Elite Meet

Boys

Field events weren't kind to the Hockomock's top seeds. In the long jump #2 ranked Quinn Ryder fouled all three attempts (by just an inch on the third) to miss finals. Kevin Peter needed one of his better throws to make finals but ended up well off his game. In high jump 6 th seeded Connor Sullivan (6'4”) no-heighted at 6'1”. So here's the rest of the infield story.

High Jump

In the match-up of form vs. ups Nick Stanley's (BC High-JR) clearance form edged Tobey Belton's (St. Johns-Shrewsbury-JR) rockets as both cleared 6'7”. Belton was over the bar sitting up at 6'9 but you can't clear while sitting in a chair. Matt Sydney (Canton-JR) cleared 6'3”, which could have placed as high as 5 th if he didn't have misses along the way. He ended up 7 th .

Long Jump

Some times Ross McDonald's (Newton South-SR) form wasn't perfect but he got the job done when it counted at 21'7.5”. Smoother jumpers fouled all their best jumps - showing that winning big meets such as this takes talent, luck and maybe even the alignment of stars. Craig Langes (Woburn-JR-21'2.75”) never found his stride and settled for 2 nd.   North Attleboro's Matt Smith (SR) had a lifetime PR of 21' 0” on his third attempt to grab 4 th . Fifth place Irvin Scott (Brookline-SR) bombed the biggest jumps but fouled on his best efforts. Sixth place went to Brian Espinosa (Dighton-Rehoboth-SR-20'8.75”) who was probably the most consistent of the top jumpers but never hit it full.

Shot Put

Sam Bombaugh (Falmouth-SR) is rarely beaten but the man-mountain Ryan Davila (Lowell-SR) almost got the best of him. In the end “the Bomb” prevailed 57'6.25 to 57' 4.50”. Gus Margiotta (Gloucester-SR) also came through big at 55'8.25” for third. The top-8 throwers were all seniors. Pat Riggs (Franklin) grabbed that 8 th spot with a season if not life PR of 48'2.75”. North Attleboro's Kevin Peter was 12 th (45'11.50”) and King Philip's Bobby Rowe was 19 th at 43'2.25”.

55M Dash

Chris McConnell (Andover-SR) still has no peer in the state. His 6.43 semi and 6.47 final easily outdistanced Dana Lindberg (Hingham-SR-6.60-6.59.) Quinn Ryder (Oliver Ames-SR) was a tick back in third at 6.60.   Lindberg surpassed his state finals effort of a year ago (6.69-6.72) while neither McConnell (6.34) or Ryder (6.58) could match theirs.

Paul Sassau (Franklin-SR) was 14 th in 6.93.

55M Hurdles

Greg Boursiquot (Stoughton-JR) has never looked better. His 7.71 from trials would have bested Nick McDaniel (Xaverian-JR-2 nd -7.73). Boursiquot left nothing to chance and blasted a flawless 7.58 in finals.

300M

Casey O'Brien (Seekonk-SR) got out fast and looked like he'd run away with it. Then Falmouth's Tyle Singer-Clark (SR) started to close down the final stretch. S-C pulled up beside O'Brien 20M from the finish but OB found a way to hang onto a 35.17 to 35.22 win.   The only non-senior in the top-8 was Bo Lewis (Framingham-SO) who grabbed third in 35.79. The Hock's top performer was North Attleboro's Matt Smith who added a 14 th place 36.89 to go with his 4 th place long jump.

600M

The 600M final was a replay of the 300M final. Mark Vetere (Andover-SR) lost a solid lead and had to fight off hard charging Steve Souza (Durfee-SR) to win by the same .os margin (1:23.03-1:23.06). The next two placements came out of the second of four heats. Ryan Petrella (Mansfield-JR-1:23.48) bided his time at the back of the pack hanging onto 6 th for the first two laps. He made his move when it counted, coming all the way from the back to win the heat on the last lap. Teammate Kyle Kilduff (SR) challenged earlier in the race but ended up just out of the money (7 th -1:24.26). North Attleboro's Vlad Francois (SR-12 th -1:25.24) took over the lead in the second lap of the first heat but faltered toward the end placing third in his heat. Josh Raia (King Philip-SR) was in the seeded heat but had a rough go of it. He looked to be in decent position just before the break line but the pack closed in around him, causing him to break stride. He worked from 6 th to 4 th in the last lap but his time of 1:25.43 was only good enough for 14 th .

1000M

Steve Sollowin (Weymouth-JR) held the lead for most of the race snd barely held off Andrew Sukeforth (Middleboro-SR) 2:32.18 to 2:32.49. As an example of the tighness of the race top-seeded Bobby McShane (Feehan-SR) ran 2:34.78 which was 7 th .

Franklin's Alex Gutkowski (SR-12 th -2:36.37) had a back and forth battle with Drew Beck (Oliver Ames-SO-14 th -2:37.43). OA's senior Chris Merola was 20 th at 2:39.97.

Mile

It was clear from the start that favorite Johnny Gregoreck (Seekonk-SR) just didn't have anything in the tank. He faded to a 4:35.55 for 21 st . That left the door open for Anthony Taylor (Arlington-SR) to win at 4:23.58. King Philip sophomore Chris Allen (7 th -4:27.15) missed placing by a scant .06. Ben Pare (Methuen-SR) had an outstanding effort in the unseeded heat running 4:27.37 all alone and was 8 th .   Max Nolan (North Attleboro-SR-4:43.92) was 24 th .

Two-mile

The first half of the race went according to plan with Mansfield's Patrick McGowan (SR) and Brendan Boyle (SR) hanging out on the leader's shoulder. Jeffrey Bush (Westborough-SR) came up to challenge and dueled McGowan until the last lap. That's when Bush took off and upset the pre-race favorite 9:22.89 to 9:25.80. At one point Boyle dropped all the way to 6 th but he came back strong to place 4 th (9:32.11).   Boyle almost caught the only non-senior in the top-7 (Tyler Sullivan-Whitman-Hanson-JR) who was 3 rd in 9:31.71.

4 X 200M

Andover broke the meet record at 1:31.50. Too bad Mansfield didn't get a shot at the first heat. They may not have won but probably would have improved their time (1:32.76). By the time Kyle Kilduff got the baton he could have walked home first – such was the huge lead Steve Gannon, Griffen Robertson and Kerrick Stevens built for him.

North Attleboro was 8 th (1:35.53) and Oliver Ames was 14 th (1:37.98). They were in the same heat and were nip and tuck for the first two legs – Quinn Ryder gaining an advantage over a closely following Matt Smith. Then OA suffered on the next handoff as NA pulled away. Anchor leg Matt Moore extended the lead but couldn't catch heat-winner Xaverian.

4 X 800M

Andover won their second relay of the day edging Methen 8:06.97 to 8:07.27. Just a half second further back in third place was Mansfield (8:07.86).   Oliver Ames was 12 th (8:32.76) and Franklin 13 th (8:33.10).

4 X 400M

Mansfield showed their depth, placing in all three relays. Here they were 3 rd (3:30.01) less than a second off first place (St. John's Prep-3:29.34). Randolph was 2 nd in 3:29.52.

North Attleboro missed out on placing by a mere .02 getting edged for 6 th by Xaverian (3:31.97)