OA Track and Field Athletes Put in Winning Performances Against Foxborough

The Oliver Ames track and field teams traveled to Foxborough Thursday afternoon and both came home with victories.

Foxborough's Liz Holmes, who usually races the mile and two-mile got some speed work in as she took part in the 800 meter run. The freshman runner took the lead from the start and never looked back winning the race with a time of 2:21.4.

“We were hoping for a decent time like that,” Foxborough girls’ coach Myles Eldridge said. “She’s running by herself which is kinda tough, but hopefully when we get to these big meet upcoming we’ll see those times go down.”

Foxborough's Brooke Martyniak took victories in both the long jump (16-7 1/2) and the triple jump (35-5 1/2) with both jumps just short of her season's bests. OA’s Candace Steadman was second in both events with a jump of 16-2 in the long jump and a mark of 35-2 in the triple jump.

Andrea Marcotte continued to dominate the sprints with a pair of wins in the 100 (12.7) and the 200 (13.3). Both winning times were personal bests for Marcotte. Also getting two wins for the Warriors in the sprints was Katherine Tamulionis who was victorious in the 400 hurdles (70.3) and the 400 sprint (62.6).

In the mile, Foxborough’s Michaela Carnino (5:26.1) beat OA’s Shannon Hickey (5:28.8) after Carnino pulled away on the final lap after keeping it a close race for the first three.

“She (Carnino) said she wanted to try it and I’m glad she had that kick because I think we’re going to focus on her running the 800 and for her to have a kick like that is really important,” Eldrich said.

Kristina Ketchum’s two-mile time of 12:01.8 was good enough for a win and a season’s best. Hickey was once again second with a time of 12:10.9.

Laura Daley took victories in both the shot put (35-3) and the discus (87-6) for the Tigers. Michaela Lievi completed the OA sweep of the throwing events with a win in the javelin (112-4).

With the need to compete emphasized, the Tigers took 11 wins in the boys’ meet and swept five events in their win over the Warriors.

“We had a great day in just about every event. We told the guys yesterday that it was going to be a tough meet, that they needed to perform well and we had PRs in almost every event,” OA boys head coach Jake Sunderland said.

Kiivone Howard was one of the few bright spots for the Warriors’ boys. The junior took home wins in both the 400 (51.7) and 200 (23.6) sprints. Jason Vogel ended the day with a pair of wins in the 100 hurdles (16.0) and high jump (5-8).

Taking advantage of the absences of Foxborough distance runner Brendan Sullivan, the Tigers swept the mile, 800, and two-mile. Drew Beck and Sean Gorham finished the mile with identical times of 4:33.9 with Gorham crossing the finish line just before a surging Beck. Gorham would get another win later in the 800 (2:00.5) with Connor Donovan coming in second. Beck would come back in the two-mile (10:05.2) and cruise to a win.

Denzel Bennet, like his counterpart in the girls’ long and triple jumps, took wins in both events for the Tigers with marks of 18-3 in the long jump and 41-4 in the triple jump.

Brendan Lally won the javelin for the Warriors with a throw of 123-8.

The OA boys improve to 2-1-1 and the girls are now 3-1. The Foxboro boys are now 0-4 while the girls are 2-2.

The Tigers will wrap up the dual meet season against rival Sharon on May 8 at OA while Foxborough’s final dual meet will be at Canton on the 8.