Pittsfield's McCandless Wins Sectional Javelin Title

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Pittsfield High senior Meredith McCandless Thursday won the Central/Western Massachusetts Division 1 javelin championship with a throw of 103 feet, 8 inches.

 

McCandless beat the field by 4 feet at Westfield State University as the track and field post-season got underway.

 

McCandless' teammate, Dakota Grosz, placed seventh, picking up two team points, with a throw of 94-4.

 

Several events, including the pentathlons for boys and girls, were contested on Thursday, in Westfield (Division 1) and Lunenburg (Division 2). Both sectional meets are scheduled to conclude on Saturday.

 

In Lunenburg, Mount Greylock senior Elizabeth Dupras placed second in the pentathlon at the D2 championships.

 

Dupras compiled a score of 2,528 points, just behind winner Emma Sanford of South Hadley, who finished with 2,748 points.

 

Dupras placed first in the five-event's 100 meter hurdles competition, crossing the line in 17.11 seconds, seven one-hundredths ahead of Sanford.

 

Dupras placed second in the high jump, clearing 1.51 meters, second in the long jump (4.64 meters), third in the shot put (7.06 meters) and second in the 800 meters (2:45.69).

 

Wahconah's Aryianna Garceau placed fourth wth 1,988 points. Her best showing came in the long jump, where she placed third in a seven-athlete field with a mark of 4.44 meters.

 

Also on Thursday at Lunenburg High School, the D2 sectional 800 meter run title was decided.

 

Mount Greylock's Jacqueline Wells placed third, improving on her seed time by just less than a second with a time of 2:21.36. The title went to Bromfield's Hannah Beckman (2:19.02).

 

Wahconah's Haley Crosier placed seventh in a time of 2:30.56.

 

In the 3200 meters, Lenox's Grace Elliot placed fourth in 11:56.68. Mount Greylock's Grace Malone was fifth in 12:03.91, and her teammate Kate Swann was eighth in 12:30.23.

 

Lenox's Aidan Burns placed eighth to score in the mile (5:42.60).

 

Thursday's one relay saw Lenox's girls place fifth; the quartet of Elliot, Genevieve Collins, Burns and Ellen Huth finished in 10:32.12. Mount Greylock's relay squad of Elena Caplinger, Malone, Emma Paul and Swann was seventh (10:56.79).

 

In Thursday's D2 girls javelin competition, the top county finisher was Monument Mountain's Lily Fredsall, who placed sixth with a throw of 89 feet, 11 inches. Lenox's Kate Villinski placed eighth (85-3).

 

Heading into Saturday's competition, Littleton's girls are in first place in the team competition with 34 points; Mount Greylock's girls are fifth with 21.

 

Lenox's Ted Yee placed fourth (4:10.91), and his teammate Harry Touloukian was eighth (4:44.19) on Thursday at Lunenburg High.

 

The Millionaires' Dennis Love (10:18.38) was fourth in the 3200, where his teammate Colin Young (10:46.67) was eighth. Hoosac Valley's Justin Levesque scored in the two-mile with a seventh-place time of 10:35.13.

 

Lenox's Andre Collins placed fifth in the javelin with a mark of 141-3.

 

Mount Greylock's Quinn McDermott placed seventh in the 800 meters (2:03.74).

 

Lenox's boys are fifth in the team standings heading into Saturday with 16 points. Quabbin leads the D2 boys field with 41 points.

 

Pittsfield's 4-by-800 relay team of David Babineau, Quintin Coughlin-Walton, Pete Breitmaier and Anthony Telladira placed sixth at the championships with a time of 8:48.05.

 

Telladira also earned two team points on his own with a seventh-place finish in the 800, clocking a time of 2:05.71.