The Middlesex girls’ and boys’ track teams competed in the ISTA Championships Saturday at Milton in perfect conditions save for a brisk wind that hampered track records.
Led by their senior captains, the girls finished in 5th place. Emily began our track day in the 1500 meters, passing the first half mile in a pace faster than the winning time in the 800 meter open event, and winning in 4:48.0, (just shy of the meet record). Following her 5th place in the high hurdles -- a personal record and her best ISL finish in this event, Elizabeth placed a close second in the 300 meter hurdles, again her best ISL finish and two places better than her seed time. Emily finished the individual track events with an ISL record of 10:23 in the 3000 meters, the metric two mile. Running solo and lapping runners, Emily's was the only track record of the day and the first time a MX runner has set an ISL record.
Middlesex performed well in the field events with Angela throwing a PR 30'4" in the shot put for 3rd place, a remarkable 3' improvement. For the second year, Isabelle placed a close second in the high jump, finishing ahead of a dense field of jumpers who began with equal bests. By a vote of the coaches, Emily was chosen the ISL track MVP for her two wins as well as bettering a 15 year-old, seemingly unbeatable, record. This is the third all-scholastic award of Emily's MX athletic career.
The boys' team surprised a number of larger schools that possess tracks as well as special events coaches by finishing second in the team standings to Roxbury Latin. Second through fourth places were decided by the final event of the day, the 4x400 meter relay, but with two legs to go Middlesex was far behind, in 5th place with no apparent hope of winning a trophy. Then Ryan took the baton and passed two teams, his PR of 52.6 moving us ahead of Belmont Hill in the standings. Our anchor Jobeir was still far back of Thayer, now second in both the relay and team standings. Jobeir passed the Thayer anchor on the homestretch with a PR of 50.1, a time superior to his second place PR of 51.35 in the open 400m event. Jobeir now has a share of four school records --400m, High Jump (with Kevin Systrom), 4x100r, 4x400r. By all rights Ryan and Jobeir should have been slower in their second event, but they are athletes motivated by running for their team and school.
The Middlesex field performers began the day with Mike, seeded last, placing 3rd in the triple jump, his 42'6" being a new school record and close to the national list standard. Tyson next scored a 5th in the high jump prior to anchoring the 4x100 relay, of Andrew, Nick, and Jobeir to a 4th, both performances better than the seeded places.
Our middle-distance runners then took over to dominate the track events. Junior captain James and sophomore Garrett ran one-two in the 1500 m, with Garrett getting the nod at the finish with a 4:05 PR. James then came right back to win the 800 m in 1:59.14, second-best in ISL history, followed by sophomore Peter in third. In the final open event Garrett joined Peter and Nick in the grueling 3000m, winning in 8:59, another second-best in the history of the ISL meet, for which he was voted the boy' coaches' choice award. Nick, seeded 6th began to push the pace of the chase pack at one and a a half miles. Over the last 200 meters, he and a Milton runner repeatedly changed leads until the final 10 meters, when Nick took the second place medal by .13 seconds.
In such a close contest, every one of the twelve boys who scored provided the trophy-winning margin, but for their teammates and the many MX fans, Nick, Ryan, and Jobeir, running in the final two events, defined an inspiring day.
