The BFA-St. Albans Indoor Track and Field team attended the Vermont State Championship on Saturday, Jan. 27. Not only is this the State meet but the qualifying meet for New England Indoor Track and Field Championships held on March 2 in Boston. Relay teams and individuals who place in the top six overall (combined D1 and D2) qualify.
4 x 800 Relay – New School Record and New England Qualifier: The first race for the team was the men’s 4 x 800. Sophomore Jacoby Soter was the first leg of the relay. Jacoby executed a technical leg patiently waiting to overcome the first place position with over a lap to go. The hand off was to sophomore Ethan Barbieri who was able to stay in contact with first place until the last lap. Sophomore Toby Hurteau was leg three. He ran a brilliant leg closing the gap to the first place team. Senior Porter Hurteau was the final leg but ran out of real estate to finish second with a time of 9:01.05 which is both a new school record and another PR for the team. The men’s 4 x 800 relay team qualified for New Englands.
1500 Meter: Porter Hurteau and Jacoby Soter were back on the track for their second races of the day. The race was filled with many different strategies from the athletes from trying to control the pace with a slower race for a kicker’s finish to athletes trying to breakaway from that pack. Porter and a couple of athletes broke away from the pack with Jacoby staying in contact. In the end, Porter finished fourth with a SR of 4:17.9 and Jacoby sixth with a PR of 4:25.51.
BFA-St. Albans. 4×200 states men’s team.
4 x200 Relay: Freshman Brandon Payne, freshman Camdem Lareau, sophomore Ethan Barbieri, and senior Sam LaCroix had been focusing on their hand-offs the two weeks leading to the meet. The hand-offs were executed so well that XC and Spring Track and Field Coach Mike Mashtare even commented how flawless they were! The team finished ninth with a time of 1:55.18. PR.
Porter Hurteau (2) and Jacoby Soter race in the men’s 1500m at the Vermont Indoor Track and Field State Championship on Saturday, Jan. 27.
1000 Meter: Back on the track for his third event of the day was Porter Hurteau and the second event for Toby Hurteau. Porter stayed poised and pushed his pace staying in contact with the first place runner finishing second with a time of 2:39.32 SR. Toby executed a brilliant race pushing him to a seventh with a time of 2:48.39 PR.
Both Coach Grudev and Coach Desrosiers are happy with the results. The goal was to qualify for the next meet and to peak for those upcoming events. All the athletes executed their race plans. We now have a solid month where we will have a three week building block and then taper back refining form and discussing strategy at the next level. This month is the hardest since there is such a large gap between meets, but we’ll keep the athletes focused and not lose the momentum gained from states.