Compete in Absolutely Last Chance to Qualify Meet
BURLINGTON — Even though it was the holiday weekend, eight members of the Warrior girls’ track team took part in the Fifth Annual Absolutely Last Chance to Qualify Meet which was held Sunday at Varsity Field in Burlington.
The Warriors went for three different reasons said Coach Karen Barrett. Some kids want to earn their varsity letters, some wanted to qualify for states and some have already qualified for states and wanted to get a better ranking for the state meet.
Junior Julia Derendal has already qualified for states in the javelin. Her previous best throw was a 97-5. In Sunday’s meet, she threw a 102-2 1/2. This personal best gave her a second place finish in the meet and significantly improved her seeding for the state meet.
Derendal also threw a personal best in the discus with an 80-4 giving her a second place in the meet.
Meg Hudson, a junior, competed in the mile to get her varsity letter. She ran a great race, clocking in at 5:58.70 earning her a letter. Also competing in the mile was Gillian Russell, freshman, with a 6:03.94 and Reilly McNamara, junior, running a 6:23.75. They finished in fifth, sixth and eighth place.
Cassie Lucci, a sophomore, ran the 800 meters finishing first with a time of 2:37.48.
Senior Jill Raso took first in the 400 meters with a time of 65.1 seconds.
Nicole Galli, a senior, competed in the 400 hurdles running a time of 73.1 seconds and finishing in first place.
Freshman Mikayla Ledoux-Walsh competed in the 100 and 200 meter dashes running times of 14.95 seconds and 30.72 seconds. She took ninth and third in the events.
The boys’ and girls’ track teams have one more chance to get personal bests and make states on Tuesday when the Warriors host a double dual meet with Woburn at the Beasley Track and Field facility at 3:30 p.m. The meet will not be scored due to the fact that Woburn is only bringing state qualifying athletes. This meet will be exactly the same as the meet on Sunday but all the Wakefield boys and girls will compete. The meet was a crossover one that was postponed early in April.
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Barrett also wanted to point out that the Wakefield girls had some fantastic performances last Tuesday at Regis College in the Middlesex League championship meet. In the meet the best athletes in the Middlesex League competed against each other. The top seven went to the finals in the running events and the top nine in the field events.
Freshman Anna Lucas was the first to make it to the finals. She placed seventh overall in the 100 meter run with a time of 13.6 seconds. Barrett was very impressed with her effort.
Sam Ross also competed in the 100 running a 14.0 placing 13th.
Avery Parece and Nicole Galli ran the 100 hurdles placing 10th and 20th with times of 17.5 seconds and 19.0 seconds.
In the 400 hurdles, the Warriors had Abby Harrington and Galli running. They placed 10th and 14th with times of 71.5 seconds and 72.7 seconds.
Ross and Hailey Lovell ran the 200 meter finishing 24th and 28th with times of 28.5 seconds and 29.5 seconds.
Allee Purcell ran a fantastic race in the 400 meters. She placed sixth overall with a personal best time of 61.7 seconds. Barrett was very excited to see her run that good of a time as a freshman.
Raso was 11th with a time of 65.1 seconds in the 400.
Emily Hammond ran her best race of the season placing fifth in the 800 with a 2:23. Lucci was 17th with a 2:39.
Sara Custodio and Jordan Stackhouse competed in the mile placing seventh and 10th. They ran times of 5:43 and 5:57.
Shannon Quirk ran an amazing race winning the two mile. It came down to the final straight away and she out sprinted Woburn’s Katie Murray to get a personal best time of 11:27. That was a 27 second improvement for her.
Russell also ran in the two mile. She placed 10th with a 12:56.
Wakefield’s 4×100 relay team finished ninth with a time of 54.8 seconds.
The 4×400 relay team was spectacular. They smashed their previous best time of 4:23. They finished in fourth place with a 4:14. Raso, Purcell, Hammond and Harrington were on the team.
In the field events, Wakefield had Cataldo and Harrington long jumping. They finished 18th and 23rd with jumps of 13-11 and 14-3.
Ross made it to finals in the triple jump finishing fifth with a 33-6. Galli was 14th with a 31-11. Raso was eighth in the high jump with a 4-8. Purcell was 10th also jumping 4-8 which was a personal best for her.
Alessandra Ammatucci and Sam Nimblett competed in the shot put. They were 15th and 18th with throws of 24-8 and 24-5.
Derendal had a great day in the discus and javelin. She made the finals in both events placing sixth in the javelin with a 97-4 and eighth in the discus with a personal best throw of 79-4. Alex Rollins also threw the javelin 86-10 for an 11th place finish. Rollins also was 19th in the discus with a 65-4.
