Burlington bests field
Boys snag team title over rival
BURLINGTON — After narrowly defeating Wakefield in the Middlesex League championship meet, it’s only fitting that the Burlington boys track team would have to outlast the same challenger for the East Division 3 title.
The Red Devils finished with 90 points yesterday on their home track, outlasting a resilient Warriors team that finished with 81. The meet came down to the final race, the 4x400-meter relay, where Burlington finished third, one spot ahead of Wakefield.
“We were hoping it wouldn’t be this close,” Burlington coach Matthew Carr said. “(Wakefield is) a very high-quality team. They’re stacked with distance runners and throwers. We thought we put on enough points between pentathlon and pole vault to have a nice cushion, but they ate away at that pretty quickly.”
The Red Devils picked up key points in the pole vault from Cody Davison, who placed second, and in the discus from Nathan Walzer, who finished third despite entering as the 15th seed.
Brandon Amello from Triton set a meet record in the 400 hurdles with a 54.58. Smith Charles of Milton also had an impressive showing, winning the 100 dash (11.02), the 200 (22.03) and the long jump (23 feet, 63⁄ inches). 4
On the girls side, Milton had a far easier day, racking up 123 points to capture the team title. The Wildcats were trailed by Tewksbury (80 points) and Hopkinton (68.50) and hardly felt any pressure along the way.
“We were surprised,” Milton coach Dion Crichlow said. “We thought it was going to be much closer.”
Freshman Jayda Dillon was one of many Wildcats who impressed, finishing second in the 200 with a 26.08. Dillon trailed Bishop Feehan’s Anne Leahy, who also won the 100 dash with a 12.59.
Milton also received a boost from Jessy Iwuala, who won the high jump, and Elise O’Leary, who won the 400.