OA Track Bests Foxborough

Even with multiple postseason qualifiers and season bests, the Oliver Ames Tigers were too much for the Foxborough Warriors. Competing at the second Hockomock League meet of the regular season which sees all 10 teams compete at the same time in dual meets, the Warrior girls and boys both fell to the Tigers by the identical score of 71-24

In the 55-meter dash and 300-meter run, Foxborough’s Kiivone Howard continued to improve and dominate the field. The junior ran a pair of season’s best and two wins with a 7.01 in the 55m dash and a 36.47 in the 300m run.

Drew Beck of Oliver Ames once again found the success that he’s had since cross-country in the mile. Beck ran his way to an easy victory with a time of 4:35.60. The time was also the second best overall time of the day. Beck has now qualified for the Division 2 Championship in both the mile and two mile.

The 1,000-meter run was one of the closer races of the day after Andrew Kerester edged out Brendan Sullivan by .25 seconds. The senior captain for Foxborough ran a 2:44.80 but it was not fast enough to beat Kerester’s 2:44.65. Both times were good enough to qualify for the Divisional Championships in February.

Not to be outdone, the girls 1,000 meter run also displayed some dramatics between Emily Newman of Oliver Ames and Michaela Carino of Foxboro. The battle of two of the league’s best runners in the event proved to be as exciting as its male counterpart as Newman escaped with a 1.60 second win with a time of 3:16.00 to Carino’s 3:17.60.

Nicole Taylor of Oliver Ames punched her ticket to the Division 2 Championship Meet with a qualifying time of 9.61 in the 55m hurdles.

Liz Holmes won the girls’ mile for Foxborough with a time of 5:25.68. The time is an improvement of five seconds from last week’s meet. Not far behind was Shannon Hickey of OA who ran the mile for the first time this year with a time of 5:32.85.

In the girls two mile Foxborough’s Kristina Ketchum continued to improve with a win and a personal best of 11:57.28. Ketchum was the only girl of all 10 teams to break the 12-minute barrier.

After two meets the Warriors boys are 0-2 and the girls are 1-1. The Oliver Ames boys and girls are both 2-0.

The Warriors and Tigers will enjoy a little extra time before the third meet of the season. The Hockomock League will have meet number three on Dec. 28 at 9 a.m. at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. The Warriors will be racing against the Canton Bulldogs while the Tigers will face the Stoughton Black Knights.