Arcari, Caprio, Tucker And Kirby Aim For Gold

It's a very big stage, where nerves can take over or heroes can emerge, but Tewksbury High School will load up a bus with 32 talented athletes early Saturday morning and head down to Bridgewater State University to compete in the Division 2 state track and field championships.

"You never know," "It's a big meet with a lot of pressure and it's pretty chaotic down there. State meets are hard to predict. It depends on what day it is."

Tewksbury, however, has at least four athletes with credentials that indicate that they can handle the pressure of the big stage.

is the defending Division 2 state champion in the 800-meter run. She won the Division 2 title last May as a junior at nearby Cawley Stadium in Lowell, besting the rest of the field by over three seconds.

Tucker, however, suffered a muscle injury in her leg this winter and has worked diligently to come back from it all spring. She returned to competition in time to win the Merrimack Valley Conference 800-meter championship last Saturday night in 2:20.56, finishing four seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Tucker's time was good enough to earn her the sixth seed in Saturday's Division 2 state meet, but it was still far short of her personal best of 2:09.13 that was good for sixth place in the nation at the New Balance Nationals in North Carolina last June.

is worried that Tucker has been fighting a virus all week and may not be in peak physical condition on Saturday, however.

"Based on talent alone, Leanne will at least be in the thick of things in the 800," Byrnes said. "But she's been pretty sick this week. It all depends on how quickly she can recover."

Tewksbury has three athletes seeded second in their events on Saturday. senior and are all threats to win state championships.

Caprio set a school record in the javelin at the MVC championships last Saturday, crushing the rest of the competition by 22 feet with a toss of 130-feet, two inches.

Caprio will have her work cut out for her if she wants to out-throw top-seeded Laura Malone of North Attleboro, who has thrown over 138 feet this year.

"Caprio has the best kid in the state seeded in front of her," Byrnes said. "But she should at least be in the top three or four, especially with her consistency this year."

Last May, Arcari took second place in the 100-meter dash as a junior at this meet, in an extremely fast 10.97 seconds. His top time this spring is 11.08 seconds, good for the No. 2 seed behind North Attleboro's Brady Shorey, whose best time is 11.04.

"Anthony is definitely within striking distance of the No. 1 seed," Levine said. "He's definitely got a shot at a state championship if he comes to run."

Kirby destroyed the rest of the field in the 400-meter hurdles at the MVC championships last Saturday with a meet record time of 56.34. That clocking earned Kirby the No. 2 seed this Saturday behind Needham's Peter Farlow (55.77).

"Kirby is in awesome condition right now so he's ready for anybody," Levine said. "I kind of favor Kirby because if you watched him in his last race he blew the competition away down the final straight. He just went into another gear, so I'm real excited about his chances."

Kirby is also seeded fourth in the pole vault at 12'6" and eighth in the 110-meter high hurdles at 15.2 seconds.

"Kirby has the potential to score a ton of points for us," Levine said.

Teamwise, Levine is also optimistic that his boys squad can show well, and perhaps finish in the top three.

"Mansfield is real good and Central Catholic is real good, but we've got a good shot at taking third, which would be a very good showing out of 30-plus teams," Levine said.

Tewksbury's other top male qualifiers include senior shot putter Dan Sugrue, who qualified fifth (49'9.75") in that event and 10th in the javelin (159'01"). The 4x100-meter relay team of Arcari, Cory Cataldo, Pat Bernardo and Johnny DiGiorgio is seeded eighth.

On the girls side, in both the 100-meter dash and the 400-meter dash. Bridle accomplished the near-impossible by winning both of those events last Saturday at the MVC championship meet, but she will only be able to compete in one of the two races this week.

"There's only about seven minutes between the end of the 400 and the first heat of the 100," Byrnes said. "It would be impossible to recover in that short a time period."

Bridle has yet to decide which event she'll compete in Saturday, but in any event she's a sure bet to help Tewksbury's 4x400-meter relay team make another run at glory. Tucker, Bridle, Ashley Toland, Sarah Hogan and (alternate) Sara Semenza are a threat to place in that event, especially if Tucker is healthy. Tewksbury's team of Toland, Bridle, Tucker and Karie Judge took third in the Division 2 state meet last May and went on to win the all-state 4x400 championship a week later at Westfield State College.

Sophomore pole vaulter Devin Kelly looms as the possible surprise performer for Tewksbury. Kelly is tied for the third seed in the pole vault at 9'0" and vaulting extremely well of late.

"We had the bungee at 10 feet in training and she was close," Byrnes said. "She could potentially walk out of this being our leading scorer."

Junior field event specialist Lisetta Jacintho may also earn that distinction, having qualified third in the shot put at 35'1" and seventh in the discus at 103'11".

"She's capable of throwing the shot 36 feet and the discus 103, and as far as I know there are only five or six kids in the state who can do that," Byrnes said.

Junior sprinter Sarah Hogan qualified 10th in the 200-meter dash and junior hurdler Ashley Toland qualified 10th in the 400-meter hurdles, Rebecca Clark qualified ninth in the javelin.

BOYS -- Stefan Monteiro, triple jump and high jump; Ryan Vibber, triple jump, high jump and 110-meter high hurdles; Christian Taylor, discus; Cory Cataldo, long jump, 4x100 relay and 400-meter hurdles, George Kuegler, 400-meter hurdles and 110-meter hurdles; Pat Bernardo, 200 meters; Colin Foley, 800-meter and 4x800 relay; Roy Felix, 400-meters; Eddie Motovu, 110-meter hurdles; Brian Amaral, mile and 4x800 relay; Kip Horahn, 4x800 relay; Cory Thomas, 4x800 relay; John DiGiorgio, 4x100 relay.

GIRLS -- Sara Semenza, 400-meters and 800-meters; Lauren Andella, 100-meter hurdles, Kelly Quigley, 400-meter hurdles; Sarah Reynolds, shot put; Sydney Paolella, shot put; Courtney Spinelli, javelin; Aly Spencer, pole vault; Amanda  Cossar; pole vault.