On Wednesday, May 7, the boys and girls outdoor track teams held their only home meet of the season at Harry Downes Field. The Warriors beat Milton by 38 points, but lost to the Newton North Tigers 42-94, despite plenty of strong performances across the board.

Starting at 4 p.m., the Warriors, Milton Wildcats, and Newton North Tigers faced off in a myriad of track races ranging from the 100-meter sprint to the two mile, including the 100/110m hurdles and 400m hurdles, and six different field events. The number of Warriors’ athletes who participated in at least one race or field event was staggering: around 65 male athletes and 70 female athletes. The huge interest in the program has led to the girls track team being the largest it has ever been. Additionally, the boys outdoor track team held tryouts for the first time ever after a record number of enrolled athletes resulted in the program needing to make cuts.

As it was the only home track meet of the year, the Warriors held both their annual “Senior Night” and “Coaches vs. Cancer” events. Members of the community helped fundraise at the meet by paying money to dedicate a particular event in honor of a loved one who was affected by cancer.

Giant posters of the senior track and field athletes decorated the straightaway on one side of the track, and after the meet had concluded, both teams gathered separately to honor their seniors. Boys coach Michael Glennon and girls coach Lee Eddy both spoke at length about their senior group, and coach Eddy called his senior athletes up to hand out roses and take pictures with their parents.

The meet kicked off with the 400-meter hurdles, where the Warriors finished in five consecutive places with PRs for junior Dylan Hatchett in 3rd and sophomore Hayden Park in 7th. Senior Lysander Duffield had a strong mile performance, running under 4:30 for 2nd place and a six-second PR.

Next up, junior David Liang won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.10 seconds. Many Warriors competed well in the 100-meter race, with a grand total of 10 PRs and a win for sophomore Jonathan Cartwright in the junior varsity race, breaking the 12-second barrier for the first time. Freshman Bruce Wu took 5th in the same race.

The Warriors went 2nd and 3rd in a competitive field of 400-meter runners, thanks to the efforts of juniors Elijah Sweeney and Harry Flint, who pushed each other to run within a second of the other and PR. Following this was the 800-meter, where junior Santi Sierra also ran a PR of 2:01, and five members of the boys team clinched the top 10 places, running their fastest personal times.

The field events went down in style as well, with five Warriors competing in shot put, four in discus and four in javelin. Senior Milo Speck took 5th place in discus, and senior Eric Situ threw a 20-foot PR in javelin, beating out 4th place by a considerable margin. Junior Hunter Robin took 2nd place in the shot put and had a breakout performance in the javelin, where he threw over 183 feet to break the school record.

Robin, who began throwing in his freshman year, said breaking the record was a special moment.

“Honestly, as soon as the javelin left my hand, I knew it was gonna go far, but then when the official said 183’10,” I just knew,” Robin said. “I have always had the school record number on my mind, and I was just really ecstatic and really happy [when I broke it].”

Meanwhile, junior David Liang and sophomore Avyaya Jha scored fourth and fifth place, respectively, in long jump, with Jha jumping a season best of 17 feet and seven inches. Senior Anthony Drinkwater represented the Warriors in the high jump, where he earned fourth place, and the triple jump, where he earned third place.

In the varsity 200-meter, junior Elijah Sweeny ran a PR of 22.56 seconds for third place, and in the JV race, Markos Aga-Kitch ran a PR of 25.06 seconds for second place. During a race 16 times as long as that, the 2-mile runners flew by with three Warriors runners in the lead pack. Junior Theodore Butty won the race in 9:24, and Sophomore Liam Hartman followed seconds behind for a PR time of 9:26. Hartmann was proud of his performance and said he had fun with the race.

“It went really well, a lot better than I was expecting, especially for the middle of the week,” Hartmann said. “[The race] felt really smooth, especially through the first mile, and it was also really fun with our team cheering us on.”

Finally, it was time for the relays. Noticeably absent from the 4×100 race, the Warriors fielded 3 strong 4x400m teams (a relay race where 4 athletes collectively run 1 mile, passing off a baton). The varsity squad of Flint, Sierra, sophomore Jonathan Traub, and senior Jake Mund took 2nd place in 3:27, less than four seconds behind the Tigers.

Drinkwater said it’s bittersweet to be moving on from high school track: he’s going to miss not only his coach, but his teammates.

“I think [Coach Glennon] does a great job of recognizing us and celebrating us when we do well. I’ll miss him. He’s a good coach. He’s inspiring,” Drinkwater said. “And I’ll definitely miss the team. I’ve made a lot of friends on this team, and hopefully I’ll continue seeing them after high school.”