The Student News Site of Westborough High School

The Lobby Observer

The Student News Site of Westborough High School

The Lobby Observer

The Student News Site of Westborough High School

The Lobby Observer

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Girls’ Track Relay Team Qualifies for Nationals

by Abby McGinn and Marisa Papagelis

On April 30, 2016, WHS Seniors Katie Bretta, Melissa Sullivan, Cecelia Hogan, and Alana Molberg qualified for New Balance Nationals in the 800 meter sprint medley relay. New Balance Nationals is an outdoor qualifying meet that is going to take place on June 17-19 in Greensboro, North Carolina. The 800 meter sprint relay consists of two 100 meter legs, which will be run by Bretta and Moberg, a 200 meter leg run by Sullivan, and a 400 meter leg run by Hogan.

The sprint medley relay isn’t run at the majority of meets, so the only chance the girls had to qualify was during the relay meet at Nashoba, which they achieved with the qualifying time of one minute and 59 seconds. The four athletes have all been a part of the track team since freshman year; however, this was the first season that they attempted to qualify for Nationals in the sprint medley.

Recently, Molberg also won the state qualifiers pole vault in a jump off and placed 6th at All States on June 2 in that same event. Hogan was a part of the 4×800 meter relay, which won state qualifiers, and went on to place 16th at All States on June 4. Sullivan placed 2nd in the 100 meter hurdles at state qualifiers and qualified for All States.  She chose not to participate in All States because it conflicted with graduation.

“Before the relay meet, we were thinking the Nationals qualifying time was in reach but we didn’t want to get our hopes up too much,” Sullivan remembers. Looking into the future, she says that “[the team] isn’t expecting to place at nationals. We just wanted to go because it’s such an amazing experience and we’ll get to see all the insane track athletes who are going to compete at huge Division 1 schools. It’s going to be such a fun trip with such amazing and inspiring ladies.”

Individually, Bretta specializes in the 100 meter sprint, the 200 meter, the long jump, and the triple jump. Bretta’s favorite event, however, is the 4×100 meter relay because it gives her the opportunity to compete with some of her teammates in an event that more than one person can contribute to.

Bretta says she will definitely miss her team next year, saying: “I love the support of track. These group of girls have made high school amazing, and get me excited to go run at the end of a school day. Track is 100% what I will miss most about high school, just because I won’t get to see my teammates every day.” She plans on continuing track at UConn next year on their club team.

Bretta adds, “The four of us are just looking to enjoy it and watch some really spectacular athletes. This is our last time ever competing together, so we want to have fun with it.” When asked how she feels about qualifying for Nationals during her last year of high school, Bretta replies, “It’s amazing! The fact that we are all seniors and get to go together, we couldn’t have asked for a better way to end our Ranger career.”

 

 

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    Jackie LatimerJun 10, 2016 at 1:59 pm

    This article was very well written and really captured how excited the girls are to go to nationals. This was an interesting topic to choose, but it was nice to hear about because most of the school was unaware of this incredible achievement.

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