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By Josh Perry
Hometown Weekly Staff
Last Wednesday at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletics Center in Boston, the Needham track program showed its strength in depth by winning both the boys’ and girls’ Div. 2 state indoor titles, in both cases edging Bay State Conference rival Wellesley.
The girls won their third state title in program history and first since their back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999. The Rockets finished with a team total of 60, just ahead of Wellesley’s 54.33. The highlight of the meet was seniors Margie Cullen and Sarah Armstrong setting new meet records while winning the mile and two-mile (Cullen) and the 1,000-meter (Armstrong).
“Margie and Sarah have been extraordinarily competitive athletes throughout their careers,” said girls’ track coach Chris Van Cott. “To have two athletes from one team rewrite the record books in all three distance events at the divisional championships is pretty unusual.”
“Based on how they are running, I thought there was a very good chance. Still to actually accomplish the goal, shows they’re very fit and ready for an historic post season.”
The boys’ team finished with a total of 73, besting second place Wellesley and Reading by 31 points, for its second title and first since 1971. The Rockets’ success was based on depth, as the only event winner on Wednesday was Will Ashenfelter in the 600-meter. Needham also got second place finishes from Davonte Burnett in the 55-meter, Trevor Schofield in the long jump and the 4x200 and 4x400 relays.
“During the finals of the long jump (before relays) is when I started feeling a little more comfortable with the lead we had,” said boys’ coach Joseph Karasch. “The win is so satisfying because we came so close for a couple of years, but were finally able to break through.”
While the teams have separate head coaches, Karasch explained that the coaching staffs work with both genders and split responsibilities between the type of event, such as distance or sprints. So, once the boys knew that they were going to be champions, the team immediately turned to see if the girls could make it a school double.
For Van Cott, it came down to the 4x400 relay. Needham took second behind Mansfield but Wellesley finished in fourth giving the Rockets an extra three points and enough separation to make the coach feel comfortable with the win.
“We knew going into the meet there was a chance we could come away with the double win,” said Van Cott. “We sat both teams down at practice on Tuesday to let the kids know about the possibility and it feels great to have achieved the goal.”
According to Karasch, the boys had set a divisional title as a goal when the season began back in December. Although the team did not claim the league title that it had hoped for, the Rockets rebounded and put together a total team performance to get the win.
To highlight the team nature of the win, Karasch highlighted Steven Flanagan and John Benner placing in the top five in the two-mile. The Needham runners broke up the pack from Wellesley and kept the scores close for the event, not allowing the Raiders to build up momentum.
When thinking back to the beginning of the season, Van Cott was not sure he had the pieces to put together a divisional title. He knew that with Cullen and Armstrong the distance events were Needham’s to lose, but it was not until the team added Dee Picou (who took third in the 55-meter and the long jump) and Rachel Kingston from the soccer team to shore up the sprints that he started thinking about the Div. 2 title.
He explained, “[We] had some excellent progression from our hurdlers throughout the season. The divisional win was just a matter of everything falling into place at the right time.”
Over the weekend, Needham had several athletes compete in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, also at the Reggie Lewis Center. The boys’ sprint medley team finished an impressive third and Cullen and Armstrong took third and fifth in the junior mile, both breaking the school’s indoor record in the process.
Next up for the teams will be the All-States meet and both coaches are hoping that Needham can make more noise on Saturday in Boston.
Van Cott said, “All-States will be the culmination of our season. We are hoping for another solid meet and if a few things go our way, we could come away with the title.”
Karasch added, “We haven’t been in the team running at All-States in my tenure, but if we have a great day, there is no reason to think that we can’t be right in the mix!”
Josh Perry is an Editor at Hometown Weekly. He can be reached at news@hometownweekly.net and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.
