Sports
Video: Lexington Boys Track Crushes Belmont
Minutemen now preparing for three big meets coming up.
The Lexington High School boys’ track team ran the Belmont High School track team into the ground with a 90-46 victory Monday afternoon.
“I can’t say anything negative about anything that went on today,” said LHS coach Bill Babcock. “The kids were fabulous.
Lexington won 11 of 16 events, taking all but the mile, 4x100-meter, javelin, 100-meter and the 4x400-meter.
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Thomas Ballenthin won the 400-meter hurdles and 400-meter race, and Dennis Nesline took first in the shot put and discus, armoring 43’ and 114’, respectively.
Ballentin finished in 60.2 in the 400-meter hurdles, ahead of Belmont’s Ed Palo (60.6) and Malcom Perkins (62.7). And in the 400-meter race he won in 52.5, while Lexington’s Peter Schirripa took second (53.5).
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“The score doesn’t mean all that much,” said Babcock. “It’s more of a learning experience, getting, particularly the younger kids to see what they’re best suited in. And you know; how they perform in a varsity meet and they did outstanding.”
Three of Lexington’s athletes earned double victories.
Babcock said he knew that Belmont has some good athletes, but that the team as a whole isn’t as strong as it has been in previous years. That gave him the opportunity to insert some new athletes into the meet’s events.
“We had the luxury of resting some kids and letting some younger kids have a shot at competing at the varsity level,” Babcock said. “And I’m always concerned that those kids will take the right approach mentally, but the kids that are always doing varsity might just … be lackadaisical about it. But, just the opposite.
“We knew going in that the javelin was not going to be an event that we would do very well in, yet one of our kids threw his best throw of the year. He could have just said, ‘I’m not going to … they’re much better than I am, I don’t really care.’ But everybody, you know, just tried their best.”
Amanual Abate threw 127’6” for third place in the javelin, just behind Belmont’s first- and second-place finishers.
Lexington’s Anthony Ayala won the triple jump (37’6”), Benjamin Sharma won the 100-meter hurdles (15.7), Sam Jones won the 800-meter run (2:02.5), and John Daley won the 200-meter (23.7).
“I told the kids that I learn more about them and about this team after today’s meet than we did when we beat Reading, you know, which is undoubtedly one of our big rivals," said Babcock.
Next up, Lexington heads to the Andover Invitational on Saturday.
“It’s probably the top invitational meet in the state,” Babcock said. “This is the first year we’re going because it truly is an invitational – they invite you, you don’t just sign up for it.
“And then Tuesday we have Burlington, which is very tough and then Thursday we have Woburn, which is undefeated.”
Preparing the team for the upcoming meets, Babcock said, “It’s going to be tough” with strict practices.
“Luckily we have just this meet and the rest of the week to train,” he said. “And last week we just had one meet, so we’ve had a chance to train hard, but rest at the same time. They know what’s at stake and they obviously want to be successful.”
