Billerica’s Joseph blazes to hurdles title
It took the lowest of the lows for Billerica junior Nyrah Joseph to find the results she was looking for.
Two weeks after a false start in the preliminary heats of the Northeast Invitational, Joseph regrouped Sunday at the MSTCA Coaches Invitational for Small Schools. She produced her best two runs of the season and won the 55-meter hurdles in 8.57 seconds at the Reggie Lewis Center.
“The last invitationals I went to, I false started, and I did bawl my eyes out,” she said. “I was just making sure that didn’t happen today and I would get a really good seeding. I feel like everything that happened that day I false started helped me be better today.”
With the fastest seed time of 8.59, she matched that in the preliminary round and shaved a couple hundredths of a second off in the final for the victory. Middleborough’s Isabel Wheeler was second (8.60).
“I hope I stay under 8.5. I’m hoping for 8.4 or lower, but we’ll see,” Joseph said of her aspirations moving forward.
By adding a sixth in the high jump and running a leg of the 4x400 relay that placed fourth, she earned overall athlete of the meet.
Norton senior Jillian Strynar had a strong showing by winning the 55 dash in 7.23, after qualifying in 7.15, came back to place third in the 300 (41.17; a personal best), and anchored the third-place 4x200 relay.
Dennis-Yarmouth junior Breanna Braham came from the penultimate heat to win the 300 in 41.00, 1.40 seconds better than her previous best. It meant the fantastic finish between Marlborough senior Ava VanBuskirk and Strynar, in which VanBuskirk held off Strynar’s closing kick by one hundredth of a second, was for second place.
Ila Zollo of Walpole set her personal best in the 2-mile by 10.10 seconds, taking home the top spot in 11:16.77, and ran a leg of the winning 4x800 relay that finished in 10:04.98.
Ludlow senior Elena Chaplin earned outstanding female field athlete of the meet by winning the shot put in 39 feet, 10½ inches, more than 4½ feet better than the rest of the field.
In the boys’ 1,000 meters, Tyler Medeiros of Dartmouth (2:32.52) caught Old Rochester’s Tyler Young (2:32.60), who led nearly start-tofinish, with feet to go before the finish line.
Joe Cook of Southeastern earned the outstanding runner of the meet by winning the 55 hurdles in 7.68 seconds, setting a school record.
“I was nervous. I knew who I was going up against, but I just stayed confident and pushed as hard as I could,” said Cook, who edged Owen Viera of Greater New Bedford by three hundredths of a second in the final after qualifying second in 7.81, three hundredths behind Viera.
Stoughton’s Alex Huynh earned the outstanding field athlete of the meet with second place finishes in both the high jump (6-4) and long jump (22-0).
The top runner of the meet for the boys was Worcester Tech’s Michael Gyimah, who was second in both the 55 dash (6.54) and 300 (35.42), and also ran a leg of the second-place 4x200 (1:32.44).