Newton South girls track coach Steven McChesney pretty much knew what he could expect out of Bridget Dahlberg and Candace Bailey at the Division 1 Championships Saturday at Lowell's Cawley Stadium.
Not a bad luxury to have.
After winning the All-State indoor title in the mile and dash, respectively, they were the favorites to bring home Div. 1 gold Saturday and both did their job in spectacular fashion under the searing midday sun.
But while he was pleased with his two stars, McChesney may have been even more impressed with the points that his Lions piled up from sources that might not have been as easily predicted.
Loading up with places from several different areas of the track, and all different graduating classes, the Lions brought home a trophy on Saturday with 57 points and a second-place team finish behind Dual County League rival Lincoln-Sudbury.
``I figured if we had a good meet we would score 47 points and we scored (57) today,'' said a hoarse and visibly satisfied McChesney as the final relays rounded the track. ``We had kids seeded seventh and eighth who were scoring thirds and fourths. That's a sign that your team really wants it.''
Late in the meet, McChesney was still predicting a third-place finish, so it was an even bigger lift when his squad was announced as the meet runner-up and then compelled to pose for several pictures on the turf infield.
``I am really thrilled,'' the coach said. ``This is a really good team day across the board that involved every class. We had freshmen scoring. We had sophomores, juniors, seniors scoring.
``You hope for days like this,'' he continued. ``When you put things on paper, look at the entries and things like that, you just hope that your team is going to have as much self-pride and go about their job the way they did today.
``It seemed like every moment someone was coming up to me telling me how they did,'' he concluded. ``It was a whole bunch of `Wow!' moments.''
The biggest moments came from the indoor champions as Bailey held off Haverhill's Samantha Stabile in the 100 meters in 12.48 seconds to Stabile's 12.53. It was a well-deserved reward for Bailey, who had to run back and forth between the heats of the dash and the long jump where she was fifth at 15 feet, 8 inches.
Dahlberg's mile was quite a feat as she spent most of the second half of the race swinging her head around to gauge her expanding lead. Though she coasted home with the first in 5:07.55, much of her satisfaction with the effort might have come from seeing freshman upstart Maddie Reed in her shadow in third in 5:12.43.
``The mile, obviously, going one-three was fabulous,'' said McChesney. ``I am so pleased with Maddie as a freshman (who was seeded fifth). Bridget went out and ran a great race that was designed to help Maddie. She controlled the first half of the race and then took off.''
The Lion girls picked up points in eight events with eight girls contributing to a pair of scoring relays. The 4x100 team of Pebbles Banks, Kate Sandson, Azeezah Gray and Bailey set a school record in finishing third in 49.84.
The 4x800 team of Diana Braver, Ann Norris, Alana O'Brien and Dahlberg closed for a strong second in 9:42.5 that was only three seconds off the previous meet record despite being 13 seconds behind Newton North's new meet standard of 9:29.65.
Braver was also fourth in the 800 in 2:21.5, Nalis Mbianda was fifth in the javelin at 104-10, Elisabeth Jeyaraj was fourth in the shot put at 32-2 and Cora Visnick was third in the pole vault at 8-6 as a freshman.
``The thing I look at with this team is the chemistry they have and how focused these kids have gotten so fast,'' McChesney said. ``You look at the seniors we have and they have now trophied every year for four years at the class meets, which is pretty special. But out of 57 points, we are only graduating four of them, so that is exciting too.
``To be able to come together so quickly this season and knowing that so much of the team is returning is fabulous,'' he concluded.
The South boys had a strong day as well as they also scored points in eight events. The team's depth was evidenced in that, while the Lions finished higher than third in only one event, it was still enough to score 35 points and finish sixth as a team.
``All around we had a great day,'' said South boys coach Matt Capstick. ``Guys were at their seeds or just beating their seeds. There were a couple of places where I wasn't sure if we were going to get points, even though I thought the potential was there. Then we went out and snagged a few of them. It was awesome.''
Freshman Ross McDonald earned the lone first for the Lion boys as he towered over the pole vault field with a winning effort of 12 feet. Teammate Roy Ribitsky followed in third at 11-0 as the Lions scored 16 of its points in one event.
Brad Pruente also had a big day for South as he placed in two events with a fourth in the high jump and a sixth in the high hurdles. His 6-4 high jump broke the school record, while he clocked 15.67 for the hurdles point.
Senyo Agawu was third in the 200 in 22.66, James Huth was fourth in the 100 meters in 11.35, Gerald Arneaud was fifth in the 400 in 50.21 and Boye Akinwande was sixth in the triple jump at 41-8.5.
The Lions also had a late lift in the meet as the 4x400 relay team of Arneaud, Agawu, Huth and Justin Albert won the second heat of the 4x400 relay and bumped one of the teams in the seeded heat for sixth in 3:30.82.
