New bests
under the lights

A different kind of race night

By the time Mansfield’s varsity runners took the course, the sky over Wrentham was black. Floodlights picked out patches of grass, strings of lights traced the route, and spectators stood close to the tape. Green singlets appeared out of the darkness and passed into the next pool of light.

The October 3 Bay State Invitational gave Mansfield a different stage from the season’s weekday dual meets. Five of its six varsity boys left with 5K personal bests. The girls had their own breakthroughs: Leanna Levesque and Kate Brandolo set personal bests, while Evey Snyder and Neila Igo ran their fastest 5Ks of the season.

Four girls, four bests

Levesque finished eighth in Girls Varsity B in 19:04.3, taking more than 40 seconds off her previous recorded best of 19:45.0. Only a sophomore, she gave Mansfield a top-ten finish in the evening’s varsity field.

Earlier, in the combined Girls JV A&B race, Snyder placed 13th in 22:53.0. It was a season best, just 3.4 seconds from her personal best. Brandolo followed in 38th at 24:34.7, improving her recorded best by 45.1 seconds. Igo was 53rd in 25:14.3, another season best. Four Mansfield girls, with a best of one kind or the other beside every result.

Five of six

Nikita Cherapukha led Mansfield home in 15th place at 16:04.6. His previous recorded 5K best, 16:17.6, had come at last fall’s Hockomock League Meet. Under the Wrentham lights, he lowered it by 13 seconds.

Walter Stock was next in 33rd at 16:34.4. Bobby Stock finished 55th in 17:01.7, and freshman Barrett Reynolds followed in 58th at 17:05.8. Each improved on a personal best set just four days earlier against King Philip.

Jacob Hyre made it five personal bests, finishing 85th in 17:49.6 and completing Mansfield’s scoring group. Everett Foster completed Mansfield’s six-runner varsity lineup.

Another view of race night

Tom OBrien’s meet coverage for HockomockSports follows the evening from daylight into the floodlit races, with views of the starts, the course and the finish straight.

Seventh, by a single point

Mansfield finished seventh among 19 scoring teams in Boys Varsity B. Its 217 points put the team one point ahead of Weston’s 218. The official scoring places were 14, 30, 48, 51, and 74, after runners outside the team scoring were removed from the count.

Elsewhere in the meet, Benjamin Penesis placed 54th in Boys JV B in 20:06.0. Jonathan Adejumo finished 57th in the 3,000-meter novice race in 14:23.8. Their races added two more Mansfield finishes to an evening that stretched from the early races into the dark.

Back at the tent

Beyond the finish, the Mansfield tent was still a gathering place. Runners stood together beneath the green canopy, with the lit course behind them. The meet had produced a seventh-place team finish, a top-ten girls varsity finish, and new marks to carry into the rest of October.