With their official high school season over, it was time for the Marblehead High indoor track national qualifiers to compete against the nation at The Track at New Balance complex in Allston March 9-12, technically running as the “Marblehead Track Club” rather than Magicians.
Ryan Thompson qualified for both the 400 and 800 events in the Rising Stars category in the New Balance Indoor Nationals. His 600 time of 1:24.12 during the regular season qualified him for the 400, and his 1,000-meter time of 2:36.61 also qualified him for the 800.
“These are impressive accomplishments on their own, and were a feather in the cap of Ryan’s tremendous indoor season,” said coach William Herlihy.
In the 400, Ryan finished 62nd nationally with a time of 52.58, and in the 800 he ended up 49th after clocking in at 2:04.82.
“Neither of these were personal bests, but he still ran hard,” said Herlihy. “His last meet was two weeks ago. But he has been training since November. It is very difficult to carry a peak performance for more than two weeks. Ryan has been trying to stretch his peak since the Division 3 state championship meet four weeks ago. He will now take some very well-deserved time off this week before starting the spring season in practice on March 20.”
In the 4×200 relay, Cate Trautman, Claire Davis, Devin Whalen and Le’Daisha Williams (1:46.70, personal best) finished 25th out of 80-plus teams in the Rising Stars group of national qualifiers.
“It was an exciting race that had a collision on the third leg as the two teams immediately behind Devin tangled legs and fell very hard,” said coach Nolan Raimo. “At the beginning of the season, I hoped they could just break the school record of 1:48.50, but in the end they smashed it by almost two seconds, while competing on the biggest stage.”
Raimo continued, “For Devin, Claire and Cate, it puts a ribbon on a fantastic indoor track career,” adding that he is confident that Williams will be back at the nationals next year in the same event.
Keira Sweetnam competed in the high jump in which only 50 nationwide jumpers took part.
“The opening height of 5-3 1/4 was very close to Keira’s personal best of 5-4,” Raimo explained. “She, along with about half the field, did not clear the opening height. It was a difficult environment to jump with all the theatrics going on like mini-fireworks before every championship race and lights dimming among other things.”
Raimo added, “There is a relatively short window for peak performance, often only two or three weeks depending on the athlete, and we are about five weeks out from the NEC championship meet, so the conditions were not ideal, but it was still a great milestone to cap off an incredible season for Keira.”
The Marblehead athletes also were able to bear witness to quite a few national records falling during the event, including in the boys 60-meter, boys 5K and the girls 200-meter.
