Nashoba Regional Track athletes were ready to run, jump, and throw to the best of their abilities at their league meet on May 18th. The league meet is undoubtedly the most important competition of the year, and was once again held at our own facilities. We were hoping for a win to make up for last years extremely close loss to Groton Dunstable, and our couches and athletes were ready for the challenge.

The sprinting coach, Ben Langelo, came from a college final, yet still managed to be energetic, confident and encouraging to his runners. The outcome of the meet looked “good on paper” according to Langelo, but we all know what counts is the races on the track not the numbers. The practices in the week before the 18th were more technical, focusing on form rather than pushing the limits. He preached rest and hydration in the days prior to the meet, and the team came out fresh in their events.

Erin McNemar felt “confident” and that she had a “good chance of scoring high” in high jump, pun intended. She wore her lucky giraffe hat as usual, and warmed up by doing back overs, bridges and stretching. This warm-up clearly worked for McNemar, who managed to jump 5 feet. She did indeed come out a star on Wednesday, scoring 8 points for the team by coming in second place for high jump.

Kristina Maclure, the track goddess, warmed up with her usual routine of a jog around the track, dynamic stretching and static stretching. She ended with three first place medals, in the long jump, 100 meter dash and 200 meter dash, which was no surprise. Steph Palis earned a second place ribbon in the 4 X 100 relay, along with McNemar, Ashlyn Maclure and Anna Traverse. Every athlete put in their best effort on this beautiful spring day, and it made all the difference.

Nerves were peaking towards the end of the meet when Nashoba only had a small lead over other teams. Luckily Nashoba won the 100, 200, javelin, discus and long-jump, as well as coming in second in the 4 X 100, hurdles and highjump. This sealed the fate of the team, and won them the title of League Champs. While they were not given a police escort, they did receive ice cream from their coaches to celebrate a job well done. There were many amazing performances and even those who did not participate were in high spirits. Well done Nashoba Track on another league title!