LOWELL | There were some stellar performances in the wind and the rain at
the Merrimack Valley Conference Track and Field Championships, but Danny
Wang's stood out above all others.
The Haverhill senior's blistering 800 meters time of 1:55.58 was second
only to Bob Strout in school history and less than a second off the MVC
mark held by Lowell’s Brian Gagnon (2005, 1:54.77). Wang, who made his move
on Central's Mike Bakhtiari (2nd, 1:56.52) and Chelmsford's Ryan Buckley
with about 300 yards to go, said the weather was not a problem.
"The worse the weather is, the better it is for me," said Wang, alluding
to his cross country background. "Coming down the backstretch on the second
lap my stride was pretty long. I knew if I wanted to take off, I had to
shorten up my stride and that's what I did."
He stunned Bakhtiari, one of the state's elite middle distance runners.
Wang's time, which was a personal best by almost five seconds, moved him
into ninth-place all-time in our region.
What do you do for an encore after winning both the high jump and the
100 meters a week ago at the Andover Invitational?
For Haverhill senior Peter Early, the answer was a simple one | just do
it all again. Early matched his personal best and school record mark with a
jump of 6-foot-4 before saving his best for the 100. Lining up against
Lowell's University of Rhode Island-bound gridiron star Joe Harris, who had
beaten him both in the dual meet and at the Haverhill invitational, Early
got the kind of start worthy of his last name. That enabled him to win in
11.43.
"Pete defended his high jump title and just had a great start today to
win the 100," noted Haverhill coach Mike Maguire. "That was just a super
start."
Haverhill's Corey Gobbi took home the MVC 400 crown with a strong 51.31
effort, and Maguire listed sophomore Devon O'Brien's scintillating win in
the 100 hurdles as one of the most pleasant surprises of the day.
While yesterday's rain washed away a slew of league track meets in the
area, the best the MVC had to offer took to Cawley Stadium, where the only
thing more persistent than the drizzle was the deluge of Central Catholic
placers on both the boys and girls side.
Paced by an MVC Meet-record performance by Angus MacDonald in the mile,
the Central Catholic boys (91) outdistanced Andover (66) and Lowell (65) to
take the boys crown, while the girls squad walked away with the crown with
121 points to easily outdistance second-place Tewksbury (88) and
third-place Lowell (86).
Seventeen of the 18 events were contested with the boys and girls pole
vault set to take place at Cawley tomorrow 3:30 p.m.
After breaking the school mile mark in the winter, MacDonald added the
outdoor MVC meet mark to his coffers by eclipsing the 32-year-old standard
set by Tewksbury’s Jim Stronach way back in 1975.
“Just like he had his eye on the school's mile and 2-mile marks in the
winter, the same has been true with the outdoor mark," said Central coach
Mike Leal. "It has been coming little by little this spring and today he
just exploded."
Central's MacDonald smashes record
With Haverhill star miler Pat Fullerton out with tendonitis, MacDonald
thought Chelmsford's Chris Brown would provide his stiffest challenge and
it indeed played out that way with Brown finishing second at 4:23.92.
"I thought it would definitely be Brownie," said MacDonald, who finished
in 4:19.14. "And it was him and I the whole way. I actually thought he had
me in that last 600 meters and it was just that last 200 meters that
decided the race."
Central scored in every field event, except the long jump, to keep
Andover, which had a strong day in the field events, in its rear view
mirror. It was an impressive performance considering that mainstay KB
Oshodi suffered a knee injury early on in the long jump and versatile Zac
Camacho continues to be slowed by a nagging hamstring injury.
“Luckily Oshodi was able to jump through it,” said Leal of Oshodi, who
gutted it out to a fifth in the triple jump.
Three second-place performances in all three relays did not hurt things
either for Leal's club, which won last week's Andover Invitational.
Central girls coach Katie Sullivan was happy to see her squad put aside
the mediocre (at best) conditions and focus on the job at hand.
“I think the girls really wanted to take this,” she said after
collecting her first MVC crown. “I’m glad it went off and it was nice to
see the girls not cower to the weather, but instead go out and do what they
had to do. I’m very proud of them.”
Gold for Central's Diodati, O'Sullivan, O'Donnell
It was a another strong day for Central's throwers. Allison Shawcross
won the shot and the incomparable Lauren Berg, who broke fellow Raider
Colleen Sorenson’s year-old MVC record (125-7) with a monstrous effort of
125-10. That's just shy of Sorenson's school mark of 127-5. Katie O'Donnell
of Haverhill kept things rolling in the long jump with a winning effort of
15-4<1/2>.
Haley O’Sullivan of West Newbury finished her sparkling MVC career with
a bang, winning the 300 hurdles (46.52), while placing fifth in the triple
jump and running a leg on Central’s second-place 4x400 relay. Sara Missert
also had a strong all-around day, winning the triple jump while also taking
second in the 400 and running a leg on the 4x400 relay.
“Those girls that double up and do multiple events really help out and
it’s emblematic of how tough they are mentally,” said Sullivan.
Danielle Diodati of Haverhill ran a strong 200 (26.81) to win her third
straight MVC crown.
“Being a senior, it meant more than other years,” said Diodati, who will
be attending Wagner College in New York. “It feels so good because you work
so hard for four years and this is the reward.”
Shannon and Muccio key Andover
As far as just track events go, especially in the sprints, the Andover
girls continue to show that they have enough firepower to compete with
anyone. Colleen Shannon got the ball rolling in the 800 with a new meet
record of 2:17.84.
"I wasn't really expecting to run a good time because of the rain and
stuff, but I ran the first quarter and felt really good," said Shannon, who
broke the mark of 2:18.58 set by Andover's Brittany Moriarty in 2004. "I
just wanted to stay up front and run the last 200 as hard as I could."
It was a game plan that Andover coach Peter Comeau had no qualms with.
"She ran a smart race and it looked like today she really had a plan,"
said Comeau.
Moved to the first leg of Andover's lethal 4x400 really, Shannon, along
with Vanessa Singleton, Sarah York, Kayley Pettoruto, rounded out her day
by setting a new MVC standard with a time of 4:05.15.
Comeau's star sprinter, Christina Muccio, also seemed to have a plan |
avenge her loss to Haverhill's Samantha Stabile in the 100 at last week's
Andover Invitational. Muccio accomplished just that by out-kicking the
Hillie sophomore with a time of 12.65. For good measure, Muccio anchored
Andover's victorious 4x100 relay squad, teaming with Bizzy DiTroia, Melissa
Knapp and substitute, Mallory Cayon.
Keying the way for the Andover boys second-place finish was Peter Shaw's
impressive win in the 2-mile and another strong day in the field from the
trio of Santi Costello (long jump), Norbert Guery (triple jump) and Sean
Donlan (discus) all of whom left as MVC champions.
Methuen captures 4x800 boys relay
Not too many people come from behind on Central's MacDonald down the
stretch, but that's just what Methuen senior Adam Hanley did on the anchor
leg to win the 4x800 relay for Methuen. Guy Hudson set up Hanley's heroics
with a terrific second leg, while Kevin Pereira and Nathan Pinciak got
things going in the first two legs for the Rangers.

MVC Girls Meet
Girls teams (17 events scored): Central Catholic 121, Tewksbury 88,
Lowell 86, Andover 65, Haverhill 56, Chelmsford 45, Methuen 25, Dracut 17,
Billerica 18, Lawrence 8.
Local placers:
100: 1. Christina Muccio (A) 12.65, 2. Samantha Stabile (H) 12.82, 4.
Bizzy DiTroia (A)12.92, 5. Ashley Evangelista (CC)13.38 6. Josie Aikeyu (M)
13.52. 200: 1. Danielle Diodati (CC) 26.77, 3. Vanessa Singleton (A) 27.18,
4. Melissa Knapp (A) 27.20; Mile: 3. Jenn Racine (H) 5:24.94, 4. Mary
Fullerton (H) 5:27.66, 5. Megan Jowett (CC) 5:32.09; 2-Mile: 4. Kristen
Martin (CC)11:48.15, 5. Colleen McNaughton (H)11:53.59; 400: 2. Sara
Missert (CC) 59.75, 4. Lindsay Pappas (M) 1:00:95, 5. Kayley Pettoruto
(A)1:02.13; 800: 1. Colleen Shannon (A) 2:17.48, 5. Michaela Poulin (CC)
2:23.76, 6. Beth Fullerton (H) 2:24.39; 100 Hurdles: 1. Devon O’Brien (H)
16.79, 3. Kim Wong (M) 16.92, 6. Mallory Cayon (A) 17.38; 300 Hurdles: 1.
Haley O’Sullivan (CC) 46.52, 6. Wanda Latorella (H) 50:28; 4x100 relay: 1.
Andover (Bizzy DiTroia, Melissa Knapp, Mallory Cayon, Christine Muccio)
50.78, 2. Central Catholic 51.30, 4. Methuen 51.83; 4x400 relay: 1.
Andover (Colleen Shannon, Vanessa Singleton, Sarah York, Kayley Pettoruto)
4:05.15, 2. Central Catholic 4:11.19, 6. Haverhill 4:26.59; 4x800: 2.
Haverhill 9:58.11, 4. Central Catholic 10:10.75.
High jump: 2. Adrienne Boss (CC) 5-0, 3. Samantha Stabile (H) 5-0, 4.
Lea Freeman (M) 5-0: Long jump: 1. Katie O’Donnell (CC) 15-4 <1/2>, 2.
Abbey Pettoruto (A) 15-0<1/2>, 4. Wanda Latorella (H) 14-11<3/4>, 5.
Danielle Diodati (CC) 14-11<1/2>; Triple jump: 1. Sara Missert (CC)
33-11<1/2>, 5. Haley O’Sullivan (CC) 30-9<1/2>, 6. Stephanie Munoz (L)
30-6; Shot put: 1. Allison Shawcross (CC) 33-3<3/4>, 3. Lourdes Pena (CC)
32-11 <1/2>, 5. Lauren Hoole (CC) 30-11<3/4>, 6. Karina Lopez (L) 30-8;
Discus: 3. Karina Lopez (L) 98-9, 4. Allison Shawcross (CC) 88-3; Javelin:
1. Lauren Berg (CC) 125-10, 3. Kim Wong (M) 96-2, Olivia Paquette (H)
94-11.

MVC Boys Meet
Boys teams (17 of 18 events scored): Central Catholic 93, Andover 66,
Lowell 65, Tewksbury 63, Chelmsford 59, Haverhill 55, Billerica 40, Methuen
40, Dracut 38, Lawrence 8.
Local placers:
100: 1. Peter Early (H) 11.43, 6. Josh Adams (M) 11.99; 200: 5. Claude
Johnson (M) 24.21, 6. Andy Scott (CC) 24.93; Mile: 1. Angus MacDonald (CC)
4:19.14, 3. Adam Hanley (M) 4:26.40, 5. Frank Perrone (A) 4:34.58; 2-Mile:
1. Peter Shaw (A) 9:47:57, 3. Ethan Penney (H) 9:57.69; 400: 1. Corey Gobbi
(H) 51.31, 3. Justin Kurek (CC) 52.46, 6. Rob Martin (A) 53.37; 800: 1.
Danny Wang (H) 1:55.58; 2. Mike Bakhtiari (CC) 1:56.52, 4. Guy Hudson (M)
1:59.24; 110 Hurdles: 3. Sam Sa (L) 15.85, 4. Joshue Henriquez (M) 16.10:
300 Hurdles: 3. Zac Camacho (CC) 42.33, 4. Sean Donahue (M) 42.81, 6. Chris
Spracklin (CC) 43.27; 4x100 relay: 3. Haverhill 45.88, 4. Central Catholic
46.35, 5. Lawrence 47.35; 4x400 relay: 2. Central Catholic 3:28.88, 6.
Methuen 3:37.37; 4x800 relay: 1. Methuen (Kevin Pereira, Nathan Pinciak,
Guy Hudson, Adam Hanley) 8:14.60, 2. Central Catholic 8:15.75, 3. Andover
8:25.36, 6. 800: 8:50.44.
High jump: 1. Peter Early (H) 6-4, 2. Giovanni Frias (CC) 6-2, 3. Alex
Cummings (CC) 6-2, 6. Armando Hucciarelli (CC) 5-10; Long jump: 1. Santi
Costello (A) 20-2, 2. Josh Adams (M) 19-10 <1/2>, 4. Norbert Guery (A)
19-2; Triple jump: 1. Norbert Guery (A) 41-7 <1/2>, 3. Walson Constant (CC)
40-1, 5. KB Oshodi (CC) 37-0; Shot put: 2. Anthony Mawhinney (CC) 49-0
<3/4>, 4. Andrew Regan (CC) 46-10 <1/4>, 5. Miguel Rosario (H) 46-4 <1/2>;
Discus: 1. Sean Donlan (A) 142-8, 3. Chris Farren (CC) 132-1, 6. Steve
Moore (A) 116-7; Javelin: 2. Steve Lattari (A) 157-0, 4. Greg Moore (A)
145-1, 6. Dan Conboy (CC) 140-1