On Wednesday, April 29, the boys and girls outdoor track teams faced off against the Braintree Wamps, Wellesley Raiders and Weymouth Wildcats at a quad meet held at Wellesley’s Hunnewell track and field. Boys outdoor dominated the competition across the 16 varsity and seven junior varsity events, beating Braintree 78-58, Wellesley 94-42 and Weymouth 105-31.
The Warriors opened with first-place finishes from senior Dylan Hatchett (1:00.66) and senior captain Theodore Butty (4:20) in the 400-meter hurdles and the one-mile. Both edged out the other runners by less than two seconds.
Maintaining this momentum, the Warriors scored points in the sprints. Three Warriors placed top five in the 100-meter dash, with senior and captain Elijah Sweeney winning in 11.40 seconds, and all Warriors placed top eight in the 110-meter hurdles, with senior David Liang placing second.
When the 800-meter runners toed the line, junior Ibrahim Abdel-Dayem said that his previous experiences of running the 800 in exactly two minutes thrice motivated him to run an aggressive race to break that barrier, despite being a primarily long-distance runner. Abdel-Dayem led the race wire-to-wire, finishing in first place (1:59) and a personal record. He said this was just one of his many goals for the outdoor season and that his 4×800 relay team is looking to set a new school record.
“The Weymouth guy behind me, Andrew, he was really pushing me. Every point was going to make a difference, so I didn’t want to lose the five points to him,” Abdel-Dayem said. “I was leading the whole time, but he was definitely on my shoulder; I could feel him about to pass me. I’m just glad I was able to pull it off the last 300, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”
The field events also experienced success, with three Warriors placing top five in the high jump, two placing top 10 in the long jump and two placing top five in the triple jump. Senior Milo Speck’s shotput throw of 42 feet, a personal best, won second place, and senior Hunter Robin’s 126-foot discus throw also took second place. Meanwhile, in the longest race on the track, the two-mile, sophomore Toby Paradise was the top Warrior, placing 5th. Paradise said he had a huge breakthrough, running 48 seconds faster than his indoor two-mile.
“I decided to go out with the people I was seeded with because they had more experience, but I realized that I felt pretty good, so I ended up pushing ahead. I did really high mileage this summer, and I feel like it’s sort of paying off, having a high aerobic base,” Paradise said.
The Warriors ratcheted up even more points in the 200-meter, 400-meter and relay races. In the 400, both senior and captain Harry Flint (49.46) and senior Santi Sierra (52.30) ran PRs, finishing first and second. Soon after, Flint placed second in the 200, while Sweeney won in a time of 22.65 seconds. Then, in a very tight 4×100-meter relay race, the Warriors came out first in a PR time of 44.41 seconds. Senior Zubin Kahousi said it came down to their anchor leg, freshman Curtis Jones III, and that the entire team was proud of him.
“My favorite part about this meet was just blowing out the competition,” Kahousi said. “Our goal is for the 4×100 to run sub-44 and place at our divisional meet. I’m also really excited for senior night, to run one final time at Downes.”
Abdel-Dayem also competed in the 4×400-meter relay, the final event of the night, where he and his team ran a combined time of 3:34 for another win. According to him, track practices over spring break each year set the expectation and tone of striving continuously towards becoming the best athletes and teammates they can be.
“This sport is all about patience. It’s very rare to get the results you want right away. Improvement comes from doing your absolute best every single day and trusting the process,” Abdel-Dayem said. “I think today was definitely more than the training itself, because mentally a lot of people today are stepping up, knowing that they have to be the ones scoring the points. I’m so proud of them and what we did.”
