04/29/2016
NMH Track & Field displayed outstanding teamwork at the Hunt Relays hosted by Deerfield Academy. Every event was a relay and NMH came away with 7 Golds, 6 Silvers, and 5 Bronzes. And for the second meet in a row, a school record was broken!
The winds were in our favor for the jumps competition on Saturday. Starting us off with a first place finish was the boys long jump team, with a combined total of 59’9”. Tymir Simpson ‘16 had a best of 20’2.5”. Masa Iwasa ‘16 came in only a half inch behind with a PR of 20’2”. Rounding out the squad was Ezekiel Omosanya ‘16 with a jump of 19’4.5”. Not long after, our girls high jump team also secured a first place victory with a combined effort of 14’6”. Aria Small ‘17 led the squad with a 5’2”, followed by Megan Carroll ‘16 coming in at 5’0”, and Paula Lenart ‘16 with a 4’4” effort. Next on the runway was the girls long jump team, who took second place to a strong Exeter team that all achieved PR’s for the day. Earning a huge PR herself of almost one foot was Aria Small ‘17 with an 18’8.5” effort that set a new NMH school record! The second two jumpers had some trouble finding their marks with a strong wind at their backs, but were both able to get in legal jumps. Monifa Clarke ‘16 jumped 15’3” and Precious Ufomadu ‘16 jumped 12’5”. At the same time, the boys high jumpers took the mats with another first place finish and combined effort of 17’4”. Tito Anammah ‘16 and Josiah Nilsen ‘19 both jumped 5’10” and Cole Burbage ‘16 jumped 5’8”.
The Girls’ Distance Medley Relay team came in as defending champions. This year’s squad featured three new runners however, with Nevada Powers ‘17 running a strong opening 1200m leg. Handing off to Megan Carroll ‘16 for the 400m, NMH held strong in the middle of the pack. Mary Parse ‘19 took the baton for the 800m leg, and worked her way up to challenge her counterpart from Loomis Chaffee. With Eve Charest ‘17 on anchor for the 1600m leg, the NMH squad took home a solid 6th place finish.
The Boys’ Distance Medley Relay team came in having won the previous three years. Still, this year’s team featured three new runners for NMH, and there was increased competition with new schools at this year’s meet. Estevan Velez ‘16, NEPSTA’s 2015 cross-country champion led off with the 1200m leg. He handed off to Anthony Aquadro ‘16, with NMH in the lead by less than a second. Right behind Anthony for the 400m leg was his strong Andover counterpart who stayed on his hip for 300m before challenging him. With positions switched and Andover now in a lead by a second, it was Miguel Yuste’s ‘16 turn to take the baton for two laps around the track. Miguel ran an incredibly smart race, retaking the lead from Andover with 200m to go and widening the gap for his fastest 800m time yet. And in anchor was NEPSTA’s 2015 2nd place cross-country finisher, Ace McAlister ‘16 who led his 1600m leg wire to wire for the win, dropping a stunning 63 second final lap.
The Boys’ Junior DMR team featured four freshmen, three of whom have been running all year together. Clayton Garland ‘19 ran a strong 1200m leg with perfect splits, but handed off to Noah Burstein ‘19 about five seconds behind the two leaders. Noah’s sub-60 leg meant that NMH was still in the game when Owa Hughes ‘19 took the baton for the 800m leg. After the first lap, Owa had cut the lead in half and was right on the heels of the second place team. When he came around again however, Owa was handing off to Nolan Abeyta ‘19 with NMH in the lead. Nolan’s solid anchor run leading wire to wire gave NMH the exciting win!
The boys 4x100 was a wild race, with two top squads disqualified for exchange zone violations. The experienced squad of Masa Iwasa ‘16, Tymir Simpson ‘16, Zeke Omosanya ‘16, and Tito Anammah ‘16 were disciplined in their exchanges, didn’t let the big meet pressure get to them, and posted a season-best 44.4 for the Silver.
The shuttle hurdles is a relay carnival staple and is one of the most fun events to watch on the track. At the Hunt Relays, the first hurdle event was the boys 210 meter high hurdles. Cole Burbage ‘16 took off for his 70 meter leg, struggling with the first hurdle in the weird distance but nailing the last four. Eghe Ezekiel ‘16 took off from the finish line just as Cole arrived, and sprinted back toward the start for his 5 hurdles in the next lane over. That set up Tito Anammah ‘16 who hammered back to the finish line in Cole’s lane to secure the Bronze for NMH.
The girls 4x400 knocked over 16 seconds off their season-best to tie for the Bronze. Exeter came up from the second heat and tied NMH’s time, but we’re confident that in head to head competition it would have been all NMH, probably even edging out Loomis (only 0.1 seconds faster) who also ran in the second heat. Eve Pomazi ‘17 was powerful on the opening leg, coming in just steps behind returning champion Deerfield. Freshman phenom Mary Parse ‘19 blasted out her fastest leg of the season to match Eve’s time and settle NMH in just behind DA. Paula Lenart ‘19 had never run a 400 before the third leg of the relay but she rose to the occasion, matching splits with her teammates. On the anchor, Megan Carroll ‘16 ran a perfectly split front-to-back leg in sub-63 seconds, eating into DA’s lead but unable to make up all the ground.
The boys 4x400 was also a new/young team who all ran PR splits to take home the Silver. Joseph Ufomadu ‘18 opened solidly putting NMH in a mix of five teams at the first exchange. Josiah Nilsen ‘19 held position giving Jaime Nicholas ‘17 a chance to knock two seconds off his best effort. Not to be outdone, anchor Milo Douglas ‘17 ran an all time best 53 second closing leg for NMH. Young team, bright future!
The next two races were more shuttle hurdles, this time at the 30” height with 51.5 meter legs for the girls and 120 yards for the boys. Don’t even get us started on the mixing of metric and Imperial units or the disparity between boys’ and girls’ distances! Pedantry aside, both teams struggled with the odd distances and heights with the boys coming in 4th and the girls 5th.
The girls 4X800m relay was an exciting affair, with the NMH runners giving consistent and disciplined times. For three of our runners, it was their first 800m race of the season. Natalia Tu ‘17 started for NMH, and handed off to Eve Charest ‘17. It was Eve Pomazi ‘17 up next, who ran the fastest leg on the day. On anchor was Nevada Powers ‘17, coming off of her strong performance in the DMR. While NMH finished 4th on the day, they showed the ability to compete with the team in front of them as well!
The boys 4X800m relay brought back the same winning team from the DMR. In a different order (Anthony, Miguel, Ace and Estevan), it was a closer affair all the way until Estevan closed the door with a sub-2:00 leg.
The Junior 4x200 races are reserved for athletes who have not turned 16 by race day. NMH’s fabulous young quartet of Alice Villano ‘19, Anna Kennedy ‘19, Mary Parse ‘19, and Helen Gordon ‘19 ran their way into the Bronze just 3 seconds back from the winner and 5 seconds faster than their next closest competitors. Alice hammered the opening leg, putting NMH in the mix with the top two teams. Just off a multi-week knee injury, Anna Kennedy had a solid debut race to keep NMH in the hunt. Mary pushed NMH away from the main pack and pulled in the leaders a bit. Helen just didn’t have enough real estate to run down the top two teams, but pulled away from the rest!
The junior boys were just 0.2 seconds out of the Bronze with William Shaw ‘19, Henry Wu ‘19, Nishan Parikh ‘18, and Joseph Ufomadu ‘18 all turning in strong efforts at the end of the long day.
Masa Iwasa ‘16 ran his fastest 200 ever to open up the boys 4x200. Out in lane 7, the stagger seemed impossible with the handoff to Minka Soumah ‘19 midway through the far turn. But the boys kept the race in perspective and didn’t let the bad lane assignment hold them back. Midway through the third leg, Tymir Simpson ‘16 pulled NMH into a fight for the podium. Zeke Omosanya ‘16 took over and was a monster through the final turn and down the straight. He overtook and pulled away from every other team until Exeter’s anchor turned in a ridiculous split to relegate NMH to Silver. It was a fantastic effort and really well run race.
For the pole vaulting segment of the meet, teams of three vaulted for combined height, the team with the highest total taking home the crown. The pit was certainly crowded, as vaulters from a total of nine different squads all hoped to earn places on the podium - with long wait times between vaults, the day’s competition was as much mental as physical. That said, the NMH pole vaulting crew put in a great day at Deerfield’s pit, earning a first place relay finish for the girls’ squad of Heidi Leeds ‘18, Alice Villano ‘19 and Mimi Lipson ‘18 and a second place finish for the boys’ team composed of Will Desautels ‘16, Ronald Yung ‘16, and Seamus Garland ‘18. The girls faced competition from Willison, Deerfield and Loomis, and Heidi, Alice and Mimi vaulted for an impressive combined total of 20’ 6’’, a full three feet higher than the second place team. Heidi, too, earned her first pole vaulting victory with a clean jump at 8’0’’. On the boys’ side, Ronald again tied his PR of 10’6’’, and he was mere centimeters away from clearing 11’0’’. By the end of the meet, Will Desautels was our last vaulter standing against two Loomis Chaffee veterans, needing to clear his last jump to stay in the competition. In front of NMH’s full track and field team, Will screamed down the runway, clearing 11’6’’ and tying his PR with grit. After an exhausting day of jumps, Will was close to clearing 12’0’’, but it was not enough to take out the competition from Loomis. NMH’s final combined height for the boys clocked in at 31’0’’.
On a beautiful, sunny Saturday, the throwers had some outstanding performances and secured several ribbons for the NMH track team. The boys’ shot put team barely missed third place, with Zayd Alireza ‘16, Matt Stanwood ‘16, James Chou ‘17 and Mahan Chanrai ‘17 combining for a total of 103’2.5”. Especially Mahan had a great day, throwing PRs in all three tries. The girls’ discus team that threw at the same time also came in fourth, with Jada Scotland ‘19 (PR 85’8”), Jamp Vongkusolkit ‘16 (PR 60’10”), Ozi Ikejiani ‘18 and Alexis Portnoy ‘17 all throwing very well against a strong competition.
Then it was time to switch events and the girls - Jada, Ozi, and Alexis - came in second in the shot put, only beaten by an outstanding Loomis team that broke the meet record. They combined for a total of 80’6”, underscoring the great potential in the girls shot put team. While most of the boys’ team struggled to throw the discus as far as in practice, Tyriq Bostic ‘17 had a very good day, throwing a 76’10” PR. Tyriq and his teammates Matt Stanwood, Zayd Alireza and James Chou came in fifth against very good competition.
With the javelin running as one of the last events of the day and many teammates watching and cheering on our throwers, both boys and girls did a great job and secured two more third place finishes for NMH. The boys edged out fourth-place Loomis by 6 inches, thanks in large part to PRs by Matt Stanwood (122’8”) and Jamie Nicholas ‘17 (who improved his previous PR by 12’ to 105’10.”) Zayd Alireza ‘16 (110’) and Chris Dye ‘18 (PR 84’5”) rounded up the strong team effort. On the girls’ side, Jada Scotland (66’7”), Alix Ha (PR 59’11”), Alexis Portnoy (48’9”) and Helen Gordon ‘19 (48’7”) all put up a great effort to secure the last ribbon of the day.
Complete Results Here
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