Westfield’s Ally Morin is shown during the cross country season. Morin is continuing to dominate the Western Massachusetts high school scene, with a record-setting run Friday night in an indoor track event at Smith College in Northampton. (File photo by Fred Gore)
NORTHAMPTON – The Westfield High School girls’ indoor track team picked up a pair of wins late Friday night at Smith College defeating Holyoke and Chicopee by exactly the same score of 66-29 with a varied mix of first, second, and third place finishes in each.
Westfield improved its record to 3-0.
For both meets, Lady Bomber Ally Morin started the night off in spectacular fashion with her record-breaking run in the 2 mile. If a Pioneer Division girls’ indoor track record held by a Westfield High alum was going to fall, who better than a current Westfield High runner to break it.
Morin ran an impressive 11:11.15 race while cruising to first place and edging former Bomber Carolyn Stocker, who now competes as an NCAA Division 1 athlete at the University of Maine-Oreno. Stocker held the previous mark set of 11:11.24 set in 2010.
Westfield’s Sarah Verrochi’s 14:57.35 earned her third place points in both match-ups.
Freshman Morgan Sanders hurdled to her fastest time of the season (9.69 seconds) in the 55 meter high hurdles and two first place dual meet finishes. Teammate Emily Andrews ran a 10.13, picking up both second places.
In the 55 meter dash, Jessie Pratt’s PVIAC championship meet qualifying time of 7.86 seconds was fast enough for first against Holyoke, but Chicopee’s Jordan Bates edged her out with a 7.82 to force Pratt to settle for Westfield’s second place finish. Fellow Bomber sprinter Mary Boudreau took second place against Holyoke (8.18).
In the mile, Mackenzie Millikan (6:14.57) and freshman Amaya Diana (6:35.15) teamed up for a 1-3 finish versus Chicopee and a 2-3 finish versus Holyoke. Neither runner had ever ran the mile race in competition, but each showed incredible promise. Lady Bomber Emilia Lund had a fantastic race in the 600 meter as she clocked a PVIAC championship meet qualifying time of 1:52.79 (nearly 7 seconds faster than her time last week) which earned her a second place finish versus Holyoke and her first first-place finish of the season versus Chicopee.
In fact, Westfield swept Chicopee with all four of their runners competing, outracing the Lady Pacers. Lady Bomber Kayla Roskey (1:57.56) picked up the second, while Kelsey Kiltonic (2:02.49) got third. Roskey earned third place points versus Holyoke.
The 300 meters race was a turning point in the meet with the Westfield trio of senior captain Alex Lehman (46.28), sophomore Kiany Roman (46.43), and Sanders (47.85) sweeping both Holyoke and Chicopee. Lehman and Roman’s 1-2 finishes also brought them PVIAC Championship meet qualifying times.
Morin continued her winning ways in the 1000 meters, taking first for both meets with a time of 3:16.44 (another PVIAC championship meet qualifying time for the night). Teammate Rachel Conklin (3:50.23) picked up a pair of thirds for the team.
In the final running event of the night, Westfield’s 4X400 relay team of Jessie Pratt, Lindsay Stefano, Abby McCarthy, and Alex Lehman missed the Division 1 championship state qualifying time by 2 hundredths of a second (the standard is 4.34.84; the team ran 4:34.86). The race earned them the first place finish over Chicopee, but Holyoke took the relay points in that match-up by narrowly beating Westfield over the finish line with a 4:34.29.
It was also a great night for the Bombers in the field events.
Senior Captain Jaymie White high jumped to a season best 4-10 to take first in both meets, while fellow senior captain Bridget Hartnett (4-6) took second versus Holyoke and third versus Chicopee. Emily Andrews (4-4) completed the high jump sweep against Holyoke.
In the long jump, sophomore Karly Diltz and Lehman jumped to identical distances of 14-01 to go 2-3 in both meets while each earned PVIAC championship meet qualifying standards. The duo of senior captain Lauren Kidrick and junior Vickie Whalen picked up points in the shot put. Kidrick’s 25-0.05 throw was a first place finish versus Holyoke and a second place versus Chicopee. Whalen’s 22-10.75 throw added a second place finish versus Holyoke and a third place finish versus Chicopee.
The Lady Bombers will continue to train over the holiday season and look forward to continued success as they start off the new year on January 11, 2013 with an early session meet against West Springfield at Smith College. – Linda Rowbotham contributed to this report
LATE RESULTS
HOCKEY
St. Mary 4, Easthampton 4
Ashton Bourbonnais, Jake Neilsen, Zachary Slepchuk, and Andrew Booth each scored a goal in St. Mary’s tie. Nate Tremblay had three assists, and Slepchuk, Charlie White, and Neilsen each had one.
Zach Brown finished with 25 saves for the Saints (0-1-1).
