It was a week of accolades for the Marblehead track and field team – at spring state relays, no less. From individual to team races, coach Nolan Raimo was more than pleased.
“Hats off to this group,” Raimo said. “[It was] seriously impressive stuff.”
In the 4xMile relay, Nate Assa, Henrik Adams, Ryan Blestowe, and Isaac Gross finished eighth overall with a time of 20:00.92, while Grace Mortensen, Cat Piper, Maren Potter, and Marri O’Connell finished seventh with a 24:25.93.
“The most difficult part of a distance relay like this is staying engaged when the pack spreads out, but this group kept their foot on the gas as long as possible and ended up with a very solid time,” Raimo said of the girls.
In the shuttle hurdle relay, Alex Hersey, Harrison Curtis, Marc Grazado, and Errol Apostolopoulos finished second in the division with a time of 1:10.25. On the girls’ side, Devin Whalen, Elise Burchfield, Ana Vina de Garnica, and Claire Davis would’ve finished sixth with a time of 1:13.61, but were disqualified for missing a hurdle.
And in the 4x100m, the girls blew away the competition, literally and figuratively. Ava Machado, Cate Trautman, Sadie Halpern, and Le’Daisha Williams won the event with a school record time of 50.63, besting a previous 10-year record by an entire second.
Raimo called the sprint medley relay one of the more exciting events to watch, and it’s even better when Curtis (200m), Thomas Carlson (200m), David DiConstanzo (400m), and Ryan Thompson (800m) finish fifth with a time of 3:42.34.
“Harrison, Thomas, David, and Ryan put together a time just a couple seconds off Rising Stars Nationals,” Raimo said.
Whalen (200m), Gabrielle Hendy (200m), Charlie Roszell (400m), and Kate Twomey (800m) sprinted to third place with a time of 4:27.20.
In the girls 4x200m, and for the second time, Machado, Trautman, Halpern, and Williams were victorious, winning the event with a time of 1:48.54 to eclipse a previous school record of 1:48.63 from 10 years ago.
“It will be incredible to watch this group in the postseason against the top competition in the state and region,” Raimo said.
Then there was long jump. Hersey (14th individually, 18’11.25”), Apostolopoulos (27th, 17’10.75”), and Sebastian Pantzer (30th, 17’8”) finished eighth overall, while Davis (sixth, 15’6”), Burchfield (ninth, 15’1.5”), and Roszell (16th, 14’3”) finished second overall with a combined distance of 44’10”.
“There were 33 jumpers in the event, and for Claire, Elise, and Charlie to all finish in the top half is impressive, especially considering all three competed in three different events,” Raimo said.
The triple jump was another Marblehead success, and in discus, Rachael Albert (third, 90’5”), Hannah O’Brien (sixth, 82’5”), and Campbell Crane (39th, 51’) finished third.
In the girls 4x400m, Trautman, Halpern, Williams, and Roszell finished fourth with a time of 4:17.08, good for 15th in the state.