The meet started off close, but Walpole was able to pull away after the 600.  In the opening event, the 1 mile, Chris Saccardo from Natick was able to win the race with a time of 4:50.51.  Coming in second and third place were Walpole’s sophomores Anthony DiVirgilio and Mike Van Der Linden with times of 4:57.33 and 5:11.97 respectively.  Walpole trailed 5-4 after the first event.  This Natick lead did not last for long because in the next event, the 1000 meters, senior Zach Ganshirt outran the competition as he came in first with a time of 2:43.18. Coming in second was fellow senior Andrew Berardinelli with a time of 3:01.34 and in third was Natick’s Eric Wester with a time of 3:03.15.  Following the second event the Rebels gained the lead 12-6, and never looked back.

It was a great performance by the Rebels, “everyone knew what they had to do and they went out there and executed” said junior Kemble Lindh. The Rebels went into the meet undermanned, with three returning varsity players out of the lineup.  Seniors Shane Blass and Justin Connolly, as well as junior Jared Porack were, all out with leg injuries. When asked about the meet Coach Kevin Buteria said, “we had several great performances from a number of athletes.” Along with junior Connor McCarthy’s excellent performance of 9 points, the Shot Put throwers – juniors Ricardo Simeon (1st), Aidan Lancaster (3rd) and John Rockwood – provided the Rebels with six points that really opened up a lead for them. Another stand out performance was Ganshirt, who gained 10 points by himself when he won the 1000 and 4×400. It was a real balanced effort. The senior class consisting of Bryan Rockwood, Zach Ganshirt, Feast Conley, Kyle Celentano, Andrew Berardinelli, Ryan Morris, and Connor Murtagh really stepped up as they gained 22 out of the 60 total points.

Also, three athletes qualified for the Division 2 State Championship.  McCarthy in the 55H, Bryan Rockwood in the 600, and Ganshirt in the 1000.  Lindh said that the team “hopes to have at least one qualifier a meet.”

Up next for the Rebels is Dedham. This should be another victory, but as Coach Buteria said “we now know we need to be better all around to finish without a loss this season.”