Nick Valianti, Schuyer Gooley go the distance at Northeast Invitational

So what is Nick Valianti looking forward to after a monster weekend of racing that produced a pair of personal bests? Getting back to training on the hills and trails of Marshfield.

The Rams senior opened his weekend Friday night with a personal best 4:24 mile leg at the Yale Track Classic. Valianti was right back at it Sunday in the 2-mile at the Northeast Invitational at the Reggie Lewis Center. He traded laps with Hopkinton’s Alex Brown for a little over a mile before forging ahead on his own and sprinting across the final line in another personal best of 9:30.56.

Valianti is confident the work he is putting in now will translate to a sub 4:20 and 9:20 in the mile and 2-mile, respectively.

“It was a great weekend,” Valianti said. “Now I want to get out there and do some training.”

Hopkinton’s Schuyler Gooley was hoping to tuck into the pack for the opening mile of the girls’ 2-mile, but that went out the window early when she was the only runner in the field willing to push the pace. Gooley zig-zagged around several runners in the closing laps and tore across the finish line in a personal best of 10:55.02.

Gooley still has plenty of time to clock a 10:47 and qualify for the nationals in her specialty. She’ll also be looking to better her 4:59 personal best in the scholastic mile at the prestigious New Balance Grand Prix on Jan. 25.

She wasn’t thrilled with taking the early pace, but knew she had no choice. “I was hoping to stay behind people the first mile,” she said. “I probably should have because my second mile was slower. My dad and coach were yelling splits. My goal was to push with four laps to go, but I didn’t really push until the last lap.”

Defending All-State 600 champion Mikayla Paige of Tewksbury dropped down to the 200, but the result was the same. Paige, who has the fastest 600 in the country this season, bolted to a 25.46 victory. “We wanted to try to do some speed workouts so why not do something different?” she said. “It’s a different race from the 600 where you run three laps.”

After taking second to Paige in the 200 (25.98), Abby Comella of Wellesley powered away from Shepherd Hill’s Madison Marsh down the final back straightaway of the 400 and sprinted home with an easy win in 57.66. Marsh also dipped under 60 seconds with her 59.58

“I knew that Maddie would be there to push me and she’s so talented,” said Comella. “Doing the double is always a challenge. The 200 definitely gets the legs moving and gets me ready for the 400.”

Derek Chalmers of Wellesley was out quick in the 200 and outdueled Acton-Boxboro’s Jacob Kao for the 22.26 win. Kao was a solid second in 22.60 and Tristen Howard of Medford clocked in at 22.90 for third. Stanley Hanci of Methuen sprinted to a 50.29 to take the 400 and Peter Diebold of Weston lived up to his No. 1 seed billing in the 800 with his 1:58.19 win.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2QNL8GC