Sports
Levine Goes Out With A Bang
Tewksbury High boys track team beats Billerica to give retiring coach Steve Levine an MVC championship in his final dual meet.
Steve Levine went out with a bang.
In more ways than one.
, who has announced his retirment in June as a physical education teacher and a coach after 35 years on the job, watched his team clinch the 2011 Merrimack Valley Conference Division 2 championship with a 87.5-57.5 victory over Billerica on Monday, and as usual, he didn't go quietly.
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As the runners lined up for the final race of Monday's dual meet, race official Jack Lang of Chelmsford summoned Levine to the starting line, handed him the starter's pistol and allowed Levine the honor of starting the mile relay.
"It was a special moment," Levine said. "I couldn't believe the emotions that hit me when Jack handed me that gun.
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"And of course, we went out and lost the race," Levine quipped. "But in all seriousness, I'm not a guy who cries on the outside, but inside me I was crying because I know I'm gonna miss a lot of people who've been really, really good to me over the years."
Among the people who have been good to Levine over the last few months are senior multi-purpose men and , who both took a pair of firsts to lead Tewksbury to it's fifth win against only one loss this spring. Vibber cleared 5'6" to win the high jump and ran the 110-meter hurdles in 16.4 to win that event. Vibber also took second in the triple jump.
Kirby won the long jump at 19'3.75" and took first in the 400-meter hurdles in 59 seconds flat. He also ran a leg on the victorious 4x100-meter relay team.
But the key to Tewksbury's title-clinching win was a totally unexpected effort from sophomore shot putter , who smashed his previous personal best throw by almost two feet and won the shot put with a toss of 43'5".
"That was a shocker," said Levine of Fiorello's winning throw. "His best throw prior to that was 41'8" and to be honest, we thought that was a good as he could do. But he just broke out of it today and totally surprised us."
Fiorello also took second in the javelin behind , who won that event with a toss of 135'9". Sophomore took second in the shot put and third in the discus as Tewksbury earned a 17-10 advantage in the three throwing events.
Nick Parsons was Tewksbury's other surprise winner, taking first in the pole vault at 10'0" with Tewksbury's top jumper, Kirby, sitting out with a sore shoulder.
Sophomore Roy Felix took first in the 400 meters in a personal best 53.1 in spite of difficult weather conditions and a deteriorating track surface.
"Felix ran his best time ever on one of the worst days you could ever run on and on a poor track," Levine said.
didn't let the poor track conditions bother him, either. Arcari kept his perfect dual meet record intact by winning the 100-meter dash in 11.0 seconds. John DiGiorgio took third.
Senior Colin Foley also had a strong day winning the 800-meter run in 2:05 and taking second in the pole vault.
Tewksbury's 4x100-meter relay team of Pat Bernardo, Kirby, DiGiorgio and Arcari won that event by a staggering margin of close to 30 meters, in 45.3 seconds.
Stefan Monteiro took second in the high jump, third in the long jump and third in the 110-meter hurdles. Vibber led a sweep in that event, with George Kuegler in second. Cory Cataldo was third in the high jump, the 400-meter hurdles and the triple jump.
Kip Horahan took second in the two mile and Brian Amaral took second in the mile. Craig Tino was third in the 400 meters and CJ Sutherland was third in the 200 meters.
"It's a great feeling for the kids to be MVC (Division 2) champs and know that they can run with any team in this league," Levine said. "Our only loss was by three points to Lowell, and Lowell won the Division 1 championship."
Tewksbury will compete in the MVC championship meet on Saturday afternoon and evening at Cawley Stadium in Lowell.
