Randolph's Jayda Adora Bleus had nearly given up on her goal. Then she ran the race of her life at the Division 6 meet.
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Bleus exploded out of the blocks and surged ahead at the first turn, holding off a hard-charging pack down the stretch to break the meet record by three-tenths of a second.
Adora Bleus's performance were the lone points for the Blue Devils, as Lunenburg (33 points) led the the girls' standings and Mt. Greylock (22) was in second after Day 1.
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'I'm just shocked,' Adora Bleus said. 'I heard the announcer say that everybody was chasing me, and that just pushed me to run just a little faster even when I felt like I was going to die . . . seeing the time, it just felt so great.'
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The Cohasset boys' team entered chasing the program's first state title, and senior star Nathan Askjaer knew he'd have to push himself to the limit to make it a possibility.
Askjaer opened the afternoon with a dominant win in the pentathlon, surging to 3,073 points and setting meet records in both the long jump (22 feet, 09.75 inches) and shot put (48-01.25). Then, just minutes after wrapping up the grueling event, he headed to the pole vault station, where he finished second after clearing 12 feet.
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Askjaer's multi-faceted efforts led the Skippers (42 points) to an early lead in the boys' standings, with Ayer Shirley (31 points) in second place.
'In terms of going for records in the pentathlon, the Meet of Champions [next week] is the big one,' said Askjaer, who will compete at the Naval Academy. 'But today was all about scoring points and doing anything I could for the team. And we know we're right [in the mix] to win it all.'
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A number of meet records fell. In the field events, Mahar senior Mitchell Krasco broke the boys' shot put mark with a winning throw of 46-5.25, and Hamilton-Wenham senior Georgia Wilson improved upon her own meet record in the girls' triple jump (37-00).
The boys' and girls' 800s also featured new marks, with Ayer Shirley senior Cole New in the boys' event (1:55.38) and Milbury's Mila Nikiforow claiming the girls' race (2:18.18). In addition, Frontier senior Ben Cachiguango set a new mark during his boys' 400-meter hurdles triumph (55.73).
The meet resumes Sunday afternoon at Tufts.
Matty Wasserman can be reached at
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a day ago
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