The Walpole Boys Spring Track team beat Wellesley in a large upset at the Walpole High School on Wednesday, April 10. During the Winter Track season, Wellesley defeated Walpole by a considerable margin. There was no event where Wellesley was without any competitors, and their long distance program was one of the best in the league. This time around, though, Walpole retaliated and won with the score ending decisively at 80-56.
The long distance squad had not scored as well, as they were outscored 20-7, but the racers had not necessarily performed at a sub-par level, especially considering there were a few stand out races and personal records. In the 800 meters, senior Nick Culhane placed second with a season PR of 2:11.5 and junior Jimmy Martin narrowly missed third with his 2:20.5 personal best. The mile racers had sophomore Brendan Wohler snag third place, and a few seconds behind him was fellow sophomore Mike Orsi who broke the 5-minute mark for the first time and got 4:57.5. In the two mile, senior Captain Sean Herlihy also had broken barrier for running under 10 minutes. Herlihy’s 9:59.4 race was just fast enough to out kick Wellesley’s second runner in the last 200 meters.
The sprinting events were where Walpole pulled through against Wellesley. Freshman Lovevindjy Salvant placed first in his premiere 100m dash with a time of 11.9, and to sweep the event senior Jungwoo Yoon and freshman Artis Street came just .2 seconds later. Senior Captain Connor McCarthy was victorious by a considerable margin of 2.1 seconds in the 200 meter dash. Sophomore Tommy Helm dropped his PR by half of a second to 54.24 and win the 400m, and freshman Eamon McCarthy followed for third place. The elder McCarthy also won the 110m hurdles, and in a close, less-than-a-tenth-of-a-second clincher, junior Mike St. Germain beat out a Wellesley runner for second. The 4-by-100m relay team from Walpole out ran Wellesley’s team by a second and a half, and the 4-by-400m team won by over 13 seconds.
Walpole’s field events were augmented as well in terms of ability for this meet and the advancement was both needed and appreciated. Junior Jon Rockwood threw a quarter inch farther than his previous best to go for the bronze in the shot put, and he also got the silver in the javelin. The winner of the javelin event was sophomore Ben Sacco who had a hefty 6-foot personal record. Senior Winston Ho, in his first outing, threw the discus 99 feet and 6 inches to win. Captain McCarthy won the high jump at 5’8″ and the triple jump at 41’2″. St. Germain edged out Wellesley’s jumper in the long jump by .25 inches to win at 18’3″.
Through all these stand out performances adding up; point after point being scored in close events; Walpole won the meet. “We did really well as a whole against Wellesley. Before the meet started, we stressed the importance of every point, and then in all of the close events, we beat the competition. Everyone just had a really great day,” said Herlihy. Before, Wellesley was to be the powerhouse of the Herget Division, but here they were bested. Now it is quite apparent that Walpole could win the Herget title for the fourth year in a row, since the only Herget team not beaten was Natick, who they tied with. Walpole can now look forward a rocky road ahead of them because although Dedham should be an easy meet and Milton a bit harder, Walpole still has to face Winter Track’s Herget Champs, Norwood.
