As the winter sports seasons progress, competition becomes more stiff and the determined athletes themselves apart from the rest of the crowd. Preparation becomes even more important, as one small mistake can cost the best athlete an career opportunity.
Heading into Divisionals on February 13, Walpole Girls Track and Field knew they had to elevate their level of competition.
Led by personal bests from senior Captains Allie Morris and Claire Rinne and juniors Alyssa Murphy and Tori Lynch, the Rebels scored 22 points and finished eighth out of twenty-four teams.
Rinne started the night off with her personal best in the 55-meter hurdles preliminaries (9.25) and then went on to run the exact same time in the finals for the race, finishing sixth overall.
“Warmups before meets became key, enabling me to treat the prelims like finals,” said Rinne. “This allowed me to place where I was seeded and set a new [personal record].”
Both Murphy and Lynch also made the podium, with Murphy placing sixth overall in the 1000-meter run in 3:05.00 and Lynch coming in eighth in the 600-meter dash in 1:41.22. Murphy and Lynch also ran legs of two relays that placed, as Lynch helped the 4×400 team to a seventh place finish and Murphy anchored the 4×800 team to a fourth place finish.
After leading for most of the second half of the two mile, Morris, the highest scorer of the night, was outkicked in the final straightaway by Bishop Feehan’s Abigail Long, finishing in 11:07.23, good enough for second overall. This mark not only qualified her for the All-State meet on February 21, but also qualified her for the New Balance Indoor National meet at the Armory in New York on March 13.
“I needed to go into the race with confidence that I could hang with the top girls in the state but also knowing that I needed to start conservatively and hopefully grab a top four finish,” said Morris about her race.
Both Morris and the 4×800 “Baton Squad” of sophomores Emily Martin and Stephanie Forester, freshman Sarah Tierney, and Murphy placed high enough to compete at All-States, with Murphy also earning a wild-card spot in the 1000-meter run.
“I am really proud of the team for their performances at Divisionals,” said Head Coach Conor Cashman after the meet. “We have never had that many athletes on the podium at one meet. Now, we need to keep the momentum rolling and look at All-States on Saturday as an opportunity to continue improving and maybe breaking some school records.”
Photos by Delaney Murphy and Rebecca Boyajian
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