Several tracksters post personal bests at league meet

By Mike Berger

It was a great day for Canton High’s indoor track teams at Saturday’s Hockomock League Meet, as the 1-3 girls’ team surprised everyone with a fourth-place finish, and the boys — who compiled a 2-1-1 dual meet record — placed fifth among 10 teams, missing fourth place by just two points.

Canton also had two champions: Vicky Tondre won the long jump at 16 feet, 2.5 inches, and Matt Sidney recaptured the league title he won a year ago in the high jump. Despite ongoing calf trouble, Sidney jumped six feet, six inches.

Girls’ coach Ben Mattson was very excited about his team’s performance. “Our goal that we spoke about all week was cracking the top five — definitely a good building block for the program,” he said. “Overall, it was an awesome, awesome day. I was very proud of them.”

Members of both teams will be advancing to the state Class C Championships Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

Besides her victory in the long jump, Tondre placed fifth in the 55-meter dash with a best time of 7.72 seconds.

Chidimma Nwankwo came in a very close second in the shot put at 34 feet, 8.25 inches, and Kate D’Orazio placed third in the 600 meters and qualified for the Class C Meet with a best time of 1:42.86. Radiya Buchanan came in fifth in the 300-meter race and qualified for Saturday’s meet with a best time of 44:04 seconds. Anna Amico placed sixth in the 55-meter dash at 7.76 seconds.

Mellyn Costello placed seventh in the 55-meter hurdles, and her time of 9.58 seconds in the finals and 9.42 seconds in the preliminaries qualified her for the Class C meet.

The 4×400 relay team of Costello, Mairead Bagley, Tondre and D’Orazio placed fourth in the meet at 4:23.66, good enough to qualify for the Class C meet.

Mattson noted that impressive performances were also turned in by Zoe Rosenberg (3:39.54) and Kate McClintock (3:50.36), who had personal bests in the 1,000-meter run. Michelle Anand had a personal best in the mile (6:52.72), as did Lukesha Joseph in the shot put (25 feet, five inches).

For the boys’ team, Jon Vaughn finished third in the 55-meter dash preliminaries with a 7.98-second time. Tom Kerikas qualified for the Class C Meet with a sixth-place finish (8.37 seconds) in the 55-meter dash.

Also qualifying was Jake Fruci in the 1,000-meter run, as he placed eighth overall with a time of 2:46.51. Chris Boughter qualified in the 300 with an 11^th place time of 38.67 seconds and cleared a personal best in the high jump with a seventh-place, six-foot jump.

Others who scored personal bests were: Derek Seto (7.23 seconds), Wes Mok (8.42 seconds), and Khrushal Punjabi (10.44 seconds) in the 55-meter dash; Evan Feldman (40.27 seconds) and Alex Lenkei (42.28) in the 300; and Cam Huber (1:25.89), Chris Haidul (1:35.17), and Paul D’Amico (1:55.42) in the 600.

Rob Bronstein recorded a personal best in the 1,000 (2:58.76), as did Saeed Vossoughi (5:05.35), Aaron Seto (5:28.67), and Kevin O’Donnell (5:08.23) in the mile; Mike Bronstein (10:43.41) and Teagan McClintock (11:41.69) in the two-mile, and James Grella (37’1.5”) in the shot put.

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