Month: January 2010

North pulled off an upset and beat league rival Weymouth 46-40. Kayla took 4th place amongst bay state league long jumpers in non-scoring event, hitting 15′ 2.75″ for her 2nd best mark of the season. She also got a PR 7.93 in the JV 55m dash (with a bit of a false start) running as Megan Pursley (ranks 112th in state out of 1150 competitors). and ran a turn for the first time in her high school career, running the 200m in a crowded open start JV heat in a PR 29.5.

From Boston Globe Articles “Tigers Restore Order“:

Although the Newton North girls’ indoor track team had claimed 18 of the last 22 Bay State titles, the past two belonged to Weymouth. But junior Margo Gillis’s anchor-leg performance in the mile relay guaranteed the Tigers would leave the Reggie Lewis Center league champions once more, as Newton North defeated the Wildcats, 46-40, yesterday.
“This was without a doubt the most exciting, competitive meet in my career on the part of both teams,’’ said Tigers coach Joe Tranchita. “Weymouth was just sensational. It was just an epic battle.’’

Newton North (5-0) held a 41-40 advantage heading into the final event. Freshman Madi Nadeau, senior Ari Tabatabaie, and senior Jaya Tripathi ran the first three legs, but Gillis pushed her team ahead, finishing her leg in 59.4 seconds. The Tigers finished in 4:06 – just a second ahead of Weymouth (4-1).

“We’re doing this coming off a state relay title from this past weekend,’’ Tranchita said in reference to his team’s 50-point performance Sunday. “So this is sort of the icing on the cake.’

Newton North scored 50 points to beat out Andover (41 pts) and Lincoln Sudbury (28pts) for the Division 1 State Massachusetts Relay Championship.

Kayla contributed to 16 of Newton’s 50 points by anchored the 4x50yd dash relay to a SCHOOL RECORD BREAKING 25.34 for 3rd place and winning the long jump relay.

From 2010-01

Splits: 6.73, 6.03, 6.25 and 6.32 for Kayla. Kayla got added to the team just a few days ago. If the race had gone according to orginal seedings, which had Andover 2nd and Newton 7th, Andover would have won the meet 49-44!

For video go to Live from Reggie Lewis. Scroll down 3/4 of the way to the “Girls 50y Dash Shuttle Relay Section 10”.

The girl in red trying to chase her down is Nicole Gerard from Somerville, who is the #1 hurdler in the state and 20th in the country.

She, Carla, and Amy also took home the gold in the long jump relay. She and her teammates were well off their personal bests, but got off legal marks in the two attemps the relay-format allows — a high pressure situation. Her individual jump placed 16th out of 45, out-jumping all of the 3rd jumpers from other schools and all but 4 of the 2nd jumpers. She is currently ranked 41st in state and 328th in the US.

From 2010-01

Except from Boston Globe Article(clic here for full article):

Perennial girls’ powerhouse Newton North was able to continue its winning relay ways as the Tigers cruised to victory.

“This is a meet that’s very much a part of our legacy each year,’’ said coach Joe Tranchita. “We were third last year, second the year before, and we won it the previous three years. We always expect to be in the hunt.’’

Newton North finished with 50 points, followed closely by Andover’s 41. The majority of the Tigers’ points came from first-place finishes in the 4 x 50-yard hurdles (29.49), the 1,600-meter sprint medley (4:16.28), and the long jump (45 feet 9 inches).

Despite her coach’s high praise, captain Jaya Tripathi said the team’s performance exceeded her expectations.

“Our team just really pulled through,’’ she said. “Most of the teams came in ahead of the seed times. Everyone did more than what they were expected to do’’

Andover’s high jump trio of Moira Cronin, Jessica Salley, and Rosie Forster cleared 15 feet 9 inches, a state record. Cronin cleared an impressive 5-9 to help land her team the win.

From the Newton Tab Article:

Between competing in the 4×200 relay and the 4×50 relay at yesterday’s Division 1 State Relay meet, Carla Forbes and Stephanie Brown had about 30 minutes to think about how they flubbed their handoff in the first relay.

“Which is a good thing and a bad thing,” said Forbes, a freshman on the Newton North girls indoor track team. “You want to forget, but you need to think about it.

“I felt horrible – I just was frustrated. I didn’t know how it would affect the final score. I’m good now. It’s better.”

Forbes and Brown were able to feel better because the Tigers managed to overcome their disqualification in the 4×200 relay at the Reggie Lewis Center to win the entire meet yesterday, with the biggest reason for the comeback being Forbes’ and Brown’s performance in the 4×50 as the team finished third in a school-record 25.34 seconds.

“It felt really good,” Brown said of the 4×50. “We just had lot of built-up anger after running the relay, and we put it into the 50 dash. It felt really good.”

North edged Andover 50-41 in the final team scoring, including setting a Division 1 record in the 4×50 shuttle hurdle with a time of 29.49.

But North coach Joe Tranchita was especially happy about the performance in the 4×50 of a team that also included junior Meghan Pursley and sophomore Kayla Prior.

“That really propelled us,” Tranchita said. “The 4×50 was the key. First off, we got the points, but more importantly, it was really redemption for them. It was a good teaching moment that they can overcome adversity and come back and contribute to the team performance.”

The coach was also proud of North’s record-setting 4×50 shuttle hurdle team, which included junior Amy Ren, senior Emily Denn, senior Jen Liu and sophomore Kayla Wong. The previous record (29.53 seconds) was set by New Bedford in 2007.

“We had a solid performance today,” Denn said. “We can keep getting more consistent as a team, make sure we don’t hit the hurdles and get our legs over, but we had a solid performance. This meet is always important to us. It’s a team meet in the purest sense of the word. It’s great that we can take our individual performances and put them all together.”

North also won the 1,600 spring medley in 4:16.28. That team included junior Margo Gillis, junior Julia Cuccurullo, senior Jess Fugazzotto and senior Ariana Tabatabaie.

Last year the Tigers were third in the meet, and the year before that they were second. The previous two years, they won it all.

Tranchita said his team puts more weight on this meet than the individual state meet.

“This reinforces our legacy,” he said. “That’s what we emphasize with them. It really is a very vital part of the Newton North track tradition.”

The Newton South girls team finished fifth in the meet with 22 points yesterday. They finished second in the distance medley (junior Kathy O’Keefe, junior Andrea Braver, senior Kyle Remy and senior Melanie Fineman) with a time of 12.34.78 – just edging out North (12:49.76), which finished third.

“I was really pleased with it,” Fineman said of the performance. “We lost a lot of people last year, so the fact that we were able to reload is great. It was really good to get the team pumping.
“We didn’t get first, but as a whole I’m happy with it.”

From the Boston Herald article:

The Newton North girls squad managed to overcome a dropped baton in the 4 x 200 to take the title with 50 points, nine clear of runner-up Andover. Making the Tigers first win in this event since 2007 all the more impressive is that only three seniors figured in the scoring.

“It gives (the underclassmen) the opportunity to contribute to the legacy that is Newton North girls track,” coach Joe Tranchita said.

One of those underclassmen putting in a strong showing was freshman Carla Forbes, who had the top long jump of the day at 17 feet, 3 inches to pace the Tigers to a win.

Amy Ren, Emily Denn, Jen Liu and Kayla Wong broke the meet record with a 29.49 in the shuddle hurdles, breaking a three-year old mark of New Bedford by four-hundredths of a second.

“It was a nice way to send (seniors Denn and Liu) off, because they’ve won this each year they’ve been on our team,” Tranchita said.

The sprint medley was also victorious for Newton North, which was also runner-up in the high jump and picked up a pair of thirds in the distance medley and shuttle dash.

The Andover girls broke the meet record for all divisions in the high jump, as [typo] cleared 5-foot-9 and the team combined for 15-9, breaking a 2004 mark of Dennis-Yarmouth by 5 inches. While that marked the Warriors’ only win, they added three runner-ups – in the 4 x 200, 4 x 400 and shuttle hurdles.

Kayla took 7th place in the Red Auerbach large school freshmen/sophomore meet on Saturday with a jump of 14’11 3/4″. She was disappointed as a personal best would have put her 2nd behind teammate and meet MVP Carla Forbes. She had tripped on last hurdle in 55m hurdle heat before the long jump and turned her ankles.

See the Newton Tab article

[flashvideo width=800 height=450 file=http://video.priorfamily.org/sports/kgp/2009/froshsoph2010_HD_720p_001_F6%20480p%20(16×9).flv /]

High Def Version: http://video.priorfamily.org/sports/kgp/2010/froshsoph2010_HD_720p_001.mov

“Live From Reggie Lewis” Video (Girls Hurdles – Heat 7)
http://www.globalathletics.com/rltac/2010-01-02/