BOSTON – Emma Sanford turned her head frantically. South Hadley indoor track coach Nick Davis waved at her to take her turn at long jump. She’d already skipped one.

MIAA officials, media members, friends, family and fans wanted Sanford to pose for a picture atop the girls’ 55-meter hurdles podium. She won her first state title of the night by crossing the finish line in 8.54 seconds, a personal best and school record.

“I really wanted to have cleaner arms and a stronger race,” Sanford said.

The cameras were keeping her from a second.

“I’ve gotta go. I didn’t want to miss my jump,” Sanford. “[Davis] was yelling at me to go. I didn’t know if I should stay.”

She hopped down and jogged over to the long jump track, unleashing a 17-foot, 4.5-inch jump. Davis greeted her with a high five. Her first leap held for her second state title of the night and set another personal best and school record at the Reggie Lewis Center.

“I was just really jittery and shaked up,” Sanford said. “And I was already warm from hurdles.”

Sanford improved her hurdles spot from last season, where she was second and won the high jump title.  She added a podium finish in the high jump on Thursday, taking third (5-0).

“It was nice the hard work paying off and all of the hours we spent,” Sanford said.

Sanford generated 26 points on her own, which helped the Tigers place fifth with 27.

Frontier Regional senior Caroline Crocker finished second in the girls 55-meter hurdles behind Sanford (8.78) after taking third last year.

“I had to work a lot on my speed and my form. Starting off, sure I was natural at it, but you need to get down to the tiny details,” Crocker said.

Crocker ran beside Sanford and leaned past the rest of the field at the line to secure silver.

“It was really fun. I love hurdles. It’s really great to race against people who are very good,” Crocker said.

Crocker also was 14th in the long jump (15-3).

The top-three finishes qualified them for the all-state meet Feb. 25 back in Boston. The top three finishers in each event qualify for the meet of champions plus the top nine marks remaining across all five divisions.

South Hadley’s Abigail Gelinas took eighth in the girls long jump (15-11), ninth in the girls 55 dash (7.67) and 17th in the girls 300 (44.4).

The Tigers’ 4x800-meter relay of Izzy Scott, Emma Levreault, Gwen Marion and Rachel Yabra took ninth (11:11.65).

Hampshire Regional eighth grader Kathleen Barry was 12th in the girls 2-mile (13:00.58). 

Frontier’s girls 4x200-meter relay of Sophia Leone, Nicole Plasse, Anna Petrin and Crocker placed 13th (1:55.54).

In the boys meet, Frontier’s Evan Hedlund finished ninth in the boys 2-mile (10:24.13). Gavin DaFonte of Hampshire placed 19th (11:04.04).

Hedlund also contributed to Frontier’s 12th-place finish in the boys 4x800 relay (9:23.36) along with Aidan Valderrama, Amory Maxey and Oliver Brown.

Ben Cachiguango took 13th in the boys 55 hurdles (8.75) for the Redhawks.

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on  Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>