Walpole Boy’s Track ended their regular season at home by competing against Norwood and achieving victory. It was a hard fought battle and a very close meet, just like most of the other meets this season, and it was Walpole who were triumphant because all the athletes across the board stepped up their game. Along with this win came the title of ‘Herget Champions’, which the Boys Track reclaims for the sixth time in a row. The end score of the meet came out to be 74-62.
The long distance team had a great time facing Norwood, outscoring them 22-5, and a large aid to that was the sweep in both the mile and the two mile. In the two mile, senior Andrew Single and junior Pat Connell took the first two respective places, each achieving a considerable personal record and breaking 10:40 for the first time. Senior captain Sean Herlihy won the mile, and after him were juniors Anthony DiVirgilio and Mikey Van der Lindenm, both of them PR’s as well: DiVirgilio ran with a time of 4:41.9 and Van der Linden with 4:44.8. The 800m event was where Norwood got their points, as, in the final 100m of the race, junior Jon Kelland was out kicked by the opposing athlete, Norwood’s Tim Buckley.
The sprinting events were another strong suit of Walpole’s, as many points were gained; however, there were a lot that were let up. Senior PJ Hayes and junior Myles Cofield won a collective eight points in 100m dash. In the 200m, only senior Connor McCarthy scored points,coming in first. McCarthy also came in first for the 100m hurdle dash and brok 15 seconds for the first time. The 400m hurdles was a harder event for Walpole because sophomore Bryan Kelleher, who PR’d by over a second, only came in third. Sophomore Tom Helm and senior Nick Culhane took the first places for the 400m sprint, too. Walpole also won both relays, the 4x100m and the 4x400m.
Where Walpole fell short in the meet was the field events. Norwood took the first two places in both the discus and the shot put, with juniors Mike Greulich and Jon Rockwood taking third in each event, respectively. Norwood also won the javelin, but Walpole’s Rockwood and junior Ryan Brown took the next places to score. The jumping events were even worse for Walpole, as Norwood swept the high jump. The only Walpole jumper to place in the jumps was McCarthy, who won the triple jump, but came in second in the long jump, losing by a mere 2 inches.
Despite the difficulty of the field events, Walpole held strong throughout the meet and not only won it, but also won the title Herget Champions. “I think we did really well in this meet. It was one of the best meets of the year, not just the season, for all of us, and seeing all the times we got in the long distance races, I think the team is ready for next year’s cross country season,” said captain Herlihy.
