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Melrose defeats Stoneham 68-32 (Jan. 3)
Published January 3, 2025
Tops Wakefield & Burlington for league edge
By JENNIFER GENTILE
BRIGHTON—The Melrose High boys indoor track team finished their last days of 2024 by kicking off a winning start to their season and now stand 2-0 after sweeping league rivals Wakefield and Burlington to finish 2024 off with a bang, including a close 58-41 victory over Wakefield at the Track at New Balance in Brighton on Monday.
With these wins, Melrose are in great position to be a contender for a long-awaited league title. And in the meantime, they are collecting many wins and landing on the podium.
The team of 70 plus athletes return, including a large amount of seniors and several runners who have spent 3-4 years with head coach Tim Morris. Those include upper class runners and athletes such as Caleb Barnes, Brendan Radzik, Sam Madden and Tyler Lecomte.
“We have a really heavy senior class and a strong core of distance runners, jumpers and sprinters, and we are seeing that pay off,” says head coach Tim Morris.
Against Wakefield, Melrose saw some top wins, including senior captain standout Caleb Miller who picked up off his great spring outdoor track (and cross country) seasons by sweeping the entire ML in the 1 mile and 2 mile for easy wins over Wakefield. It’s expected that Barnes may go undefeated in the year in league play, certainly in the ML Freedom.
His teammate Giancarlo Martinis Torres swept the entire field in the 55 hurdles, priming him to be a force all winter for Melrose. Sam Madden also swept the entire field in the high jump and is expected to contend for a state medal this season.
Those first place finishes helped certainly pave way to victory. Yet, it would boil down to the performances of their relay teams as Melrose held a 49-41 lead over Wakefield prior to the final relay events. Fortunately, Melrose prevailed over Wakefield in both those relays, first their 4×200 team of Tyler Lecomte, Brendan Radzik, Sebastian Fiote and Max Lanciani who placed first over Wakefield and second in the entire league. Their 4×400 relay team also placed first over Wakefield behind the legs of Jonah Tully, Jack Kavanaugh, Adam Caldwell and Matt Sarnoski.
“Our relays came up big for us,” confirms Morris. “If we didn’t win those two races it could have gone the other way.”
Melrose had a great 55 dash, topping Wakefield behind the work of Brendan Radzik and Tyler Lecomte, who placed 1-2 over Wakefield and 5th and 7th league wide. Adam Caldwell had a strong 2nd overall in the league and first over Wakefield in the 600m while teammate Jonah Tully came in third. John Strong placed 3rd in the 1000 and Ben Dugan was 2nd in the mile. Henry McCormack was 3rd in the 2 mile. Charlie Finocchiaro and Max Lanciani were 2nd and 3rdrespectively in the 55 hurdles. Finocchiaro also placed 3rd in the high jump and had previously topped the competition against Burlington in that event on Dec. 19 for a strong start to the season. Brendan Radzik also placed second in the long jump.
Melrose will compete against Stoneham on Friday and will take part in an important MSTCA Relay event at Reggie Lewis on Jan 18. While the league is certainly not locked in yet, beating the historically, top- ranked Freedom League teams (Wakefield and Burlington) is a great start, though Coach Morris cautions that Wilmington and Stoneham could be tough. “I’ve heard they are competitive. We can’t overlook them.”