Due to the long winter, the Bay State Conference athletic directors condensed two spring track meets into one for all Bay State teams. Hence, Walpole hosted their first ever tri-meet against two of their toughest Herget opponents, Milton and Wellesley, on April 28, 2014. The boys beat Milton (89-47) and Wellesley (83-52) to improve their record to 4-0 while the girls lost to Wellesley (88-5-47.5) and Milton (69-67) to move to 2-2.
Going into this meet, the girls team knew that the meet was going to be close, since in indoor, Walpole lost to Wellesley and finished tied with Milton for Second Place in the Herget. The boys, however, beat both teams in winter, and knew they could do the same again if everything played out in their favor.
“I was expecting a tough meet from both Milton and Wellesley,” said boys Head Coach Kevin Butera. “Each of those teams presented different challenges because of their strengths. I actually think facing both of those teams in the tri meet was incredibly beneficial for us because the meet was a great representation of what competition at invitationals feels like.”
With over four hundred athletes competing in the meet, with six separate dual meet score sheets between the genders, some level of chaos was bound to ensue at this meet. However, the Walpole coaches and officials moved the meet along in an organized and efficient manner. In other words, they hosted six meets, on the same track, in just three hours. Within these three hours, many Walpole athletes stepped up to earn some valuable points for the team.
“The first standout performance that comes to mind is the performance of Guy Michel,” said Butera. “After one of his fellow teammates went down injured, he volunteered to triple jump for the first time in 2 years. Without practicing Guy stepped up and [set a personal record] by almost 2 feet to take 1st place against Milton and 3rd against Wellesley.”
On the track, the boys mile and two mile were run at competitive paces usually seen at invitationals. Seniors Brendan Wohler, Captain Billy Heiberger, and sophomore Luke Beradinelli finished with their season bests of 4:35, 4:40 and 4:42 respectively. Also, in the girls mile, sophomore Emily Martin finished second behind Milton’s Collette O’Leary with her season best of 5:32, and freshman Lindsey Sullivan ran her personal best of 5:37 to place fourth. In the girls two mile, senior Captain Allie Morris finished second behind Milton’s Bridget Mitchell with her outdoor personal best of 11:21.
In the hurdles, senior Captain Claire Rinne achieved her personal best of 16.74 in the 100 meter hurdles, to not only win the race, but also to qualify for the Division II Meet.
“Going into that race I thought I was going to be easily out run by both of these strong teams,” said Rinne. “So it felt great to actually win the race, and really caught me off guard. Qualifying for Divisionals was a season goal of mine so I’m pretty pumped I managed to get there.”
In the 800 meter race, junior Christian Carr-Locke was neck and neck with Wellesley’s Matt D’Anieri, and finished just 0.2 seconds behind him to set his personal best of 2:01.3. Also in the 800, junior Alyssa Murphy set her personal best of 2:23.3 in a close race against Wellesley’s Eve Driver. Murphy placed second overall.
Lastly, for field events, the boys throwers came in clutch. Junior Nick Campobasso placed first in discus with a personal record of over 22 feet to reach 120’11’’, and also got first in shot put. Completing the first-place sweep of all throwing events, senior Captain Ben Sacco grabbed first place in javelin with his throw of 153’11’’.
Currently, Walpole is preparing for their last home meet of the season today against Norwood.
For photos from the meet, check out Rebellion photographer Ellie Hilty’s album here.
