Relay team earns silver, advances to All States

Published in the February 23, 2018 edition

By JENNIFER GENTILE

MELROSE—The Melrose High girls’ track team wowed at the Div. 4 State Finals held on February 14, 2018 at the Reggie Lewis Center. Nearly every qualified athlete medaled for Melrose, including the team’s 4×200 team who placed a remarkable second with a time of 1:49.19, less than a second than the winning relay team from Pentucket. They advance to All States with their silver medal performance. 

Kaleya Casterglow, Lucia Seide, Nora Daly and Giovanna dos Santos Machado will move on to compete in the 4×200 at All States this weekend.

“They ran fantastic. We had a little bit of a fumble on handoff and that’s something we are going to work on before the weekend, because they had the potential of taking first,” says head coach Shannon Kane. 

THE MELROSE girls indoor track team earned some heavy medal at the Div. 4 State finals, including a silver medal finish by the team’s 4×200 team. (Donna Larsson photo)

Melrose’s Katie Bidgood, Katie Duffy, Lucia Seide and Sarah Herron  also made the podium for Melrose, who collected tons of medal over the day. 

“This was a fantastic meet and I’m so proud of the team’s effort, especially since most of our runners had their personal best times,” said the coach. 

Those who competed for Melrose were the team’s 4×400 relay team, manned by Lauren Pedrini, Kate Bidgood, Jenna Thorpe and Sarah Herron; Katie Duffy, who placed 8th in the 2 mile, good enough to medal; Alex Cotugno who was 18th in the mile; Kate Bidgood, who was 7th in the 1000 meter, Sarah Herron placed 9th in the 600 meter, Gionvanna dos Sanchos Machado was 9th in the 300 and Lucia Seide, who medaled in 8th in the 55 dash. 

The season is over for those not moving on, including coach Kane’s seniors, who she saluted for their efforts. “Lauren [Pedrini] put so much work into this season and she ran her fastest leg in the relay. She never gives up. Sarah battled back from an injury last year to somehow become a better and stronger and Jade Uzzle had a tough job as our shot putter and showed a lot of talent. Even though Kara [Fahey] and Kiera [Sixsmith] were injured and we missed them on the track, they supported us throughout the season. All my seniors were inspiring.”

But many of these athletes will be returning both next season and this coming spring season as members of the MHS spring track team, a squad that could show just as much promise as this team. Stay tuned.