When Bianca Giacalone first crossed the finish line at last Thursday's Northeastern Conference Championship Meet at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, she was initially a little disappointed.
The always competitive Giacalone, who was undefeated in duel meet play during the regular season, finished in third place behind Peabody's Heather MacLean and Beverly's Caitlin Harty in an incredibly close race that came down to hundredths of a second.
"It literally came down to the finish line," Gloucester girls track head coach Liz Moran said. "It was a great race."
The disappointment, however, was quickly erased after the times were read. Giacalone's time of 42.78 was .5 seconds faster then her previous first bet. That was enough to satisfy Giacalone but the best was yet to come, her time was also a Gloucester High School record.
"I definitely wasn't expecting to run that fast, it was a big improvement," Giacalone said. "I was disappointed after I finished because I definitely wanted to get first place but once they read off the times I was happy with the improvement. My biggest focus is to improve on my time and all of us did in that race."
Giacalone said it was the strength of the field that pushed her to the record time. For the entire 40 plus second sprint Giacalone, MacLean and Harty were right on each other's backs fighting for positioning. For the majority of the race Giacalone and MacLean were jockeying for first place, but a strong finish from Harty got her the runner up spot.
"I had to step up my time to compete with (MacLean and Harty)," said Giacalone, who was threatening the school's 300 record as a Freshman. "I had (MacLean) in my sight the whole time but (Harty) came out of nowhere at the finish. It was so close at the end, it was as close of a race that I have ever been in. We all improved on our times so much because it was such a close race."
The junior sprinters success reaches much further then last week's Northeastern Conference meet.
Giacalone's duel meet season was nothing short of spectacular as she did not lose a race in seven meets. Even more remarkable is the fact that she competed in three different events, the 50, 300 and 600; three very different events but the results are the same. Giacalone also competes in the 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams. She also put up one of her best times of the season at the Mass State Coaches Invitational last weekend despite the fact that she was just coming off of strep throat, an illness that kept her out of action for a short period of time.
"Bianca is an excellent sprinter," Moran said. "But she also has the strength to stretch it out into the middle distances. It's such a luxury to have as a coach."
Giacalone, who was also a star striker and leading goal for the Division 2 North Semifinalist girls soccer team this fall where she has to put together big bursts of speed and pace herself for long and grueling games, says the variety of workouts help her stretch out distances, but the shorter distances are still her bread and butter.
"We work on distance runs and sprints at practice," Giacalone said. "But I prefer the sprinting events (over middle distances). The 300 is my favorite race."
Giacalone will pulling double duty at next Thursday's Division 2 state meet as she will be competing in both the 300 and the 50 yard dash. At the state meet Giacalone's focus is improvement and maybe even a time good enough to get into the All State meet.
"I'm racing in two events and if I can improve my times in both I'll be happy," Giacalone said. "And hopefully I can run well enough to qualify for the All State meet.
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