Stoughton's Greg Boursiquot Earns All-American Status at Indoor Track Nationals

track star Greg Boursiquot, the two-time defending Hockomock League, Division 2, All-State and New England champion in the 55-meter hurdles event, arrived at the National Championship meet this past weekend at the New Balance Track and Field Center in New York City with redemption on his mind.

Last season Boursiquot was eliminated in the semifinal round of the hurdles event, falling short of reaching All-American status—a sour end to an otherwise incredible junior season.

A year later Boursiquot, now a senior, survived a tough test against the nation’s best and finished sixth overall in the hurdles event, doing just enough to qualify for the All-American distinction in the final indoor track race of his high school career.

“It feels great,” Boursiquot said. “Especially because it was my last chance to do it. It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

“I’m very proud of him,” Stoughton High boys’ track coach Harvey Blonder added. “He kept his focus, he got there. It’s just so hard to finish in the top six—you have to be pretty perfect.”

Boursiquot rewrote the record book on his way to defending all of his titles this season. On he finished the semifinal heat of the 55-meter hurdles event at the New England Championships in 7.35 seconds, which tied the fastest recorded time for the event in Massachusetts history.

At Nationals, Boursiquot had to run in a 60-meter race. He posted times between 7.94 and 7.98 in the three-round championship this past weekend, which is actually a faster pace than what he ran in the 55-meter race.

In the preliminary round, Boursiquot finished in 7.94 seconds, his best time of the weekend, and good for second in his heat and third overall.

Last year he faltered in the semifinal round, and that round proved to be his biggest challenge again this year. Boursiquot finished his heat in 7.98 seconds, in fourth place. Only the top three automatically advance to the finals, so he had to “sweat out” the other heat and wait to see if he could earn a wildcard spot in the eight-man finals field.

He did—by 0.02 seconds.

He entered the finals seeded seventh, one spot out of All-American status, which is reserved for the top six finishers.

“I knew I had to get mentally focused,” Boursiquot said of moving onto the final round. “There’s no way that looking back and dwelling on [the semifinals] would get me any further than number seven.”

In the finals, Boursiquot found himself in unfamiliar territory—the first lane, an outside lane, which is someplace he hasn’t started a race since his sophomore year, according to Blonder.

The middle lanes, reserved for the top finishers, “give you a good sense of where everyone is,” Boursiquot said.

But, Boursiquot overcame this hurdle and finished in 7.96 seconds, good for sixth place. In what proved to be a close race, especially for the final two All-American spots, the fifth place finisher came in at 7.95, while the seventh-place finisher came in at 7.97.

Aiming for an All-American finish all year, Boursiquot said “I couldn’t end my season better than that…that’s exactly what I wanted.”

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Stoughton High junior Jade Paul also made the trip to Nationals in New York City, competing in her first national championship.

Paul, who owns the SHS record in the girls’ 600-meter run at 1:36.06, qualified for nationals after finishing in sixth place at the New England championship with a time of 1:36.31.

Nationals does not have a 600-meter race, however, so Paul ran a 800-meter race for the first time, finishing in 2:18.67, sixth in her preliminary heat and 30th overall.

“I thought she ran very well,” Blonder said. She ran smart, she stayed out of trouble, [and] she finished strong.”

Special thanks to Stoughton Patch reader Kevin Berkowsky for providing photos of Greg and Jade at Nationals.