Wakefield boys, Holliston girls roll to wins
They did it a little differently, but both the Wakefield boys and Holliston girls dominated the D4 State Track Championships Sunday at the Reggie Lewis Center.
Wakefield scored 64 points, ahead of Pembroke with 41 points, and Holliston with 31.
For the Holliston girls, they scored 69 points, with Pembroke (48) and Newburyport (34) trailing.
The Warriors only finished first in event, their last one, the 4×400 meter relay, but got it done with depth.
“I was telling the coaches, it would be nice to win an event,” Wakefield coach Ruben Reinoso. “It just goes to show you how deep we are. Out of 13 events, we were able to score in 11 of them. That’s what we were looking for. Whenever we were able to put our kids in, we were able to score.”
That 4×400 team of Brody Wyatt, Joseph Patt, Isaac Melo, and Ethan Mezikofsky provided the exclamation point in 3:32.18, pulling away at the end. The Warriors also scored 11 points in the 1000 meters. There, Mezikofsky finished third in 2:40.29, and Oliver Polster was fourth in 2:40.52.
The Holliston girls had a tremendous showing, as they were terrific in the middle to longer distance races and relays. Carmen Luisi won both the mile (5:02.68) and 1000 (2:58.24), and the Panthers placed 1-2-3 in the 1000, with Maggie Kuchman (2:58.97) and Annabelle Lynch (2:59.83) posting good results, as well.
“Leading up to this point, we did really well at the D4 state relays,” Holliston coach Jenn Moreau said. “Coming into this, we knew we had a lot of work to do. … I think it’s a combination of things. When we practice, we’re on. This is a true team. We knew we had the potential to do this today, and they can rise to the occasion.”
Kuchman also finished second in the 2-mile (11:19.15), and the Panthers placed second in the 4×200 and 4×800.
“It’s my senior year, so it’s everything I have left, basically,” Luisi said after the mile. “There’s the rest of the indoor season, the outdoor season, and I’ve been training. This was definitely a race I was looking forward to. I was able to come in and run a PR, so I was happy about that.”
In the boys 600, Bishop Stang’s Michael Veegh was laid out on the trainer’s table after winning in 1:21.53, a personal best.
“I don’t think I could have been any better today,” he said. “I was locked in. I embraced the pain. Got through it.”
Boys double-winner Logan Walsh of Ludlow took the mile in 4:20.73 and 1000 in 2:35.22.
“I was kind of hoping for a sub-4:20, but I can’t complain with that,” Walsh said after the mile. “It was still a good race.”
Pembroke swept the boys and girls 55 meter dash. Joseph D’Angelo won in 6.52 seconds, and Sarah Claflin won in 7.12.
Hanover’s Natalie Metschler won the 55 hurdles in 8.83. Old Rochester’s Wesner Archelus took the boys hurdles in 7.77.
“I feel like I’ve been building up to that,” Metschler said. “I’ve been changing stuff up with my blocks, changing coming out of the blocks to start, and I feel that really helped me. I’ve been training a lot. I knew I had it in me. It hasn’t happened all season, so now was the right time.”