Scham regains form at Coaches Invitational
It’s been a long, frustrating road for Groton-Dunstable’s Moriah Scham in her battle to get her superb form and technique back in the 100-meter hurdles. Based on her dominant victory in 15.13 seconds at Saturday’s MSTCA Coaches Invitational, the personable senior is just about all the way back.
Injuries and COVID-19 kept Scham away from the hurdles since her freshman year and she has been working on every aspect of her specialty since. Scham had a strong preliminary race on the way to running a nearperfect performance in the final for a lopsided win.
For Scham, who will attend Bates College, the upcoming big meets on the calendar are her main focus.
“It (finals) definitely felt better than the trials,” said Scham. “This is the first day where the weather has been really nice. It was very discouraging working my way back during the indoor season.”
Hatim Boukhtam was working on just a few hours of sleep after driving home from New York and arriving home just after 1 a.m. following a big, personal-best win in 1:53.41 in the prestigious Loucks Games. The North Quincy speedster hopped in the mile and ran to a personal best of 4:23.19 in just his second attempt at the distance.
Boukhtam was content to sit off the shoulder of Brighton’s Delmace Mayo before stealing the race in the final 100 meters.
“I barely got any sleep and I thought I’d run the mile,” said Boukhtam. “I’m very happy with it. We went out kind of slow and I felt like I’d have no kick, but then I found a second gear.”
Burlington’s Rithikh Prakash destroyed his personal best in the 2-mile, storming away from Ryan Sarney of Oliver Ames and shaving 28 seconds off his PR for the win in 9:22.46.
Wellesley’s Megan Webb was back after a threemonth injury and looked sharp over the 400 hurdles. Webb soundly defeated a strong field to win by more than two seconds in 65.41.
“It’s been a long time,” she said. “I was happy just to finish.”
Jonas Clarke of South Hadley laid waste to another quality 100 field as his 10.66 was the fastest in Massachusetts this season. Lexington’s Jayden Bai took the 200 at 22.73 and Austin Prep’s Tristan Miller went 49.83 for the 400 win.
Brennan Ibbitson of Holliston won the discus with a 156-1 toss and Jacob Reinach of Natick got off a heave of 51-11-1/2 to take the shot put. Logan Miller of Apponequet dominated the javelin with his 175-4 effort.
On the girls’ side, Waltham’s Maya Drouillard captured the triple jump with her 36-4-3/4 and Milford’s
Kiyanni Simas leaped 18-7 to take the long jump. Mari McBride of Lexington bolted to a 58.45 win in
the 400 and teammate Ava Criniti ran the fastest time in the state this season with her 11:04.46 in the 2-mile.