By her personal admission, Grace Hanafin prefers to be alone earlier than a race so she will calmly visualize her race. As the defending Div. 3 champion within the 55-meter sprint, she was visualizing one other win.
Hanafin didn’t make it shut Sunday on the Reggie Lewis Center infield. The Burlington senior headed to UMass-Amherst subsequent 12 months simply gained her warmth greater than a tenth of a second quicker than the sphere. Her stride was simply as fluid within the finals the place she bolted to a 7.33 to take gold as soon as once more.
“I don’t like being with a bunch of people (before a race),” Hanafin mentioned. “I really wanted to end my senior year getting first. The whole week I was nervous, but once I got here I was fine.”
Hanafin’s day was simply starting. She was the No. 1 seed within the lengthy bounce, which she considers her greatest occasion, and soared to a private greatest and lone meet file of the day, 19-1 1/2. Hanafin then got here again to take second to Stoughton’s Shayla Ford within the 300 in 40.75. Ford was clocked in 40.03.
“I tried a faster approach (in the long jump) and tried to wait as long as I could to hit the sand,” mentioned Hanafin, who will compete in all three occasions at Saturday’s Meet of Champions. “I was hoping for first in the long jump. I knew the 300 would be tough because I ran twice and jumped six times before it.”
A monster day by Nathan Shultz paced North Attleboro to the staff title with 54.5 factors. Shultz was dominant in his occasions with wins within the 55 (6.51), lengthy bounce (22-5) and excessive bounce (6-6). Mark Etienvre additionally took gold within the shot put with a heave of 50-10.
Rithikh Prakash of Burlington threw in a tough surge with 300 to cross Billerica’s Ryan Leslie within the mile and roared away from the pack for the win in 4:18.93. Prakash’s time was a brand new private greatest and the primary time he has run beneath 4:20. Leslie completed robust in 4:20.23 for second.
“The plan was to sit and kick, but I could feel the pace slow,” he mentioned. “The pace was going to dictate how I ran.”
Prakash regarded surprisingly contemporary on the tail finish of a mile/2-mile double. He hung behind Oliver Ames’ Ryan Sarney by a 4:38 opening mile and that’s the place he stayed earlier than a wild dash to the end line with 200 to go. Prakash broke the tape for his second win of the day and one other private better of 9:16.89. Sarney was additionally beneath 9:20 with a 9:17.77.
Like Prakash, Billerica’s Anna McElhinney, who might be teammates with Hanafin subsequent 12 months at UMass-Amherst, ran the mile/2-mile double for the primary time ever and got here away with a pair of gold medals. McElhinney gained the mile in 5:10.10 and the two in 11:36.74. She’s planning on working the 2-mile at All-States.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of competition so I want to hold on and get a PR,” McElhinney mentioned.
McElhinney led the best way for Billerica to the staff title with 81 factors. Emily Burdick had an enormous win within the 600 (1:38.71) and Deirdre Bailat took second within the 2-mile (11:37.13), as did Lily Bower within the lengthy bounce (27-0). Nyrah Joseph picked up a 3rd within the excessive bounce with a 5-2. Billerica additionally took second in each the 4×400 (4:14.28) and and 4×800 (10:04.44).
Source: www.bostonherald.com