On Track: Wilmington Athletes Compete in Cape Ann League Meet

Earlier this week the boys and girls track and field teams traveled to the Reggie Lewis Track Center in Boston for the Cape Ann League Championship Meet and both squads returned home after mounting some strong performances.

The boys team tallied 38 points and ended the day in fourth place overall while the Lady Wildcats were seventh on Tuesday night.

Three Wilmington boys competed in the 1,000-meter run, and Dave Swider had to fight to keep teammate DJ Livermore just behind him. Swider ended the race in eight while Livermore wasn’t far back in ninth place. Peter Warren ended in 12^th.

Steve Halas and Andrew Sears had an even closer finish in the one-mile run. Halas edged out Sears for ninth with a time of 4:48.58, just ahead of his teammate’s result of 4:49.82.

Sears’ performance in the two-mile run was one of the best Wildcat efforts of the day. He finished in fourth place in 10 minutes, 8 seconds.

Nate Downs, however, had the top Wilmington finish of the day when he leapt to a height of 6 feet, 1 inch, good for third place behind the event’s two winners.

Catrina Fryer’s performance in the 55-meter dash was the highlight of the day for Wilmington as she finished second in a competitive field with a time of 7.62 seconds. Overall this year, Fryer finished with 49 points out of a possible 55.

Nikki Lunt also notched a stellar performance on the evening when she snagged fifth place in the shot put. Lunt’s heave of 30 feet, 7 inches, was a personal record.

During the 300-meter run, Cali Peffer and Alex Bischoff finished in sixth- and seventh-place, respectively.

Nikki Sirignano paced herself to a seventh-place result in the two-mile run, and Sydnee Russo was seventh in the one-mile run with a personal-record time of 5 minutes, 46 seconds, that qualified her for the state meet.

Rachel Alatalo was fifth in the 600-meter run and Kelly Hartsough was seventh in the 1,000-meter run.

In addition to the team’s individual efforts, a pair of relay teams highlighted the evening as well for the Lady Wildcats.

Kate Richardson, Hannah Kelly, Russo and Hartsough combined for a time of 10 minutes, 41 seconds, in the 4x800 relay, a state-qualifying time.

Then, Bischoff, Alatalo, Peffer and Michelle Barnes blazed in the 4x400 relay to a time of 4 minutes, 15 seconds, just one second off the pace, for a third-place result. The team took nine seconds off its previous best time, and head coach Thomas Bradley said it is the best finish the school has seen in recent years.