Norwell’s MacDonald dives right into the track season
Norwell senior Liliana MacDonald has taken to her first season of indoor track as smooth as when she cut into the water as a diver for the Clippers’ swim team.
MacDonald finished fourth in the 1-meter diving competition at last winter’s All-State championships and went on to place a sterling second in the triple jump at New Englands in the spring.
Knowing she wanted to compete in track in college and needed the experience of an indoor campaign, MacDonald made the huge decision to forgo her final season of diving for track.
The move looks like a solid one so far for the talented MacDonald. At Saturday’s Small School Speed Classic, MacDonald tore away from the 55 hurdle field on the Reggie Lewis Center infield and edged Lucy Buchmayr of Newburyport for the win in a personal best of 9.16 seconds. Buchmayr also broke her personal best with second in 9.19.
“That was a lot better than my first meet,” said MacDonald. “I was low over the hurdles and ran aggressive.”
MacDonald said “it was a hard choice to make” making the transition from diving to indoor track, but she wants to compete in both indoor and outdoor track in college.
“I’ll always miss diving,” MacDonald said. “It’s something I really love.”
Jack Stahl of Bromfield took more than a second off his personal best on the way to dominating the 600 in a meet record of 1:23.90. Cole New of Ayer Shirley was also under the former mark with his 1:24.75.
Giuliana Ligor of North Reading ruled the 300 with a season best 40.94. That put her comfortably ahead of Ava VanBuskirk of Marlboro (41.15) and Carli Stanford of Lunenburg (41.63).
Two hours later she broke the meet in the long jump with a meet record of 17-7.
Ligor’s strength and sharpness are far ahead of last winter and it seems just a matter of time until she breaks her personal best of 40.66 and dips under 40. She’s hoping the added work will get her in the neighborhood of 1:34-1:35 in the 600.
She trained through Saturday’s meet and admitted she ran tired.
“I’m a little tired because of a lot of training this week,” Ligor said.
Fourth in Div. 5 last winter, sickness kept Stahl out of the Meet of Champions. He plans to be on the line this time around.
“I’ve been working hard and was really gunning for a PR in this race,” he said.
Julian Sacca of Burlington also had a record-breaking day by getting off a massive toss of 45 feet, 6 inches to win the weight throw. Stephen Pryor of Westfield leaped 20-11-1/2 to win the long jump. In the first time the event has been held at the Speed Classic, former ballroom dancer Sophia Axelrod was the winner with a throw of 45-7-1/4.
“I like the events that have finesse,” said Axelrod. “I’m a former dancer and the timing and balance is the same.”
Dartmouth senior Will Fairfax started his season by improving on his personal best in the 55 hurdles three times and made it number four on the infield. Fairfax, ninth in last winter’s Div. 3 meet, got off to a good start and lowered his best from 8.33 to 8.09. Tighe Hosman of Pentucket and East Bridgewater’s Brennan Shea were both clocked in 8.31, finishing in second and third, respectively.
Fairfax had just one hiccup in his race and didn’t realize it until after the race.
“The start felt fine,” he said. “Around the second hurdle I clipped my heel but managed to recover. I didn’t even know until I saw my coach’s video of the race.”