Roberto puts state on notice with 3rd place
THE WARRIORS took 3rd overall as a team at the Frank Kelley Invitational. (Colleen Riley Photo)
Published in the October 1, 2019 edition.
WRENTHAM — The Wakefield boys’ cross country team have made their invitational debut at the Frank Kelley Invitational for many years and since 2015 they have come away with some hardware placing top three in team scoring the past four years. This weekend, they did so again placing 3rd with a team score of 156 behind winner Marshfield and runner up Lowell.
Over 4,000 athletes competed in the invitational between two divisions, grade level races and JV races.
Of those athletes, senior Matt Roberto had a fantastic race placing 3rd in the Championship race with the 3rd fastest time of the day in 16:32 for the 5K distance. Roberto, who got 12th place a year ago, held off a fast opening pace from a group of runners and after the first time closed the gap to capture 3rd behind Old Rochester’s Alex Craig and Manchester-Essex’s Will Kenney.
Senior Tanner Jellison also had a great run placing 12th with a personal best time of 17:00, improving from his 27th place finish a year ago. Jellison used his mid distance speed to pass a bunch of runners over the last 400 meters.
Sophomore Mike Roberto ran a time of 17:49 to place 44th. Junior Jonathan D’Ambrosio had a much improved time of 18:11 to finish 60th.
Also much improved was junior Colin Rudy who placed 66th in a time of 18:21 to close out the scoring for the Warriors.
Sophomore Thomas Dowd placed 89th in a time of 18:46. Senior Jimmy Crump placed 119th in a time of 19:36.
In the open 5K, junior Zack Jellison had the top performance for the Warriors placing 26th in 18:35. Ian Schermerhorn placed 49th in 19:17. Junior Aaron Canestaro placed 51st in 19:17. Jack Callahan was 70th in 19:42. Steve Robinson placed 72nd in 19:43. Junior Andrew Roos was 79th in 19:51. Junior David Schurter was 81st in 19:52. Noah Brennan placed 104th in 20:19. Junior Alex Skeldon was 108th in 20:23. Junior Jack Tomsyck placed 141th in 21:52.
In the Junior-Senior 3K, Andrew Russell returned from a recent injury to run 11:52 placing 56th. Cory Sample ran 12:51. Dylan Fahey ran 12:53. Lucas Smith ran 13:41.
In the largest field of the day, the Freshman-Sophomore 3K had 370 kids racing, nearly 100 more racing than last year.
Sophomore Ajay Haridasse proved again that he is a candidate for the Warriors’ varsity team placing 12th in a time of 10:47 despite a start that had him caught in a ton of traffic early in the race.
Sophomore James Christie placed 69th in a time of 11:44.
Freshman Will Riley was the top Warrior freshman to cross the line in 78th with a time of 11:51. Freshman Ojas Singhvi placed 91st with a time of 12:00. Freshman Matt McCoy placed 97th in 12:02 and Joey Colliton placed 98th in 12:03.
The rest of Warriors in the race were Sean Russell (12:07), Mike Rivers (12:16), Colby Lee (12:29), Jaden Puccio (12:50), Jack Ahearne (12:53), Sam Bangston (12:55), Caden Munro (13:05), Brian Casey (13:29), Derek Fricia (13:53), Jason Henning (12:53), Nathan Gerawork (14:07),Vincent Kaddaras (14:41), Marcus Conte (14:46), Ben Burdetzky (15:14)
The Warriors head to Melrose tomorrow.
