THE WAKEFIELD HIGH boys’ indoor track and field team were runners-up at the Div. 3 State Championship meet held at the Reggie Lewis Center on Wednesday. (Courtesy Photo)
BOSTON — The success of a team should not be defined by one day. The Wakefield High boys’ track and field team has had a tremendous season which included a Freedom Division Championship, a runner-up finish at the Middlesex League Championship, a State Relay Championship title, school records, national qualifiers and endless personal best performances.
This week, the Warriors came up a little short of the Division 3 State Championship title. However, they were able to use their depth to climb to the podium as the runner-up team after strong relay performances.
Junior Ben Stratton was first to put the Warriors on the board with his 4th place finish in an indoor season best of 4:30.05 in the mile. Stratton remained steady the whole way and finished strong over the second half of the race. His time might hold up to get a wildcard spot into the All State Championship. Sophomore Liam Taggart placed 17th in a PR of 4:50.18. Braden Carroll placed 20th in 4:54.81.
Bradley Diaz was amazing with his eye-popping performance in the 600 meters. He led from gun to tape and broke the meet record with a personal best time of 1:21.14. Diaz now holds the number one time in the state this year and a No. 11 time in the country. Sophomore Joe Patt placed 17th in 1:31.36, a PR. James Christie was tripped midway through the race and had to fight back for a 26th place finish of 1:34.35.
In the 1000 meters, Ajay Haridasse secured more important points for the team as he placed 5th in a personal best of 2:39.95. Sophomore William Mezikofsky ran a personal best of 2:46.84 to place 17th.
In the long jump, Junior Lucas Kehoe started his strong showing and placed 4th with a jump of 20’7.5” Josh Catino placed 2nd jumping 17’1.75”.
Kehoe then followed the long jump up with a personal best in the 300 meters to place 5th with a time of 36.64.
With tired legs, Kehoe then went on to clear an impressive 6’2” to place 4th in the high jump. The challenging triple allowed Kehoe to post up 14 points on his own. Junior Will Riley just missed the podium with a 9th place finish, jumping 5’8”.
In the 2 mile, the pace was fast in the fast section after Thomas Dowd established a fantastic time of 10:00.91. A performance that would typically place top 4 or 5. Mike Roberto ended up taking 8th place with a time of 9:56.74. Dowd would end up finishing 10th in one of the deepest 2 miles in recent memory. Junior Leith Jones placed 12th in a PR of 10:11.63.
The 4×200 meter relay team of Berinato, Ryan Tracy, Brian Casey and Jonathan Courtright placed 12th in 1:38.77.
The 4×800 meter relay team of Diaz, Stratton, Mezikofsky and Haridasse placed 3rd to advance to All States with a time of 8:27.61.
The 4×400 meter relay team included Haridasse and Diaz in their 3rd event of the day and Christie and Patt in their 2nd event. The foursome finished a strong 5th place with a time of 3:38.96.
Jack Berinato ran a 6.84 and was 13th overall. Jack came out for his first year and is the fastest sprinter under coach Ruben Reinoso in the past 13 years.
In the 55 meter hurdles, Josh Catino ran a personal best of 9.0. He improved his time by almost half a second which is unheard of in such a short race.
“I am very proud of our whole team because of the way they fought from start to finish,” said Reinoso. “The coaches have done such a great job and I am proud of the way they show up to practice everyday and help our athletes become better everyday. Our goals will never change; from the first day we took over this program we have preached to our kids that we simply want to be better everyday.”