Season Wrap-Up: Boys' Track

Now that 2011 spring sports season has come to a close, Marblehead Patch will be offering recaps from each of the school's varsity sports teams over the next two weeks.

Residents interested in copies of the video slideshow shown above can contact Marblehead Patch editor Owen Boss at owen.boss@patch.com, and he will be glad to put a disc in the mail for you.

Today, Marblehead Patch offers a look at some of our coverage from the high school's NEC champion boys' track team. The boys had an excellent season this year, one their coach called a "statement year." With huge wins over Peabody and Swampscott, this will likely be one that the graduating seniors will never forget.

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The following letter was submitted by Marblehead's  boys' track coach, Brian Crowley after the team's victory over Swampscott on June 7.

We finished the season 7-0, giving us back-to-back undefeated spring seasons and two NEC championships.

We made a significant statement this season. Because of the success we’ve had in previous years we were moved from the small school division to the large school where we began the season by shocking Peabody with their first loss in 4 years.

We then went on to outscore our opponents 708 to 244 over the course of the whole season. We also sent a record 20 boys to the state divisional meet to compete in 32 events.

The meet against Swampscott, which we won 97 to 39, was originally scheduled to be run on May 9 but was rained out and wasn't held until June 7. We were concerned that going a full month without a dual meet would have a negative impact on our training.  Believe me it’s hard to keep 65 boys focused and working hard 6 days a week without any competition.  They get stale and the daily grind can be exhaustive for both coaches and athletes.

But we set a goal and to their credit the boys stuck with it. We had almost 100% attendance at practice every day and they made the necessary preparations to get the job done. Before the meet we talked about having to have another banner day like we had against Peabody and they responded with 9 personal bests and 4 sweeps.

We needed to beat Swampscott to ensure that we won the conference title outright.  Had we lost we would have had to have shared the title with Peabody and that just didn’t sit well with the team, having beaten them in head-to-head competition earlier in the season (the NEC has no tie breaker for track).

I’m thrilled we were able to accomplish this.  This is a great group of seniors who have worked very hard for four years.  But in addition to that – from seniors on down to freshmen – this I the nicest group of boys we’ve ever had the privilege and pleasure to work with.

2011 Results:

2011 Roster

• Bekzod Akhmadaliev

• Josh Beloff

• Noah Bittermann

• Josh Blayer

• Harrison Bond

• Mike Brenan

• Nick Broughton

• Zack Burton

• Jordan Calixto

• Nicholas Carr

• Pat Casey

• Connor Cataldo

• Andrew DiMare

• Ethan Dunleavy

• Justin Dunleavy

• Paul Elder

• Cristian Flores

• Nate Fowler

• Davis Franklin

• Josh Freedland

• James Gassler

• Billy Graves

• Cole Guyre

• Mike Harper

• Jason Harris

• Austin Heiner

• Will Herlihy

• Ryan Horrigan

• John Howard

• Graham Jackson

• Joel Katz

• Oliver Kim

• Matt Leiberson

• Peirce Law

• Wheeler Law

• Doug Levine

• Ethan Levine

• Max Levine

• Brendan Lydon

• Andrew McDonald

• Kevin McElroy

• Ian McIver

• Koby Michaels

• Tyson Miller

• Jake Morris

• Chris Neumann

• Ben Orlowski

• Chris Pedersen

• Ryan Phelan

• Chris Piper

• Danny Plunkett

• Henry Poulin

• Henry Pratt

• Will Pratt

• Nolan Raimo

• Will Rockwell

• Conrad Rousseau

• Ron Seiden

• Michael Simmins

• Jake Smith

• Jake Sversen

• Kevin Touch

• Jason Veytsman

• Adam Wanstall

• Graham Wheeler

• James Wigglesworth

• Chris Wiley

• Tyree Williams

• Greg Worth

Schedule and roster provided by Marblehead High School. Photos by Bob Roche and Shannon Egan Casey.