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Oh my gosh! Another WHS sports post! How dare the Owl? Scroll on by, haters, because this post is happening. Saturday’s track meet was absolutely one of the most exciting finishes that we’ve had in school sports, and it all came down to who (or three whos) could chuck what is essentially an eight-foot-long spear the farthest. So elemental. So fun.

On Saturday, April 29 while sane people were still abed or hiding from the chilly windy weather, the Weston High School track teams were on their way to Seekonk MA for the MA Division 5 Outdoor Track Relay Meet. Two things here: 1. While looking at the meaning of the name “Seekonk”, Encyclopedia Britannica gave me either “at the outlet” or “black goose.” This seems terribly far apart on the translation scale–you are either in water or floating on it. Well, okay, maybe that works, and 2. What a crazy meet. Relays include running and field events. Sprint Medley and Distance Medley chaos! Who’s winning? Who has another turn around the track? Team relay pole vault! No, they don’t all run down together and launch off the same pole at the same time. Stick with me here.

First, let’s talk coaches. The Weston High School track team has no fewer than eight billion of them. Wait, no. We have head coach John Monz who apparently actually has an adjective always amended to his name as in “the legendary John Monz”, Coach Montrose, Coach “V”, Coach Mitchell, Coach Campbell, Coach Bradford and two apprentice coaches who I am sorry to say I have not met yet. More later on that. They are a truly amazing and inspiring group of coaches and make track fun yet important every single day.

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Second of all, let’s talk about the girls track team, of whom the Owl is very fond in spite of having no girl owlets. The girls are the glue on the combined team (fight me, boys, except anyone on the shot put squad because I think I will lose) and are the most positive and strong group you shall ever see. Co-captain Analeise Shact has appeared on this page, and I am hoping a couple more will do senior profiles here. You have not lived until you see Sloan Hinton, Olivia Jackson, Caitlin Klinger or any one of the other girls dust the competition. The girls’ team racked up 34 points good for 4th place in the 32-school field. The girls took the win in the 4 x 800 and 3 2nd-places (4 x 400, distance medley, and pole vault). 

And now the boys. The Owl arrived at the field about 10 minutes too late to see the incredible event-winning 4×100 team of Jojo Uga, Oscar Torres, Davis Palmer and Noah Lago. She did, however, get there in time for this photo. This foursome just makes me happy–check them out here:

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The 4×100 was the only event that Weston won, and yet the Boys still won the meet. How does that happen? Well, here is the mathy part of this post. The top six finishers in each event make points for their team. 1st place finishes mean 10 points, 2nd place 8, 3rd place 6, 4th place 4, 5th place 2 and 6th place 1 point. So here’s what happened … and what made this so darned exciting:

The boys scored in 9 of the 15 events with 24 athletes in total scoring points. The boys went into the final event with one win (4 x 100), 3 2nd place finishes (Triple Jump, Pole Vault, and 4 x 800), a 3rd place in the 4 x 200, 4th places in the Long Jump, the 4×400 and Pole Vault (two teams), and a 5th place in the 4 x 1600. The view of the team arrayed along the infield cheering on the last running event, the 4 x 400, was spine-tingling. This team is tight, folks, and those cheers and calls made for better performances. Again, Weston won only one event, but just kept plugging away in point-making positions.

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Before the end of the javelin scoring, the Weston Boys were tied with Middleborough at 49 points each and the Owl was doing a fine job of talon-chewing. More chucking of spears went on, then came the rumored theft of javelin results (unconfirmed), and finally, the whispers started to spread through the assembled crowd and Middleborough got on their bus not even waiting for a trophy (which is quite nice for second place, it must be said).

It became clear that Weston had eked out the win with a second-place finish in the javelin relay with Aidan Chien, Hunter Gutting and Gauthier Bodet netting 8 points to jump ahead of Middleborough (let’s take a moment to admire Gauthier’s (“Goat’s) launching a rocket javelin for 46.24 meters, the second best of all individual competitors). The Wildcat boys totaled 57 points to win by 8 points over the 2nd-place Middleborough Sachems. Not fond of that mascot but no one cares. Full results without sparkling commentary are here. The Boston Globe gives Division 5 not much love so don’t bother but check out The Boston Herald’s coverage here (it’s possible you need to be a subscriber, no lo sé).

Here’s a raw look at the award ceremony when the “legendary John Monz” was mentioned and Coach Montrose accepted the trophy. Much celebration was done by all, and then they, boys and girls, got on the team bus and merrily went home to Weston.

Congratulations, team, and go ‘cats!

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You can next see boys and girls track ‘cats in action on Wednesday at home in a dual meet against Boston Latin and at the Twilight Meet on Saturday, May 6.