(Photos by Raphael Bieber)
In the final at-bat of his legendary career, Red Sox slugger Ted Williams crushed his last pitch at Fenway Park into the bullpen for a home run. It was the perfect ending for one of the all-time greats in baseball.
For Maddy Berkson, what played out at Brown Stadium this past weekend drew similar results.
The Classical High senior put the appropriate close to her outstanding career at the R.I. Track & Field Outdoor Championships this past Saturday by anchoring a victorious and record-setting 4x400-meter relay squad, the final event of the afternoon.
That performance concluded a busy and very productive day for Berkson and her teammates, who defended their state crown with dominating 130-68 victory over second-place La Salle Academy. Smithfield was third with 55 points.
In addition to her 57-second leg on the relay team, Berkson collected 22 points individually by winning the 1,500m and the 800m and also finishing fifth in the 3,000m. Teammates Alva Hicks and Alicia Holloway also made frequent visits to the podium. Hicks took the discus and the shot put and placed third in the hammer, while Holloway was the best over the hurdles with triumphs in the 100m and 300m events.
Add first-place efforts from May Stern in the 400m (57.42) and Elizabeth Akindole in the triple jump (36 feet, 3 inches) as well as multiple top placements from Bianca Donadio (second, pole vault; fourth, discus; fourth, hammer), and the final tabulation comes as no surprise.
“It feels great,” said Berkson, just before Classical received its coveted hardware. “The whole team really stepped it up today, a lot of people did beyond what we thought they’d do. Everything just came together for the entire team.”
With the level of talent on his squad, Classical head coach Bob Palazzo knew his team had potential to do something special at the states.
“Mr. (Ryan) Cafferty, the point-totaler, checked the sheets and knows all of that stuff,” said Palazzo, about one of his assistant coaches. “I made a point of not asking him, just asking if we are in good position. He said all we got to do is get them there, get them to the finish line as far as training goes. That’s what we did. La Salle is an incredible program and team. But I don’t care whatever the point totals are, you still got to get them here and you still got to perform. The thing that you have to look at is our girls really performed across the board. Nobody faltered. They did mega stuff.”
The Stanford-bound Berkson, owner of seven state records and a plethora of R.I. titles, broke her own mark in the 1,500m, overcoming a gutsy effort from La Salle sophomore Eliza Rego to win with a time of 4 minutes, 26.88, a clocking that ranks No. 4 nationwide. Rego had a more than seven-second personal best of 4:29.96, the No. 2 time among all tenth-graders from coast to coast.
The top six finishers in the race cracked 4:44. Barrington senior Megan Verner-Crist was third at 4:32.71 and freshman Katarina Ho placed fourth in 4:37.00.
“I still can’t believe how great that field was. The top six times were incredible,” Berkson said. “Katarina Ho, 4:37. Eliza, 4:29. Megan, (4:32). That was an incredible field so it’s a great race to be in.”
In the 800m, Berkson was timed in 2:12.32. Middletown senior Shannon Hugard was second at 2:13.55. The Classical star, who led from gun-to-wire, ran even splits and passed the opening 400m in 65 seconds. Less than an hour later, she finished her 3K in 10:27.32.
Berkson stated she’s going to miss her high school years competing in R.I.
“It has really been great for me,” she said. “I love running in Rhode Island. It’s a very nurturing running community – great athletes, great officials, great coaches. I have just had a fantastic time and a lot of success thanks to a brilliant running community.”
During Berkson’s tenure, Classical won three state crowns. The Purple tied La Salle for the indoor title in 2013.
“What a run? A class act,” said Palazzo, about his distance star. “She has taken the program to new heights. There are so many things we have never done before that we have done…We are going to miss her sincerely.”
Hicks, the state record-holder in the discus, wasn’t able to eclipse her mark of 147-2, but she was able to defend her title with a meet mark of 143-7. She also edged top seed, Tori Ebert of Exeter/West Greenwich, in the shot put with a distance of 41-6. Ebert took runner-up honors at 40-9.25. Hicks also tossed the hammer 169-04 to place second to Narragansett senior Leia Mistowski, who won at 170-04.
Holloway lived up to her No. 1 seed in the 300m intermediate hurdles with a time of 44.93. Earlier in the meet, the Classical standout nipped defending titlist’s Maria Bolibruch in the 100m hurdles with a time of 15.06, just .01 ahead of Bolibruch. She was also on the 4x400m and third-place 4x100m (49.60) relays.
“Poor Alicia has taken a backseat to everybody,” Palazzo said. “If she was on any other team she would be in the newspaper every day. These girls that surround her are as talented as she is and she has probably gotten the least attention. Shame on us because she has scored heavily in so many events. We are going to miss her. It will be tough to replace her.”
Hope, a fourth-place finisher in the meet with 52 points, had another superlative day from sprinter Quashira McIntosh. The Blue Wave junior captured the 100m and 200m for the third straight year. She blazed to a time of 11.96 in the short sprint, defeating Woonsocket freshmen Quinn Harlan, who posted an impressive time of 12.36. McIntosh broke the tape in the 200m with a fast 24.73 clocking. She also lent her foot speed on the first-place 4x100m (48.52) and second-place 4x400m (3:58.90) relays.
“We kind of knew she was capable of defending her titles,” said Hope coach Thom Spann. “By far, she was the best sprinter in the state. It was just a matter of her executing the plan and staying healthy. That was the key.”
After a slow start by her standards, Spann noticed a change in his sprinter after a pep talk before the Class A Championship two weeks ago. In that meet, McIntosh cracked 12 seconds in the 100m and 25 seconds in the 200m for the first time this spring.
“Coming into the class meet I was like, ‘Listen ‘Q’ we need to separate you from the pack. Right now you’re running with the pack and you’re the leader of the pack so you got to show them today,’” he said. “She went into the class meet and she ran 24.7 and 11.7. From there on, she just kept going through and last week (at the Mount Pleasant Invitational), the 4x400 qualified for the states and she ran on that. She had fresh legs and she was ready to roll.”
Exeter/West Greenwich senior Morgan Hart successfully defended her crown in the pole vault with a height of 10-6. It was also back-to-back titles for Westerly senior Jackie Burr in the 3,000m. She won in 10:09.46, about 40 meters ahead of La Salle junior Sheridan Wilbur, who crossed the line in second at 10:14.99.
Narragansett’s freshman high-jumper Carly Timpson followed up her victory on the indoor surface with an outdoor crown, clearing the bar at 5-3. North Kingstown junior Paige Olausen took the javelin with a distance of 131-0. Annabelle Hauck of Cranston West copped the long jump at 17-2.75.
