Warrior depth pays off in 20-43 victory
Published in the September 18, 2015 edition.
WOBURN — Last year the Warrior boys’ cross country team had its hands full when it hosted Woburn at the Beasley Course at home. Matt DiMauro and Pat Haverty placed first and second for the Tanners, however the Warriors placed all their scores ahead of Woburn’s third runner to secure a narrow victory.
On Wednesday history seemed to be repeating itself at Horn Pond as Woburn hosted this year. At the halfway point DiMauro and Haverty were ahead of a pack of Warrior runners going into the lagoon. Only this time as they exited the trail in the woods Haverty was overtaken by seven or eight Wakefield runners still on the chase for DiMauro.
Wakefield went on to win the meet by a 20-43 tally.
Senior DiMauro held on for the win but newly named captain Richie Custodio and newcomer junior Adam Roberto closed a 25 second gap at the two mile mark to just eight seconds at the finish. DiMauro’s time of 16:41 was just ahead of Custodio and Roberto who finished together with a time of 16:49.
Another newly named captain, Chris Skeldon, finished in a strong fourth place with a time of 17:07. Sophomore Tommy Lucey was fifth with a time of 17:09. Junior Ryan Sullivan was sixth in 17:12 to cap off the scoring runners.
Sophomore Matt Greatorex (seventh in 17:19) and junior Jack Stevens (eighth in 17:34) displaced the rest of the Woburn runners including Haverty who finished behind senior captain Alec Rodgers (ninth in 17:35), junior Jackson Kehoe (10th in 17:39), sophomore Robert Shaw (11th in 17:42). Nick McGee was Wakefield’s 11th runner to finish (13th overall in 17:49) helping maintain a one minute gap from the first man.
Captains Jeremy Keegan (18:07) and Tyler Whipple (18:16) placed 15th and 17th. Both finished ahead of Woburn’s fifth and final scorer.
Scoring in cross country is done by adding up the first five runners of each team. After the fifth runner, the sixth and seventh runner can displace the opponents therefore increasing the score while any other runner to place ahead of the opponents are not factored into the scoring. The low score wins.
The boys put their summer training to the test Wednesday and the depth shined. Coach Perry Pappas felt it was a lot of fun to watch as the Warriors placed 10 runners ahead of Woburn’s number two runner. That depth is what will help Wakefield in each of its wins. The times of its top 14 runners would be competitive across the league. That gives Wakefield confidence that someone will always be there to step up when a teammate has an off day.
In the JV race, the Warriors took the top 10 spots with senior Adam D’Ambrosio (18:53) and junior Shahnawaz Anwar (18:54) leading the way. Wakefield had many fine performances on the junior varsity side with some of the best times for underclassmen that it has ever had.
The rest of the Wakefield runners included Rohan Singvi (19:01), Mike Frezza (19:07), James Connors (19:11), Ty Collins (19:12), Matt Finn (19:18), Billy Stevens (19:22), John Stanfield (19:35), Casey Brackett (19:36), Justin McGonagle (20:12), Joe Boudreau (20:15), Riley Brackett (20:46), Tom Harrington (20:53), Derryn Langlois (20:56), David Lee (21:05), Ryan Patrick Smith (21:25), Sam Morey (21:26), Max Hinchey (21:49) and Ryan Donald (22:22).
The Warriors take on Stoneham in the Middlesex League Freedom division opener on Monday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. at the Beasley Course.
