Sweet! Krafian Crowned State Champion Winning All-State Pentathlon

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Photo: Anoush Krafian.

Her first name means “sweet” in Armenian and in the state finals of the multi-event pentathlon held Thursday, June 1, Belmont High junior track star Anoush Krafian strung together a quintet of top-flight results that produced the sweetest of outcomes, a Massachusetts state championship.

At Bridgewater State University, the long-time standout track performer – she still co-holds the state middle school high jump record – beat her rivals and destroying the previous five-event top mark set last year by a whopping 215 points as she posted 3,243 points. Fellow Junior Natalie Marshall of Newton North (3,195 points) and Tewksbury High Senior Lauren Polimeno (3,184) finished second and third while the defending champion, Hopkinton junior Caitlyn Halloran, came in fourth.

Krafian’s total is the fifth-best mark set by a high school athlete in the US so far this outdoor season.

The 11th-grader was leading the competition after four events with the championship on the line with Krafian facing her most challenging event, the 800 meters. Tewksbury’s Polimeno and Halloran of Hopkinton (who defeated Krafian in the Division 3 championships last week) were expected to complete the race in about 2 minutes and 20 seconds, more than 18 seconds in front of the Belmont track star’s best time of 2:38.37 set last week, a gap that could have seen Krafian fall from first to third – or worse.

But Krafian came through spectacularly, setting a new personal record by eight seconds, 2:30.07, negating Polimeno (2:19.96) and Halloran (2:20.60) own best times over the distance. 

In addition to the 800, Krafian also achieved her best marks in the shot put (26 feet 5.5-inches), and high jumped over five feet (5-feet, 3.25 inches) while long jumping 16 feet, 5.75 inches.

Krafian started the day in her best event, the 100-meter hurdles, finishing first in 15.04 second, obliterating the old mark by nearly a full second while garnering 836 points, the highest individual event total by any athlete on Thursday.

Krafian will be seeking more state championships this weekend. On Saturday, she will return to Bridgewater to compete in the individual long jump and the 100 hurdles where she is a co-favorite with senior Madelyn Sessler of Plymouth South and Kristen Hohenstein of Chelmsford. 

Sports: Peterson (2nd), Macauley (3rd) Podium at All State Track Meet

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Photo: Meggie Macauley’s third place podium finish at the All State Track Meet.

 

A pair of seniors celebrated their final day as students at Belmont High School with podium performances at the All State Outdoor Track Meet held Saturday, June 4 at Westfield State University.

Luke Peterson used his consistency in jumping long at each big meet while his competitors fell off while benefiting from the fastest tailwind of the day to finish second in the Boys’ Long Jump. Peterson’s 21 foot, 8 1/2 inch leap beat the third place jump of North Andover’s Matthew Manteiga by a 1/4 inch. Newton South’s Anthony DeNitto won the meet with a 23′ 9 1/2″ jump. 

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The big surprise of the afternoon’s meet was Belmont’s Meggie Macauley. Seed 23rd for the event, Macauley raced in the first of three heats with the slowest qualifying times. Undeterred by her placement in the inaugural heat, Macauley blasted over the ten 30-inch tall hurdles in 1 minute, 5.28 seconds, breaking her school record by 1.2 seconds. And when the second heat finished, Macauley remained in the lead. In the third heat, only Cynthia Aroke of Peabody (who finished 2nd in the 100 hurdles earlier) in 1:02.68 and Shannon Meisberger of Lenox Memorial in 1:04.08 could best Macauley’s time.

“Meggie has excelled from the first opportunity she had to race the 400 hurdles. During her first race this season, she broke the previous school record by approximately two seconds,” said Melissa Glotzbecker, Belmont’s Girls’ Track Head Coach. 

“Today Meggie displayed a great deal of grit, determination, and focus on running the third-fastest time of the day. Today was her breakthrough race we knew she was capable of, a result of her hard work and ability to find another gear even when she is most tired,” said Glotzbecker.

High hopes were anticipated for the girls’ 4×400 relay which came into the meet ranked number one in the state. But relays are funny events as many teams will run with less skilled runners to make the finals then change the lineup with speedier runners. In the finals, Belmont’s quartet of Danielle Kelly, MacAulay, Sara Naumann and Julia Cella took 7th, running a second slower than its best time set last week at the Eastern Mass. Division 3. 

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“Coming into the meet as the number one seed was a lot of pressure on our athletes, but a challenge they were prepared,” said Glotzbecker.

“We are very proud of the girls for placing at the statewide level, especially for being the only team to break the four-minute barrier three times this season. Although I know they were hoping to improve on their performance from last week, they were still able to post their second-best performance of the season,” she said.

Other Belmont tracksters at the All State meet included senior Katrina Rokosz who came in 13th in the javelin with a throw of 108 feet and 6 inches; junior Naumann finishing 16th in the 800 meters in 2:19.81 and sophomore Calvin Perkins in 16th in 51.09 in the 400 meters. 

And for two Belmont representatives, the next stop will be the New Balance Outdoor Nationals on June 17-19: Rokosz qualified with an earlier PR of 121′ 1″ while the relay team will compete in the sprint medley relay and the 4×400.