Although I love the State Relays and was a meet I always geared up for,   during the indoor season this was the first big weekend when it comes to sorting out what's likely to happen over the next month. The format of a great meet on Saturday and a greater meet on Sunday provides so much information that it will take three days for me to debrief you.

This is the weekend that athletes really brought it to and left it on the track. It appears that seed times and resumes were meaningless. The true nature of “the uncertainty of sport” reared its fascinating head. Some of the sure stars were stuffed, the likely scorers were squashed and the unimaginable Cinderellas surfaced. It was not the weekend to make predictions.

OA felt the full range of emotions, elation with Alexa Murray's Saturday 55M win, awe with Emily Grotz's mind-bending 1000M time, consternation with Quinn Ryder's triple foul in long jump and the hurt of finding out that Jenna Davidner still hasn't recovered fully from injury.

But surprises like that weren't just for the Tigers. Mary Cole didn't win but she threw down an incredible finish that broke Rizz's two mile record by ten seconds. Emily Broyles was thrown a rare setback in the 300M in the face of a sophomore who ran the 5 th fastest time in Mass. History. Then Broyles took it out on her 4X4 competition by demolishing four teams that had significant leads going into the last leg (and she did it in 200M!) Unexpectedly Pat McGowan looked in control in the deuce but fell prey to a hungry wolf from Westborough. On the plus side Ryan Petrella came from behind to win his heat and place 3 rd in the 600M at 1:23.48 and Greg Bourisquot looked flawless in a 7.58 55MH.

And it also wasn't just the Hock that didn't follow the race plans. Feehan's Bobby McShane was top seed in the 1000M but failed to place and top-seeded teammate state leader Jen Thomas ran a PR and only placed 4 th at 2:56.88. That's how tough the competition is. There were a few more upsets such as Andover's Moira Cronin who entered the meet looking for a 6' jump and ended up falling to Seekonk's Janelle Clarkson's PR 5'7”.

Of course some favorites made it through such as Chris McConnell and Molly O'Dea. But that's it for tonight. Minday night I'll post my complete wrap-up of the Elite Meet and Wednesday I'll go back to what happened at the State Coaches Invitational. For now, I have to rest after a hectic day keeping up with upsets. Time to watch Lady GaGa do a duet with Elton John.