Four Bromfield boys medaled at this year’s Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 5 State Championship held Monday at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center of Boston, their performances powering Bromfield to a 10th-place finish among the 49 small schools participating in the annual event.
Sophomore Ben McWaters led the way, finishing second in the 2-mile with a time of 9 minutes, 50.09 seconds, a new personal record. Junior Liam Kemeza (2:45.33) placed fifth in the 1000-meter, followed by junior Harrison Binnick (2:45.63) in sixth place, mere hundredths of a second behind Kemeza. The three runners teamed up with junior Christian Johannesen to place seventh in the 4X800-meter relay. To win a medal and a place on the podium, a runner or relay team must finish among the top five in their event.
A serious snowstorm on Sunday forced the MIAA to delay the boys and girls event by 24 hours, until Feb. 17, which deprived Bromfield of two of its top-seeded runners, Evelyn Wool and Rosie Bradley, who had left on family-planned vacations. Both have qualified for the MIAA All-State meet (aka Meet of Champions) Feb. 22 and will race in the 2-mile there. The boys were unaffected by the change.
Junior Christina Kekis, Bromfield’s only girl at the Division 5 event, finished 17th but set a personal record (13:04.57) in the 2-mile, getting very close to breaking the 13-minute barrier. “Christina has been a consistent performer all season and keeps getting stronger and more confident with each race that she runs,” Coach Marisa Steele wrote the Press.
The most notable performance of the day, said Steele, was that of McWaters in the 2-mile. The race was won by Parker Charter School’s Henry Jacobsen (9:34.17) who, Steele said, led the race from the start. “Ben separated himself from the chase pack at the 1-mile mark, running solo from that point on, but unfortunately, the distance between him and Jacobsen was too great to make up.“
“Ben’s second mile was 10 seconds faster than his first mile,” Steele wrote. ”Being capable of running a negative split (finishing the latter part of a race faster than the first part) is a tough thing to pull off, especially as a sophomore, and is an essential skill to have as he gets into more competitive races.”
McWaters’ time was a new personal record; he is now ranked no. 39 among 2-mile runners in Massachusetts. Jacobsen is ranked no. 16.
Steele also had a shoutout for freshman Kai Kemeza, whose 17th place finish in the 1-mile was a personal record. “Kemeza was the second highest freshman finisher in the boys 1-mile run,” she wrote. “Kai set a PR each time he raced the 1-mile this year, dropping his time by almost 10 seconds over the course of the season.”
As this story was being written, Wool and Bradley, Bromfield’s two entries in the All-State meet, Saturday, Feb. 22, were preparing for the 2-mile event at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston. Bradley is seeded no. 7 and Wool no. 9 in the event. Steele told the Press that to qualify for the All-State meet, a runner must have either won their race at their school’s divisional meet or clocked one of the top 24 times among all divisions at any indoor meet this year.
MIAA Division 5 indoor track and field championships, Feb. 15 and Feb. 17
Boys
- 1000-meter: Liam Kemeza, 2 minutes, 45.33 seconds, fifth; Harrison Binnick, 45.63, sixth
- 1-mile: Kai Kemeza, 4:54.20, 19th; Christian Johannesen, 5:16.65, 29th
- 2-mile: Ben McWaters, 9:50.09, second; Shea van Cleef, 11:09.03, 34th
- 4X800-meter relay: Harrison Binnick, Christian Johannesen, Liam Kemeza, and Ben McWaters, 8:51.79, seventh
Girls
- 2-mile: Christina Kekis, 13:04.57, 17th
