FITCHBURG – When they announced her name as one of the finalists for the 100-meter hurdles, Newburyport High junior Lucy Buchmayr thought it was a joke.
“Because I was seeded18th,” she said with a laugh.
Coming off a fourth-place finish at the Division 4 state championship meet — which included a much slower 16.18 time and seventh-place finish in the preliminary heat compared to her 15.57 time in the final – Buchmayr just wanted to continue to post personal best times when she competed in Saturday’s Meet of Champions event held at Fitchburg State University.
“I was nervous at first but I definitely did not think that I’d be in the finals,” she said. “When I found out that I was in the finals, I was pretty excited but I did think it was a joke.”
It wasn’t.
And she got to run again, this time finishing eighth in the entire state with an even better time once again at 15.44 seconds. In eight days, she’s gone from 16.18 seconds down to 15.44. Saturday she did it against a loaded field, which included Franklin’s Sarah Dumas, Westford’s Alin Aydogan and Billerica’s Nyrah Joseph.
Her eighth-place finish is pretty special.
“Part of it was the hot weather but the other part is the competition I was up against. When you have people who are really good, it just really helps you,” she said, while noting that she only has one year of hurdle experience under her belt.
“I was still learning how to do hurdles last year. This year I feel like I finally figured it out,” she said.
Also earning a medal to add to his long collection was Amesbury’s Aiden Donovan, who placed third in the shot put throwing 56-02.50.
“Not the greatest performance and this is not what I wanted today. I was hoping to finally break sixty feet after my last few performances and practices,” said Donovan, who will be a member of the UMass Amherst track-and-field team starting this fall.
“I started off with two fouls and that really messes you up. You have to lock into that third one but I had faith in my technique so I went for it and blasted an OK throw out there like 53 feet and some inches. That got me into the finals.
“I started finals off pretty good. I threw 55 feet on the first one and then after that I was more comfortable with my throws and got a 56 out there. I’m happy taking third in the state.”
Six other locals competed, including three each from Newburyport and Pentucket. From the Clippers, Greg Guckenburg tied his personal best while also tying for 16th in the high jump (6-2), and Matteo Colombo was 23rd in the triple jump (40-03.50). Finally, Devin Stroope ended her excellent outdoor campaign breaking her own school record in the 800 to place 16th (2:19.01), and was also 19th in the 400 (59.63). The junior broke four school records this spring alone — the 800 (twice), javelin and with the 4×400 relay.
For the Panthers, Joel Spaulding was ninth in the 100 (11.01), while Kaylie Dalgar was both 14th in the Mile (5:08.29) and 17th in the 2-Mile (11:10.00). A UMass Amherst commit, Dalgar’s 2-Mile time also broke the previous school record.
Finally, Brighton Seymour rounded out the local performances with a 27th in the 400-meter hurdles (1:09.42).