Published in the February 21, 2019 edition.

ROXBURY — The ‘Clash of the Champions’ made for an exciting day at the Reggie with four teams shooting for the Div. 4 State Championship team title going into the last event.

Wakefield, Weston, Northampton, and Burlington have all won track and field state titles in the past year or two, verifying the strong level of competition on Sunday.

“To say it was an exciting meet is really an understatement,” said Wakefield head coach Ruben Reinoso. “Although we came up short, at an honorable 3rd place, our kids came to compete and left it all on the track and field. We are so proud of the way our kids showed up to the meet and gave it all they had.”

It came down to the very last race, the 4×400 relay and the Warriors ran their best time of the year in this event too.

In the mile, Rohan Singhvi started his eventual triple by placing 4th in the mile in a time of 4:32. Casey Brackett had a personal best running 4:46 to place 12th. Brackett battled pneumonia all season and finished his final indoor campaign on a high note.

In the hurdles, Eli Gosselin-Smoske ran his best personal time of 8.38 and was 14th overall.

In the 55 meter dash, Brian Smith started his day by running a personal best time of 6.81 and was 6th overall. Wesley Pierre ran a 6.91 and was 13th overall.

In the long jump, Tommy Mottl jumped 17’7.

In the shot put, Liam Cosgrove had a throw of 41’11.75 and was 14th overall.

In the high jump, Tommy Galvin jumped 5’8 and was 9th overall.

In the 300 meters, Brian Smith continued his terrific day by running another personal best time of 36.37 and placing 5th overall. Tucker Stikeman ran a personal best of 37.81 and was 10th overall.

In the 600, Derryn Langlois went above and beyond capturing valuable points with an impressive personal best time of 1:25.93 placing 6th in one of the most competitive 600 meter races of the season. Langlois ran the second fastest 600 meter time ever for Wakefield behind former All State and New England runner up Jackson Gallagher.

Junior Trevor Zupan also ran a personal best time of 1:26.87 to place 9th, just one position out of scoring.

In an exciting 1000 meter run, junior Tanner Jellison ran a big personal best time of 2:34.64 and more importantly got a 2nd place finish for the team. Next week at All States, Jellison gets another shot at Matt Greatorex’s school record of 2:34.28 from just last year. His time will be fast enough to get him into the fast heat.

Billy Stevens ran a season best of 2:45 to place 2nd in his heat and 12th overall.

The 2 mile was full of Warriors with three athletes grabbing one of the eight scoring places and five competing overall. Carter Margolis had his best showing at a state championship finishing in 3rd with a personal best time of 9:55. Margolis sat patiently over the first mile and ground it out to catch a few runners who had a big lead at that point. Margolis will move on to All States next week.

Junior Matt Roberto ran a time of 10:07 to get an important 6th place finish. Rohan Singhvi came back just over an hour after his 4th place finish in the mile to capture points with his 7th place finish in a time of 10:09.

Singhvi went right to last at the beginning of the race and worked his way up through the 16 laps catching two runners over the last 400 meters. Freshman Mike Roberto had another personal best taking 13 seconds off his time from last week to run 10:40 and place 17th with a vicious kick over passing six runners over the last 200 meters. Sophomore Jonathan D’Ambrosio was 25th with a time of 10:59.

The 4×800 team of Billy Stevens, Casey Brackett, Carter Margolis and Rohan Singhvi placed 7th overall in 8:43. Stevens led off and passed off to Brackett. Less than an hour after their 2 mile, Margolis and Singhvi (in his 3rd event of the day) closed things out with two strong legs.

It was a good example of multiple Warriors who stepped up on short rest.

“We had kids compete in three events, some even less than 25 minutes apart and many had personal bests,” said Reinoso.

The 4×400 team of freshman Bradley Diaz, Derryn Langlois, Trevor Zupan and Tanner Jellison ran a very strong race to place 4th in a season best time of 3:32.92 and will advance to the All State Championship next week where they will have a chance at the school record of 3:31.25.