Heating up on the track
WEST BRIDGEWATER — Katelyn Gorgenyi burst from the blocks and gave the 55-meter hurdle competition plenty to think about heading into the spring season at Saturday’s MSTCA First Annual & Hopefully Last Indoor Outdoor Track Challenge at West Bridgewater.
The North Reading senior led from the gun and pulled away over every hurdle to shred the field in a personal best of 8.35 seconds. The UMass-bound Gorgenyi came back shortly after to take third in the 55 dash in 7.59.
“I did a lot of starts before to make sure I felt prepared,” said Gorgenyi. “The starts felt good. I’m trying to focus on my form and getting low on the hurdles and getting quick steps in between. I really haven’t done a straight dash forever so it felt good.”
Newton North’s Max Klein had a monster day in the shot put circle, pounding out a heave of 60 feet, 8 inches to win the event easily. Klein spent the indoor meets at Wheaton College chasing the elusive mark and finally broke through for one of the best performances in the country.
In the 55, Landon Crowley defended his home field turf nicely with a solid win in 6.95. Crowley will be moving up to the 400 when he attends Merrimack College and is looking forward to the challenge of a new event. “I’ve been doing a lot of endurance work for the 400,” he said. “The speed and form have been OK. I just need to work on my final drive.”
Kyler McNatt of Needham notched a personal best in the 2-mile as he pulled away from a competitive field to shave his time by more than 20 seconds with a 9:35.48 win. The race was a tight one with Cole Riley coming in a strong second in 9:41.60 and Henry Gartner surging across the finish for third with a 9:42.03.
“I felt pretty good so I decided to take it on the third lap,” said McNatt. “I was injured the whole track season last year and my coach has focused on speed so my legs felt good.”
Alex Sherman had a dominant performance as he shattered his personal best and captured the 300 by nearly two seconds in 33.69. The strong, front-runner liked the feel of the event. “Training has been going great and I have some great teammates pushing me,” said Sherman. “It’s definitely different from running indoors. Indoors feels like you’re going faster and you have a lot of turns.”
The girls’ mile was hardfought. Amelia Everett, Julie Hohenberg, Nicole Dunbury and Isabella Pietrasiewicz shook loose from the pack and dueled early on. Everett, a Newton South sophomore, switched gears with 600 to go to edge out the win in a personal best of 5:03.07 with Hohenberg was right on her tail in 5:07.67.
“I stayed behind the leaders today and just do the pacing by feel,” Everett said of her eight-second personal record. “With 600 left I was trying just to hang on. I felt stronger than I thought I was. I have no idea how fast I can run. I’ll just have to see.”
Brookline freshman Lucia Werner coasted to the top spot in the 2-mile in 11:55.98. Callie Dedecko was a distant second in 12:32.82.
“It felt great,” Werner said.
“I was around six minutes at the mile and I knew I’d have to go to get a personal best.”
Framingham’s Sophie Albright never left the high jump to question as she cleared 5-6 for the win and narrowly missed on her 5-8 attempts. The former AllState champion is confident she’ll be jumping her best this spring.
“It felt really good,” said Albright. “I came in with no height expectations. I just wanted to have fun and get back into it. Jumping 5-6 is definitely the cherry on top.”
Cambridge sophomore Kylee Anne Bernard got a great jump out of the blocks and surged across the finish line to take the 300 in 40.68.