WESTON, Mass. ---- In the final regular season meet of the 2015 season, Massasoit's Kerry O'Neil (Stoughton) qualified for the NJCAA Nationals in record setting time on a day in which nine Warrior records were shattered at the Regis Pride Classic.
O'Neil improved her 5,000m season-best effort by over a minute, claiming second place in a school record time of 21:34.13. The Stoughton native's personal record surpassed the NJCAA National qualifying mark by over 10 seconds. The sophomore will compete at Nationals for the second consecutive year.
The second place finish for O'Neil marked the highest ever by a Massasoit women's track and field student-athlete.
"Kerry really crushed the 5k," head coach Matt Jordan said. "It was one of the last events of the day and she had teammates all around the track cheering her on. It is great to see her qualify to join the others heading to Nationals."
In addition to O'Neil's strong performance, freshman Alex MacMillan (Brockton) became eligible for the NJCAA Nationals in a third event. MacMillan, who had already qualified in both the 200m and javelin, sprung up a school record 1.83m (6-0) in the high jump to meet the national standard.
Another first for the Massasoit track program came in the 4x100m relay as the quartet of Nick Vaughn (Kingston), Mitchell Vaughn (Kingston), Jacob Hume (Brockton) and MacMillan took home first place in the event. The relay victory marked the first time in program lore that Massasoit earned first place in an event (individual or relay).
"It was a great way to end the season," Jordan said. "We had some of our best jumps and across the board everyone really competed. This team was a blast to coach and it was exciting to see how much they all improved throughout the season. Nationals will be a challenge for our qualifiers and they are all ready to train even harder over the next two weeks to be ready for their events."
For the women, Rosie Debrito (Brockton) notched two school records, finishing eighth overall in the long jump (3.72m) and 22nd in the 200m (31.47).
Also competing for the women was Emely Abellard (Brockton), racing in the 100m and 200m.
On the men's side, five other school records were topped to go along with a pair of second place overall finishes.
Nick Vaughn took second place in the 100m dash (11.37), while MacMillan earned runner up in the javelin (44.3m).
The five new school records for the Massasoit men's program included:
Rokas Piragis (Brockton) 400m – 51.68
Adam Conte (Halifax) 1,500m – 5:06.52
Nick Vaughn shot put – 9.66m
Adam Blanchette (Brockton) discus – 16.37m
4x400 relay – Conte, Blanchette, Jacob Hume (Brockton), Piragis – 4:11.37
