The Marblehead track and field team had a spring to remember. From winning the 4×100 relay in the Division 3 state championship, to a top-10 finish at Nationals, Nolan Raimo and the Magicians have plenty of stories to tell.
“It was a really good season. There were a lot of moving parts,” Raimo said. “We had a lot of kids and the roster kind of thinned out naturally throughout the season, which is normal. At the end of the season, we finished with around 115 kids.”
With lots of numbers, Raimo said it was a “strength, not a weakness” to have depth.
“[It’s good] to have that many kids in a high school track system where dual-meets are the regular season,” Raimo said. “Oftentimes in high school track, it’s a one-versus-one track meet and it comes down to depth.”
Raimo acknowledged that record-wise, it was a solid season, but individual performances took it up a level.
“We had some stellar individuals this year,” Raimo said. “Team-wise, we were good, but we weren’t excellent. The boys finished 3-3-1 and the girls finished 4-2. Both boys and girls finished second in the Northeastern Conference Championships which was very good.”
The boys had 19 athletes qualify for the Division 3 State Championships, while the girls had 18.
The girls 4×100-meter relay team took home the gold, running a school record of 49.85s to beat the previous record by two seconds. That team consisted of Cate Trautman, Le-Daisha Williams, Ava Machado, and Sadie Halpern, which won the race by 0.01s.
“They won it by .01. Seeing a photo finish to win the state championship was incredible,” Raimo said. “They won the Division 3 State Championship, fourth in the All-State Championships, and 10th in New Englands.”
The girls placed seventh in Division 3, while the boys finished 17th.
Another bright spot was freshman distance runner Marrietta O’Connell. She finished sixth at All-States and second at the Division 3 State Championship.
O’Connell skipped the New England Championships to compete at New Balance Nationals (UPenn), where she competed in the freshman 2-mile and placed ninth.
“She’s an absolute superstar,” Raimo said. “When you have a good distance runner like Marri, she can go out and win the 2-mile and mile at the same meet.”
Raimo praised his captains and seniors – a group of freshmen when Raimo began coaching.
“We had 12 captains in the spring,” Raimo said. “They were phenomenal. They’re great leaders. Our system and structure have been in place for the four years I’ve been here, so the athletes are used to it. Teaching the new kids is a lot easier because of it.”
“We definitely learned alongside each other,” Raimo said. “This was my first-ever coaching job. I never coached youth baseball or was an assistant coach anywhere. I had no official leadership experience. There is so much to make decisions on outside of the rigid structure.”
Raimo believes the best way to coach is to have open communication between himself, the coaching staff, captains, and athletes.
“I made executive decisions along the way, but it was coaches and captains coming together and communicating to find out what the best way to run this team was,” Raimo said. “Coaches and captains put their brains together to find the best way to get better. This group that just graduated raised the bar a ton.”
Back to the seniors. Raimo said he’ll miss each and every one of them, as athletes, and people.
“Out of our 14 seniors, 10 or 11 of them had the opportunity to run track in college if they wanted to,” Raimo said. “There’s a lot of downtime in track, so you get time to talk to them and get to know them. They are genuinely great people. Seeing their growth from when they were 14 to 18 is remarkable.”