On Sunday, Jan. 27, Jordan Colon, Will Armstrong, and Will Squire of the Bromfield boys indoor track team competed at the MSTCA Coaches Invitational meet, which took place at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Head Coach Greg Bourque was contented with the boys’ performances, while Colon and Armstrong were dissatisfied.
Sophomore Colon qualified to run the 55-meter dash because of the hand time of 6.8 seconds that he had run at the Ayer-Shirley dual meet on Jan. 9. This was 0.4 seconds less than the qualifying time of 7.2 seconds. A hand time is one recorded with a hand-operated stopwatch. In the meet, he ran 6.93 and placed 16th out of 89 runners in the preliminaries.
Junior Will Armstrong qualified for the 55-meter hurdles with the 8.7 second hand time recorded at the Ayer-Shirley meet, exactly the time needed. Armstrong ran a time of 8.67 in the meet and placed 22nd in the preliminaries.
Junior Will Squire qualified for the 1-mile and the high jump, with a time of 4 minutes 44.50 seconds from the Dartmouth relays meet on Jan. 12 and a height of 6 feet from the Winter Festival meet on Dec. 16. He ran a time of 4:50.26 in the meet and placed among the top 25 in the mile.
Colon ran his second fastest time for the 55-meter in the meet while Armstrong achieved a personal record in the 55-meter hurdles. However, Squire was not feeling well and did not compete in the high jump. Even so, Bourque said, “The fact that he was able to still run a 4:50 in his mile was pretty impressive.” Bourque said he would’ve liked to see Colon make the finals in the 55-meter, Squire jump 6 feet in the high jump, and Armstrong qualify for states in the 55-meter hurdles. In the end, Bourque said, “I think they all did great.”
While Bourque was pleased with the results of the meet, Colon and Armstrong were not. Colon said, “I only tied my second best personal record. I was honestly aiming for much better.” Armstrong also did not do as well as he had hoped: “I know I could have done better for sure, I messed on my blocks, which cost me some time.”
Colon wants to beat his personal record by the end of the season and is trying to train more consistently, while Armstrong is working to qualify for states.
The boys head to their first league championship meet Friday, Feb. 1, at Fitchburg High School.
MSTCA Coaches Small School Invitational
Boys placements statistics
55-meter hurdles—22, Will Armstrong, 8.67 seconds
55-meter dash—16, Jordan Colon, 6.93 seconds
1-mile run—25, Will Squire, 4:50.26 minutes
Sophia Zhou is a Bromfield freshman.
