 to place fifth in the 4x400m Relay.
Final Girls Team Scores
1. Woburn - 127
2. Arlington - 126.50
3. Woburn - 104
4. Reading - 81
5. Melrose - 50.50
6. Burlington - 49
7. Winchester - 41
8. Wakefield - 30
8. Wilmington - 30
10. Belmont - 26
11. Stoneham - 24
12. Watertown - 12
Now that the 2023-2024 Middlesex League Track & Field year has finished, a special thank you goes to LHS Athletic Director Naomi Martin. For both the Indoor and Outdoor Season she serves as League Commissioner. It is only through her vision and willingness to do whatever it takes to serve the kids of the Middlesex League that teams get to compete in the best facilities in the world during the winter, and have fully automatic timing (FAT) and the best officials in Massachusetts during for every meet throughout the year. On behalf of the LHS coaches and student-athletes, we would like to say thank you to Naomi for her tireless work for our program.
Up Next
A select group of LHS athletes will compete this weekend at the Battle Road Twilight Meet #2. The meet - at MIT - is scheduled to begin at 5pm.