Westfield’s Brian Rawson goes airborne during the 400 meter hurdles competition at the D1 track and field championships Monday at Holyoke High School. (Photo by Marc St. Onge)
HOLYOKE – Brenden LaForest paced the Westfield High School track and field team Monday at the Western Massachusetts Division 1 championships at Holyoke High School’s Roberts Field.
LaForest won a gold medal in the boys’ 400 meter dash, finishing first in 50.55 seconds. He held off Northampton’s Cole Lavalle (second place, 51.23).
Moira McDonald nearly pulled off the same feat for the girls. McDonald placed second in the 400 meters with a time of 1:02.01.
Amherst’s Isabela Shepard won the race in 59.08.
Northampton finished first in the team competition with 122 points, followed by West Springfield (110 points) and Longmeadow (81). Westfield placed 10th overall (21).
In the girls’ team rankings, Longmeadow emerged the winner with 118 points. East Longmeadow (103.5) and Amherst (85.5) rounded out the top three. Westfield was 14th (10 points).
D2 UPDATE: On Friday, Southwick’s Jared O’Connor threw the shot put a distance of 43 feet, 6.5 inches to win the shot put competition at the Division 2 championships at Mohawk Regional High School.
