Reading, Bromfield Big Winners at Coaches Relays
By Joe Reardon

The Reading boys and girls track teams displayed their true strengths at Sunday’s MSTCA Class B Relays and both teams left the Reggie Lewis Center with team titles.

All the more satisfying for the Rockets was winning on their terms.

It’s one thing to win a dual meet against a league opponent. Taking a major state-caliber event, however, with the same tactics is special.

The defending champion Reading boys won 5-of-10 events and scored in a sixth, breaking a pair of records in the process, for 52 points and a comfortable gap ahead of runner-up Woburn (40).

The Reading girls didn’t win a single event, but their depth proved to be devastating. The Rockets placed in every event, culminating with a sixth-place finish in the 4 x 400 relay. Mansfield and Tewksbury tied for second (39 points), just one point behind Reading’s total of 40.

"We don’t run for records, we run for points," said Rockets coach Hal Croft about his boys. "This (relay meet) is a spectrum to show if you’re a true team or not. We focus on this event every year. We get the points. The records come with that."

Ironically, it was Reading’s 1981 Class B mark of 1:32.3 that the Rockets foursome of Tom DiNatale, Steve Comis, Kevin Meleshuk and Ian O’Shea lowered with a scalding 1:32.25. Comis, Meleshuk, Marcello Auriti and DiNatale destroyed the field by nearly three seconds in the sprint medley with a 3:40.86. The performance didn’t surprise DiNatale.

"We knew we went in with a strong team," he said. "We were trying to stack a team and catch the others off guard."

Comis saved his best for the long-jump relay, where his leap of 21-1 was a Class B Relay record. O’Shea and Andrew Matrulo combined with Comis for a distance of 18.33 meters. The distance bettered the 18.15 of Westford Academy in 2000.

The most impressive performance was the 3:25.86 record-setting 4 x 400 victory by Woburn. The Tanners’ final two legs put the race away after Belmont challenged early. Running the anchor leg, Brett Sullivan ripped a 49.78 on the heels of Ryad Bencheik’s 48.58 third-leg burner.

"It was a good meet," said Sullivan. "Some places we could have done better and in some events we did better than we should have."

Peter Gilmore anchored Whitman-Hanson to a distance-medley relay record (10:39.68) with his 4:23.6 anchor leg over 1,600 meters. Woburn’s Matt Pereira cleared 6-3 to pace Woburn to a record total in the high jump.

"They’re three pretty good jumpers," said Tanners coach Joe Curran. "This is the third year in a row they’ve won the high jump."

Reading assistant girls coach Dave Williams believed the point the Rockets picked up in the 4 x 400 made the difference in getting by Mansfield and Tewksbury. The team of Tara Greichen, Dianna Celi, Kelly Cusolito and Chelsea Checks lowered their best time by a whopping 10 seconds with a 4:14.07.

"That 4 x 400 was really intense," said Williams. "Placing out of that second heat really helped out. We bent, but we didn’t break."

Marlboro’s talented distance-medley team of Cathy Withers, Lauren Papalia, Brianna Kunycky and Ally Oram turned the event into a runaway. The foursome’s 12:38.46 bettered Dennis-Yarmouth’s Class B mark by more than seven seconds and was 23 seconds in front of second-place Natick (12:53.98).

"We won this event last year," said Withers. "We wrote out some times yesterday of what we wanted to run. We all ran pretty strong legs."

In Saturday’s Class D competition, It wasn’t just the luck of the Irish shining down on the Bromfield School’s Katherine Finnegan during the anchor leg of the 4 x 400-meter relay.
Finnegan, the fastest 300-meter dasher in the state, attributed at least some of her unmatched kick over the final 120 meters to talent and exhausting track workouts.
But Finnegan, who has been involved in Irish step-dancing since she was 7 years old, said that the dancing gave her an extra final push, helping her cross the finish line in first and all but clinch Bromfield’s first team title in the relay meet.

The junior teamed with the freshmen trio of Kim West, Julia Alexander and Mimi Nardonne for the 4:11.67 win.

"I had that little extra in me so I went for it," Finnegan said. "(Step-dancing) helps cardio-wise and definitely helps my leg muscles. It’s a workout."

Bromfield set the tone early with an impressive 1-2 finish in the 4 x 800 relay. Its 49 points were well ahead of second-place squads North Reading and Hamilton-Wenham (30).
Emily Jones, who anchored the winning 4 x 800 team, said coach Henry Phelan’s strategy paid off.

"We tried to make two even teams," said Jones, who ran with Lisa Reedich, Jennie Ives and Nardonne in the 4 x 800. "(The 1-2 finish in the 4 x 800 was) exactly what we were trying for."

The North Reading foursome of Alexis Capozzi, Laura Bellino, Amanda Poplaski and Shannon Conway registered the fastest time in the state so far this season with their 1:48.17 in the 4 x 200 relay.

"We took it last year and we were really confident," said Capozzi, the defending state outdoor champion in the 100 meters. "We’ve been working hard, and it has paid off."

Ed McCabe’s East Bridgewater team chalked up wins and school records in the 4 x 50-yard relay (23.08) and the long jump relay (17.66 meters), as well as a big 4 x 800 win to take the boys team title for the first time since 2004 with 44 points. The Vikings outlasted a tough Hamilton-Wenham squad (39) and Hudson (36).

"We spread people out and took our chances," said McCabe, who chose not to enter a squad in the 4 x 400 relay. "It’s a very team-oriented meet. My choice was to go more with the high jump and long jump."

East Bridgewater’s 4 x 800 team of Mike Coles, Dustin Zentz, Matt Shea and Chris Harvery shattered their previous best by more than 20 seconds, finishing in 8:30.
Bishop Stang set a meet record in the 4 x 50-yard hurdles. The foursome of Adam Long, Walter Butler, Mike Ferrari and Matt Bandarra bettered Marblehead’s 2004 mark of 27.80 with a 27.16. Hamilton-Wenham (27.22) and East Bridgewater (27.46) were also under the previous mark.