Saturday, July 11 was a beautiful day for track and field at the 2009 Bay State Games.  The event was held at MIT’s Steinbrenner track in Cambridge.  

The Bay State Games attract athletes from around the state.  For track and field, athletes must first qualify for the event by finishing in the top four and one of the four divisional qualifiers around the state.  Phoebe Morss was the top qualifier from all the divisional qualifiers in the 800 meters for junior girls (ages 14 and under), but it looked to be a great race as the top five qualifiers were within six seconds. 

Morss took the lead from the start and led a tight pack of competitors through the first 200 meters.  At the 200 meter mark the top five runners began to break away from the pack and by the half-way point Phoebe had a slight lead with Maya Halprin-Adams of Cambridge, MA close on her heals.  Halprin-Adams passed Morse just after the 400 meter mark, but Morss stayed right with her and quickly passed her back.  Morss then put on a surge in an attempt to shake Halprin-Adams and the rest of the pack and with 200 meters to go Morss had a lead of 20 meters.  Morss held on to win the race in a personal best time of 2:27.03.

Morss is a member of the Wayland Middle School track team and also competes with the Nitehawks track club.  More information about the Nitehawks track program is available at www.thenitehawks.org.

Photo is of Phoebe (center) just after the race, along with Bryn Miller of Sudbury (right), who finished third in the race, and Eric Bucher (left), coach of the Nitehawks.