NORWELL — Greenfield’s Liviu Mihailicenco continues to find ways to even impress himself this track season.
Competing in the high jump at the MIAA All-State Track and Field Championship on Saturday at Norwell High School, the junior set a personal record with a leap of six feet, four inches – two inches higher than his previous best.
“That was the happiest I’ve ever been in the high jump,” Mihailicenco said. “I’ve been consistently jumping 6-2. I’ve never jumped 6-4 and to do it on my second attempt felt really good.”
The height earned him a third place finish, with Stoughton’s Elisha Teneus-Claude placing first with a jump of six feet, eight inches.
Getting to compete with the best in the state helped Mihailicenco elevate his game.
“I used to think it didn’t affect me but I think I perform way better with more competitors who can jump with me,” Mihailicenco said. “I’m a more competitive person when the stakes are on the line.”
Mihailicenco knew he was going to have a good day when he cleared heights on his first attempt multiple times before ultimately scoring his personal record.
With the top two finishers in the event both seniors, he is hoping to improve and potentially take home a state title next year.
“Leading up to it, then jumping and making it, I’ve never felt better after,” Mihailicenco said. “Right afterward I thought I could do 6-6. Once [assistant] coach [Mike Kuchieski] showed me the video I thought I could do it but I just missed. Next year I’m hoping to hit 6-6 and hoping to go for the school record of 6-7.”
Mihailicenco also ran the 110-meter hurdles, placing 15th with a time of 15.94, just .04 seconds off his PR time.
Frontier’s Jack Vecellio capped his standout season in the 400 hurdles on Saturday, placing fourth with a time of 56.07 seconds.
In a tightly contested race, one small slip-up on the first hurdle hurt his time, but it was still a solid run from the junior.
“It was a pretty close race,” Vecellio said. “I hit the first hurdle pretty hard so that set me back. My goal was to get first to the first hurdle and get an early lead because I knew I wasn’t seeded first but I wanted to put it all out in that race. I got out to a clunky rhythm and had to battle back.”
The performance capped a strong weekend for Vecellio, who won the pole vault during the opening day of All-State competition on Wednesday. Like Mihailicenco, he has his eyes set on first place next season.
“I’d call it a successful weekend,” Vecellio said. “I’ll definitely take what I got. I’m happy with it. One of the biggest things to look at is I’m a junior and I still have another year. All the guys who were ahead of me are graduating and I’ll have plenty of time to improve on my time.”
Greenfield’s Theo Popusoi also ran in the 400 hurdles and earned a seventh-place finish with a run of 57.37 seconds.
“It’s awesome. All season long I had no idea I’d be able to run a sub-one minute [400],” Popusoi said. “Now I’m at 57 seconds. I had no idea that I could run that kind of race.”
Also a junior, Popusoi broke a personal record in the pole vault on Wednesday with a height of 13 feet.
He plans on using the offseason to continue training, hoping to continue to improve his time and fight for one of the top spots next year.
“My plan is to keep practicing over the summer,” Popusoi said. “You can practice when other people practice but when you practice on your own time when other people aren’t practicing, that’s when you can really improve.”
It wasn’t the easiest of circumstances for Mohawk Trail’s Cullen Brown in the 200 meter dash on Saturda.
The senior — who will run track at Franklin Pierce next year — got stuck in traffic and had just a few minutes to warm up before jumping right into the long sprint.
Still, Brown earned an 18th place finish with a time of 23.45 seconds, a performance he was pleased with considering the circumstances.
“It’s pretty exciting being here,” Brown said. “It was more a mental game than anything else because of the ride. Being in a car, sitting in traffic for two and a half hours then running isn’t the easiest thing. All things considered it was a decent day. I don’t think I could have asked for much more all things considered.”
Mahar’s Max Gilmore set a new personal best and took first place in the para shot put with a toss of 18 feet, two inches. Gilmore also won the para 100 with a time of 20.49 seconds.
On the girls side, a pair of Greenfield athletes had successful days.
Tess Rancourt had an impressive day in the shot put, finishing in third place with a toss of 36 feet, five and three-quarters inches. Victoria Marin competed in three events, breaking her own Greenfield school record in the 100 hurdles along the way.
The senior finished ninth in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.54 seconds, as she continued to improve her personal best in the event and just missed out on qualifying for the finals.
Marin came in 18th in the long jump with a leap of 16-3¼ but failed to hit the first height in the high jump. Still, she was proud to have made it to All-States in three different events.
“Not many people can come here and say they competed in three events,” Marin said. “I’m super grateful to come here.”
It was a busy day for Marin, who bounced back-and-forth between the long and high jump with not much time between leaps.
“That was really intense,” Marin said. “When we first started, I went over to high jump to check in and when I got back to long jump they switched up the order and put me first which threw me off completely. Right when I finished my jump it was my turn to go in the high jump. It’s really intense at a meet of this level doing two [events] at the same time as well as worrying about hurdles. It takes a lot of focus for each event. You have to be able to find that balance.”