Haverhill High’s Natanael Vigo Catala has proven over and over that he’s among the fastest athletes in not only Massachusetts, but New England and in the entire country. But the Georgetown University recruit had some unfinished business to attend to in his final indoor league meet.
During Friday afternoon’s Merrimack Valley Conference Championship, the reigning Eagle-Tribune MVP won the 300-meters with a meet record time of 34.36, and was also part of the winning 4×400 relay team with Joel Ishiimwe, Hannon Wipff and Stephane Fevry. The group has now won five straight races at various invitational and championship meets.
Certainly the record-breaking performance in the 300 was a big accomplishment, considering this was just the second time he had run it all season.
“I just made sure I ran my own race and pushed myself to a good time,” he said. “Breaking the meet record was a good accomplishment but I’m looking forward to bigger things and much better times.”
His teammate Connor Chmielski took home the shot put title, throwing 51-3.5.
Outside of the Hillies’ success, North Andover’s Dylan Cote captured first place in the 1,000 meters with a time of 2:34.18.
“Going into the race I was definitely really nervous because I’ve only raced a few times this season due to little injuries and sickness, but based on workouts and training I knew I definitely had a good shot to win it,” he said. “There was a lot of good competition with (James Gallaudet) from Andover and Jack (Colantuoni) from Haverhill, who are both such good runners. My plan was just to stick with them, but right at the start I felt good so I decided to make a move. I’m super happy that I won and owe it all to coach (Bill) Varney, coach (Jason) Guarente and my teammates.”
The final two first places came from Andover High teammates Harvey Lys, in the high jump clearing 6-2, and Jason DeJesus with a 6.50 time to take the 55-meter dash.
“I started off at 5-10 and I was just working my way against the competition and once we got to 6-2, (I already secured first place) so we tried 6-7 and almost got it,” said Lys, who also earned a second place in the long jump with a mark of 20-11. “I skipped over 6-6 and wanted to try 6-7 for the meet record and almost got it. My personal record is 6-5.5.”
Last year, Lys was first in the long jump and second in the high jump. and at the same meet, DeJesus didn’t place in the top of the dash event.
“(Winning today) means a lot,” he said. “Coming off last year’s season I didn’t do too good and I just did a lot of workouts in the off-season and now all of that hard work has paid off. I just put in a lot of hard work, and the training has helped me so much. My start (off the blocks) has definitely improved.”
Lowell won the team championship title, while North Andover was second, followed by Andover, Billerica, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lawrence, Central and Methuen (in a tie) and Tewksbury for spots 3-10.
Twitter: @JamiePote