BOSTON – The St. Mary’s track and field teams participated in the Massachusetts State Track Coaches’ Association Northeast Invitational, a three-day jamboree that featured thousands of athletes from across New England.
On Friday, there were a pair of all-star performances that were just a second off from New Balance Nationals. The first was from eighth grader Kelsey Kwiatek, who participated in the mile, running a season-best 5:53.33. Her closing lap saw her pass several runners as she closed in brilliant fashion. The New Balance Nationals time cutoff for her age group is 5:52.
On the boys side, the sprint medley relay team of Ernie Panias, Dylan Moroney, Brett O’Brien, and Kyle Kwiatek ran a 3:48.05, good for 11th at the meet, but just one second away from the Nationals standard of 3:47.
Saturday saw the first sprinting events of the weekend, and St. Mary’s was represented well in the 55-meter hurdles by Kaelyn Jennings (10.57), Grace Zimmerman (personal best 11.12), and Allie Palmer (11.44). Hakeem Akande broke 40 in the 300-meters for the first time with his personal best performance of 39.55, with teammate Jimmy Jennings also running a personal best 40.20 in the same event.
The field events on Saturday went well for the Spartans. Tina Amin jumped a personal best 13’11.5” while Lory Suriel threw the shot put 33’3”, good for 10th out of the field of 174 athletes. On the boys side, O’Brien took fourth in the high jump with a jump of 5’10”.
The 4×200 meter relay teams of Panias, Moroney, Jaiden Madden, and Justin Jennings on the boys side (1:39.08) and Anna Fringuelli, Amin, Kaelyn Jennings, and Zimmerman (2:01.45) each ran season-best times.
A highlight of the day was senior captain Jesse Moriello, who hit a personal record of 1:34.51. Moriello was in fifth in his heat going into the last lap before overtaking all of the other runners to win the heat.
Sunday, the last day of a long weekend of events, saw a return to the sprinting events, with over 400 boys and 200 girls entered in the 55-meter dash. Panias (6.96) and Jimmy Jennings (7.16) took 41st and 101st out of the field, respectively. Amin (8.36) and Michalela Walker (8.53) were the Spartans’ top performers in the 55-meter on the girls side. Amin (29.38) and Walker (29.80) also joined Fringuelli (29.69) and Allie Palmer (30.86) in the 200.
Trio Graham Richman (29’7.5”), Andreas Roumeliotis (24’2”), and Cooper Snow (20’9”) represented well in the shot put circle, while Moroney (19’1”), Peyton Mahn (18’4”), and Derek Hernandez (15’5.25”) all had strong performances in the long jump.
The Spartans return to action on Tuesday against Bishop Fenwick at 4:30 p.m.
