The holiday break is always a great opportunity for high school athletes to relax and refocus for the unofficial start of the second half of the season when the calendar flips to a new year. For the Marblehead High boys and girls indoor track teams, they started the break with identical 2-1 winning records. But while they rested from competitive meets, their understudies took center stage for the annual Northeastern Conference (NEC) Freshman/Sophomore Meet on Saturday, Dec. 29. And suffice to say, coach Nolan Raimo’s program appears to be set up for more future success.
Boys shotput
“Sophomore Graham Firestone can only be described as a wildcard,” said assistant coach Danny Plunkett. “He threw roughly 31 feet on all three of his initial attempts, while using a different technique on each throw. But if I’m not mistaken, he scraped into finals in sixth place. He then botched his first throw of the finals, but it only made him to become more excited and enthusiastic, and as a result he came roaring back on his second attempt with a throw of 34-2.5, a solid two-foot personal best, which was good enough for an impressive fourth place finish.”
Freshman Ari Elkayam then delivered perhaps the biggest shock of the day with a personal best astronomical throw of throw of 26-7.75 for a five-foot improvement, according to Plunkett.
Girls shotput
After taking second at last year’s freshman-sophomore meet, Lillian Reddy (30-9) returned this year all fired up to win the event with a seven-inch personal best.
“Despite not being able to practice the week before the meet due to a combination of illness, injury and driver’s ed, she easily made the finals with a few 28-foot throws. However, she was still sitting back in fourth place. But sometimes all it takes is one great throw, because she was then able to put it altogether on her second attempt in the finals to edge her Gloucester counterpart by just three inches to secure first place,” said Plunkett.
Freshman Naomi Goodwin (20-9.5) tied for 12th. She showed real poise to throw consistently for a great result in her first big meet, according to Plunkett.
Boys long jump
Elian Colon (18-2.5) led the way with a fifth-place finish.
“Elian had a remarkable day scoring points in the hurdles, long jump and 4×200 relay,” said Raimo.
Colin Burke barely missed the finals, placing eighth with a leap of 15-3.5. Casey Gransbury finished 10th with a jump of 14-10.5.
Girls long jump
Sadie Halpern was second with a spectacular leap of 16-4. Cora Gerson ended up fourth with a jump of 14-10.
Boys 55-meters
Ethan Harwood came in 14th in a competitive dash field with a time of 7.66. Burke (7.83) was close behind in 18th place. Jared Halpern (7.84) was right on his heals in 19th place.
Girls 55-meters
Sadie Halpern was the victor in a blazing fast time of 7.62. Lidia Jasmine Tiedra (8:08) finished sixth, which was an improvement of over 0.3 seconds since the New Balance NEC Invite. Camryn O’Brien (8.75) came in 13th. Sydney Berman (9.23) was 20th overall.
Boys 55-meter hurdles
Colon (9.82) cracked the 10-second barrier, an impressive feat for an underclassman, to finish third. Firestone (10.8) impressed with a fifth-place finish. Nate Jendrysik (11.10) missed the finals by 0.3 seconds to come in eighth.
Girls mile
Jesslyn Roemer (6:13.02, 13-second personal best) ended up fifth.
“Jesslyn keeps getting better and better as she gets more experience, while learning to push herself more and more in every race,” said assistant coach Will Herlihy.
“Thea Shaw (7:13.84, 10-second personal best) was seventh, while continuing to improve in every race,” said Herlihy.
Boys mile
Will Cruikshank (5:05.96) won the mile in what was a very physical race, according to Herlihy.
“There were more lead changes in this race than you normally see, which made it very entertaining,” added Herlihy. “Despite not knowing how many laps were remaining since the officials didn’t ring the bell, Will still turned on the jets in the last lap to secure the win.”
Filip Grubor (5:38.94. 15-second personal best) ended up seventh. Zach Pike (5:46.3) ran a solid race, despite just coming off an illness, to come in 11th.
Boys 300
Slater Johnson (42.5) motored to a fifth-place finish. Josh Franklin (45.3) was 11th. Casey Gransbury (52.19) crossed the finish line 21st overall.
Girls 300
Manuela Puente (48.11) led the way for Marblehead with a sixth-place finish. Cora Gerson (50.21) was ninth, Grace Rowe (53.30) 14th, Naomi Goodwin (57.03) 22nd and Julia Betz (60.68) 26th.
Girls 600
Isabel Mortensen (1:55.84), the lone Marblehead runner in this event, matched her best time from last season. She finished fourth in a competitive field.
Boys 600
Henrik Adams (1:35.7) ran hard to take second place.
“He had a plan for the first lap of the race to set the tone, but a previously unknown Salem runner tried to take over the race at the start of the second lap. Henrik had to respond to stay in the race, and he did by closing in on the lead runner in the final 100 meters, but just ran out of room in the end to finish second,” said Herlihy.
Girls 1,000
Ivana Nguyen (4:04.8, eight-second personal best) was focused to run a significant personal best out of the second heat, where she was half a lap ahead the whole race, and as a result she was rewarded with an awesome third place finish. Liv Niles (4:21.56) fought through some back pain in the final lap to finish sixth to get to the podium.
Boys 1,000
Zach Plum (3:43.78) missed his heat, but fortunately was able to step up and run well in the second heat, a much quicker race.
Boys 4×200
Ethan Harwood, Jared Halpern, Elian Colon and Slater Johnson sprinted to a third-place finish first in their heat with a time of 1:51.34.
Girls 4×200
Sadie Halpern, Lidia Jasmine Tiedra, Cora Gerson and Manuela Puente (1:57.96) won the relay, which, despite not practicing handoffs at all, is astounding.
“As the race grew shorter 200-meters instead of 300 meters the higher speeds are tough to maintain into tight turns,” said Raimo. “This group has a bright future, and we will hopefully see more from them in the years to come.
“Including this relay, Halpern was able to set a meet high across all events with 20.5 points, scoring nearly one-third of our points. This performance of hers was superstar status,” added Raimo.
Boys 4×400
Will Cruikshank, Graham Firestone, Nate Jendrysik and Henrik Adams finished fourth in a time of 4:12.17.
