The spring athletics season is fully underway, and the track and field team has hit the ground running with an excellent start. The team has two meets under their belt: one tri-meet against Wilbraham and Monson Academy and Pomfret, and one meet against Canterbury.
Prior to the first meet of the season, all coaches, including Assistant Coach David Baker, helped the team properly prepare so they could be as ready as possible. “We started before March break, introducing the team to some of the skills necessary for different events,” Coach Baker said. “We’ve been teaching technique, building strength with endurance runs, and working on sprinting.” Senior Sattah Phouthakoun explained further. “We’ve been trying to prepare for consistency,” she said. “We want to ease in all the new freshman and incoming teammates who haven’t really done track and field before.”
The first meet took place on April 8, at Wilbraham and Monson Academy. While the boys team performed very well, the meet resulted in a tightly contested loss for the Wyverns. There were some excellent performances of the runners, jumpers, and throwers at this meet. Senior Co-captain Aidan Ladewig placed second in the javelin along with fellow senior Co-captain Paul Giliberto, who placed third in the javelin. Ladewig continued his great day at Wilbraham and Monson as he placed first in the discus. Teammates Giliberto and sophomore Drake Fernald placed second and third respectively as well in the discus. Giliberto also took first place in the shot put with a mark of 32’, 5”. Sophomore Joy Kalinowski performed excellently in the high jump, placing third with a mark of 5’, 4”. With this measurement, Kalinowksi was two inches away from NEPSAC qualifications. Freshman Tyler Brown had an incredible showing in the long jump event, with an exceptional jump of 19’.
The team had an excellent day in the running events as well. The combined efforts of sophomore Sandy Cloud, sophomore Christian Gordon, Kalinowski, and Brown ran very well in the 4×100 relay. The four runners came back from behind in the final stretch with a great finish by Brown to secure first place. The team also dominated the 100. Brown, Cloud, and Kalinowski finished first, second, and third place respectively. First-time runners, freshman Ted O’Connor and freshman Riley Mapp, also ran exceptionally well in this event. Junior Sam Auclair ran well in the 1500, finishing fourth in a very competitive field of runners. Auclair and junior Oskar Ruser also competed in the 3000, a true test of endurance. Russer and Auclair had strong runs, with Russer finishing third and Auclair finishing second.
Though the girls team is smaller in numbers, they still had some extraordinary individual performances at the meet. Senior Captain Jordan DiMauro competed in the 300 intermediate hurdle race for the first time, winning the event with a time of 0:58. Coach Baker was quick to mention the hard work DiMauro had put in over the last two seasons. “She got really good at long jump last year, and she’s coming back as a senior with a lot of experience and knowledge,” he said. “She’s excited, and I’m excited to see what she can jump.” Junior Anissa Lewis had an excellent day in the field events. Lewis placed second in the javelin at a mark of 52’, along with a NEPSAC qualifying long jump at 14’. DiMauro and junior Ava Leshem controlled the 400: DiMauro took second place, and Leshem took third. Wilbraham and Monson and Pomfret both had strong girls teams, making the meet very competitive, but the Wyvern girls stayed strong and performed well.
The next meet is on April 29 at Taft School. We wish the whole team luck as the season progresses.
