TMHS Boys Take Third At Division 2 Relays

On a state-wide level, the isn't over-loaded with superstars.

Aside from and senior all-purpose man , there aren't many TMHS athletes who are a legitimate threat to win an individual Division 2 state championship this spring.

But what the Redmen do have is depth, and plenty of it, which came in very handy at Saturday's Dvision 2 State Relays at Whitman-Hanson High School.

Led by the first-place 4x200-meter relay team of Kirby, Pat Bernardo,  Arcari and John DiGiorgio, the Tewksbury boys placed in the top six in eight different events and piled up 42 points, good for a somewhat unexpected third place finish in the meet.

Mansfield won the state relay title with 73 points while Central Catholic took second with 63.

"We've got a great combination of experienced seniors and talented younger kids on this team," . "My thing walking away was 'Wow, so many kids did well today.' "

Kirby, of course, was prominent among them. Not only did Tewksbury's man-for-all-events run a lightning fast leg (22.7 seconds) on the winning 4x200 team, but he also led the pole vault group and the shuttle hurdle group to second place finishes in those events.

Kirby cleared 11-feet, six inches in the pole vault and teamed up with Colin Foley (10' even)  and Nick Parsons (9' 6") to take second place in that event. Then he worked with the 110-meter shuttle hurdle relay crew of Ryan Vibber, George Kuegler and Stefan Monteiro to take second place in that event in 1:04.61.

Kirby ran 15.0 in the hurdles, which ranks him at the top of the MVC in that event, while Vibber ran 15.8, Kuegler ran 16.0 and Monteiro ran 16.9.

The 4x200 team was led by Arcari, who has returned to full health after a late-winter hamstring injury. Arcari blew through the 200 in 22.3 seconds, which represents the fastest 200 in the Merrimack Valley Conference so far this spring. Bernardo ran a 24.4 and DiGiorgio ran a 24.5, while Kirby was only 0.4 seconds behind Arcari with his 22.7.

"Kirby has been doing weights this year and he's gotten stronger and he's gotten more confident," Levine said. "He's got a strong, lanky body and he's very smart. He's able to reason out what's going on and make corrections."

Tewksbury earned many of its points in the field events, as senior weight man Dan Sugrue led the javelin crew to a sixth-place finish with a huge throw of 157 feet. That toss represeneted a personal best for Sugrue by more than 10 feet, and fell just nine feet short of the school record.

Sugrue also led the shot put relay team to a fourth place finish with a toss of 45 feet, three inches. Christian Taylor threw 41-feet, four inches and John Fiorello threw 39-feet, five inches.

"Sugrue's throwing great," Levine said. "One of these days he's really going to cork one. He'll be close to 50 feet in the shot put before the end of the year, too."

Vibber, the senior football star who has been battling a back injury all winter, also looked healthy on Saturday, leading the triple jump team to a fourth place finish with a leap of 40-feet, eight inches. Monteiro matched Vibber's 40' 8' triple, while sophomore Cory Cataldo jumped 39' 2".

Vibber also looked strong in the long jump with a leap of 19' 6.25", while Cataldo led the way at 21' 0.5" and DiGiorgio jumped 17' 10.75".

Tewksbury's distance medley relay team took sxith place. Foley ran 1200 meters in 3:24.4, Cataldo ran a 52.9 second 400, Kip Horahan did the 800 in 2:12.2 and Brian Amaral ran the 1600 in 4:53.2.

TMHS GIRLS -- CAPRIO'S TOSS SETS JAVELIN RECORD

continued her string of strong performances with a career-best toss of 119-feet, 10-inches, which is the second best javelin toss in Tewksbury High history. Rebecca Clark (100 feet) and Courtney Spinelli (97 feet) combined with Caprio to take first place in the event and set a Division 2 Relays meet record of 316 feet, 10 inches.

"Andrea Caprio's 119-footer was a monster," TMHS girls coach John Byrnes said. " Coach (Peter) Molloy's been raving about her practices, and it's really showing through at meet time.  I never hear Andrea bring up (Brittany) Pandolph's school record (122'10), but I know she thinks about it, and she's pretty much at the level where that mark is going to come under fire every time the conditions are good."

Junior speedster Jess Bridle also had a huge day for the Lady Redmen, running two sub-60 second 400 meter races and helping her team to a pair of third place finishes. Bridle clocked 59.6 seconds in the sprint medley relay and 59.3 seconds in the 4x400 meter relay.

"Jessie was Jessie once again," Byrnes said.  "It's tough to find kids who can break 60 in the quarter this early in the season, but it's nearly impossible to get one who can do it twice in one day. She's a tough nut though."

In the sprint medley relay, Sarah Hogan (27.1)  and Hannah Sedgwick (27.8) ran 200-meter legs while freshman Sara Semenza ran the 800-meter leg in 2:23.7 as Tewksbury took third in a total time of 4:18.

Bridle's 59.3 clocking led the 400-meter relay team to a third place finish. Hogan ran a 61.0 while Sara Semenza and Ashley Toland each ran 62.8.

Semenza, only a freshman, helped her team score points in two events.

"Sara Semenza is  awfully talented and she showed it on that anchor leg,   2:23.7 is a pretty serious time," Byrnes said.  "In fact, the only kids I've seen drop that kind of time so early in their careers are (Ashley) Toland and  (Leanne) Tucker, so you  get a sense of the kid's potential."

Lisetta Jacintho's toss of 99-feet, four inches led Tewksbury to a fourth-place finish in the discus relay. Sarah Reynolds threw 79-feet six inches while Spinelli threw 67 feet even. Reynolds' toss was a personal best by six feet.

The pole vault crew of sophomores Devin Kelly (7'6") and Amanda Cossar (7'0") and freshman Aly Spencer (7'0") took third place. Kelly's leap was a state qualifier and Cossar and Spencer hit personal bests.

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