The post season has just begun in the Bay State League, and the divisional meets are just around the corner. For many years Weymouth has held the Bay State League Championship meet. This meet is known for cold weather, rain, and never any sun. This year fortunately the weather was great, a perfect day to run a PR, and thats just what Walpole did.
To start off the meet, Walpole had a huge success in the boys 2 mile run. Seniors Zach Ganshirt, Chris Conley, and Justin Connolly all ran to place top 6. Ganshirt placed second overall with a time of 9:53.09. Conley ran a PR, to get fourth place with a finishing time of 10:06.18. To close up the race, Connolly placed sixth, with a time of 10:18.82. In the girls 2 mile, Sophomore Megan Jenkins paced freshman Allie Morris for the first mile, but eventually took off to finish with a 13:12.25. In the one mile run, sophomore Jon Kelland ran a PR to place first in his heat, with a 4:52.96. On the girls side, sophomore Gina Conti ran a strategic race, letting Newton North’s Evie Heffernan (5:18.07) and Weymouth’s Julie Tevenan (5:21.62) battle for an early lead, before each giving way to a strong kick by Conti, finshing first with 5:16.62. Teammate Megan Peterson also ran a similar race to Conti, trailing multiple runners for three laps, and finally outkicking the pack with 100 meters to go. Freshman Lucy Lynch ran a PR in the 800 meter run, with a time of 2:30.93. Lynch missed the Division II qualifying standards by less than one second. In the boys 800, sophomore Anthony Divirgilio ran a PR of 2:08.42.
In the sprinting events, Junior PJ Hayes took a first place finish; Walpole’s second, first place finish of the day, in the 100 meter dash with a final time of 11.14. Hayes blew the competition away in both the prelims and final dash by .56 seconds. Junior Maddy Shea also competed in the 100 meter dash, advancing to the final heat with a fourth place finish. In the 200m dash Junior Kemble Lindh placed 6 overall in the final heat with a time of 24.82. Senior Erin McCarthy also ran in the 200 meter dash to place third in the final heat with a time of 26.80. In the 400 meter run senior Matt Zampi placed 10 overall with a PR time of 54.46. Sophomore Gabbi Petruziello ran ran less than a second off of her PR in the 400 meter run to get 1:05.17. Junior Jacqui Conley has waited all season to PR in the 400m hurdles. Conley saved her best race for last. Not only did Conley PR, she also broke the Walpole High School 400m hurdle record, previously set by Andrea Zoppo in 2010. Conley now owns the new record with a time of 71.67. Junior Connor McCarthy and senior Conor Murtaugh competed in the 110m hurdles. McCarthy placed first in the final heat with 15.75. Murtaugh was seeded second in the final heat but could not compete, his false start led him to being disqualified.
Another school record was broken by Senior Steph DeSantis in javelin. DeSantis threw 113’0.00, which is an eight foot PR. DeSantis finally broke Kristan Papirio’s throw from 2009. In the shot put, Senior Lizzy Almeda threw a PR with 31’10.50. Junior Michelle Monahan also took eight place in discus. For the boys, sophomore Jon Rockwood threw 130’1.00 in javelin, and teamate Jared Porack threw 128’4.00.
Both girls and boys who competed in the long jump and triple jump had a successful day. Shea jumped 16’06.75, to take third place, and sophomore Savonna Small Brown jumped 15’03.50 to take ninth place. Small Brown also competed in triple jump, jumping to a PR of 31’02.00. Sophomore Olivia O’Hara also competed in the triple jump to get 30’03.50. Connor McCarthy did not PR in the long jump but managed to leap 19’10.00.
To close up the night, the girls and boys 4x400m relay’s both placed fourth and sixth and ran PR’s for the season. The boys ran a time of 3:47.32, and the girls team finished with a 4:21.18.
The Walpole Track and Field team has had a successful season with many PR’s and many school records being broken. On Sunday May 27 the Division II Eastern State Meet will be held at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. Walpole has qualified over 2o athletes to compete at the state level both boys and girls. Many athletes are seeded top 10 and some have a great cance to medal and even qualify for the MIAA All State Meet at Fitchburg State on June 2, 2012.
more pictures from the league meet at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.349789431753230.84680.345548612177312&type=3
