Milton was a tough opponent for Walpole Boys Spring Track to deal with; however, on Wednesday, May 1, against Milton, the team ran, jumped, and threw in their closest meet of the season so far. Winning by only six points, Walpole was victorious with the score ending at 71-65. With this win, the Rebels have a greater chance to become the Herget champions for the sixth time in a row.
The long distance running events were not as strong of an event that Walpole had been hoping for or what it expected, but enough points were made to pull out a win. In the 800m race, junior Jon Kelland ran to place second and lowered his personal best by half of a second to 2:07.2. Senior Nick Culhane was hot on his trail as he placed third and had a personal record of 2:09.5. The two mile was a similar story where Walpole did not win the event, but still held two places. Juniors Mikey Van der Linden and Anthony DiVirgilio came in second and third with respective PRs of 10:22.7 and 10:20.6. The mile was a strong event for Walpole as senior Captain Sean Herlihy won and sophomore Brendan Wohler came in a close second. Each had broken the 4:40 second mark for the first time, which qualified them for the State meet.
In the sprints and hurdles, the competition was even fiercer. Milton won the 100m dash, but junior Myles Cofield took second. Senior PJ Hayes won the 200m dash and ran a season best with 22.34. Sophomore Tommy Helm broke 54 seconds in the 400m race for the first time which earned him first place there. The 4x400m relay team won as well, and senior captain Connor McCarthy split 49.8 seconds, one of the fastest in program history. The 4x100m team beat out Milton by a hefty amount, too.
The field events have improved from where they were at the beginning of Winter Track by a long shot, as can be seen in the results of this meet. Despite no Walpole athlete placing in shot put, juniors Jon Rockwood and Ryan Brown took the first two spots in the javelin, and senior Winston Ho and junior Mike Greulich had second and third in discus. Senior Captain McCarthy won both the long jump and the triple jump—events that Milton was very strong in.
The meet against Milton solidifies Walpole’s chance to at least tie Norwood for first place if a loss occurs against them; however, if Walpole plays their cards right, then the meet could go smoother than against Milton, but that would still require many athletes to go beyond the current limits. When asked how he thought Walpole would fare against Norwood, Herlihy said, “It’s going to be tough like this meet, obviously, but I feel that we can overcome them if everyone just steps it up.”
