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By Douglas McCulloch
Hometown Weekly Staff
The Westwood High boys and girls varsity track teams competed in the TVL championship on May 18 at Westwood High School. The boys came in fifth place at the championship, and the girls finishing tenth.
On the boys side, sophomore Brian Marsoobian placed first in javelins with a 129’ 11” throw. Junior Sam Vilmenay finished in third place with a 117’ 8” throw.
In the shot put, Eric Solomon picked up a second place finish with a distance of 40’ 5.25” and a score of 8.
The boys picked up a first place win in the 4x100m relays with a 47:05 time, and third in the 4x400m relay at 3:43.40, picking up a sore of 6.
Junior Alex Haney came in first in the 1-mile run with a 5:03.75 time, freshman Zach Conant placed second and junior Sean Murphy placed third.
On the girls side, freshman Nora Sinno picked up a first place win in the shot put with a 28’ 10.5” distance. Freshman Ashley Szeto came in first in the triple jumps with a 31’ 6.5” distance.
The Westwood girls team came in second in the 400m hurdles with a 1:07.17 time. In the 400m dash, sophomore Molly Hurley came in second and senior Stephanie McClure came in forth.
Boys head coach Gary Bridge noted that the team’s fifth place win was a vast improvement from last year’s championship results, and highlighted how well his team competed together.
“Hosting a meet of that size is always tough and this is especially true in a championship situation where many of the athletes have already completed their season, but those athletes did a terrific job of making sure everything got done as needed,” Bridge said.
Bridge noted that the team has also improved in its regular season rankings. Last season, the team finished the season 1-5, but this season the team has a 3-3 record thanks to strong contributions from athletes in all events.
With the state meet coming up on Saturday, several members of the boys team will be competing. Zach Conant, Sean Murphy, Ryan Marten and Jack Herndon will be competing in the 4x800 relay, and Bridge expects them to place highly.
Davonte Higginbottom has also been a strong asset for the team this year, and qualified for the 100m, 200m and triple jumps in the state meet.
Pat Wade will also be off to the state meet in the high jumps, after setting a 5’ 10” personal record. Bridge noted Wade fills an important void in the team.
“[Wade] has helped filled the hole left by Anthony Vilmenay graduating last year,” Bridge said. “It was an event I was very nervous about going into the season and Pat has really embraced the challenge.”
Bridge also credited several other teammates for their outstanding performance this season, including throwers Conor McCaul and Eric Solomon.
The season has not been without difficulties, however. At the team’s meet against Norwell a week before the championship game, the boys 4x100 team, made up of Davonte Higginbottom, Bob Maughn, Ben Lewis, and alternate John Ralph fell just 0.03 seconds shy of qualifying for the states.
“Those guys have worked very hard all season to qualify and to miss a qualification by such a small margin was tough,” Bridge said.
See more photos from the TVL championship meet at hometownweekly.net.
