GIRLS TRACK (continued)

In the mile, junior Lucy Howard posted a fourth place finish as she clocked in at 5:40.42, while Kelly Ledoux-Walsh, also a junior, claimed eighth overall in a time of 5:44.82.
Sarah Crump, a junior, earned a sixth place finish in the 100 meter hurdles. She timed in at 17.31 seconds in the final after running a time of 17.23 seconds for sixth in the preliminaries.
Wakefield also grabbed fifth place in the 4x800 relay in a time of 10:46.00.
Maggie Scanlon, a junior, placed seventh in the 400 meter run in a time of 1:02.42, while in the 800 meter run, senior quad-captain Amanda Melanson clocked in at 2:33.18 for seventh place.
In the 400 meter hurdles, Nicole Galli, a sophomore, captured eighth at 1:11.11.
The 4x400 relay team clocked in at 4:29.32 which was good for a seventh place finish.
In the field, senior quad-captain Kaitlyn Manning finished seventh in the long jump with a leap of 15-2, while Diedre Beck, a junior, and Rollins placed seventh and eighth in the discus with distances of 93-4 and 91-8.
The Warriors also had a number of athletes that performed well but didn’t score any points.
In the 100 meter dash, Manning and freshman Sam Ross came in 20th and 22nd place in the preliminaries with times of 14.25 seconds and 14.26 seconds.
Freshmen Jillian Cataldo and Sarah Buckley ran preliminary times of 29.75 seconds and 30.75 seconds in the 200 meter dash as they finished in 17th and 24th place.
Jillian Raso, a sophomore, placed 14th overall in the 400 meter run as she posted a time of 1:05.84.
In the 800 meter run, junior Emily Curran claimed 13th place with a time of 2:36.04.
Junior Maggie Gourville also ran the mile and took 12th at 1:05.84.
Buckley also ran the 100 meter hurdles and finished 14th in the preliminaries at 18.45 seconds.
The Warriors also placed 10th in the 4x100 relay in a time of 56.02 seconds.
In the field, Crump and Raso competed in the high jump and had no heights, while Cataldo finished ninth in the long jump with a distance of 15-0 1/4.
Ross, Galli and Buckley secured 11th, 12th and 21st in the triple jump with leaps of 30-7, 30-5 and 29-3 1/4.
In the shot put, Beck and junior Amy Pacitto finished in 10th and 16th place with a throws of 29-3 1/2 and 25-6 1/2.

BOYS LACROSSE (continued)

With a little over a minute left, the Warriors trailed, 9-8, when Alec Brown blasted a shot that hit the pipe. Also, at the end of the game Brown, an attack middy, grabbed a long stick and joined defenseman Brian Auld in double-teaming a ball carrier that forced a turnover and gave Wakefield one more chance to knot the score before Reading survived.
The star of the game, however, was probably sophomore goalie Alex Flynn, who stopped a career-high 17 shots during the upset bid.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Coach Geno Busa of Flynn’s work with admiration. “And with every save he made, he made the right pass on the clear. Alex played an outstanding game.”
No Warrior was able to score at will but working together, they were able to keep the Rockets, who have hit double figures seven times, from running away from them and to spread the ball around to get enough scoring.
Senior captain Brown and MJ Urbano each scored three times, with the Grinnell brothers, Matt and Brandon, supplying the other tallies. The locals also received yeoman efforts from the defenders, especially Brian McNulty, to compensate for Reading’s dominance on face-offs.
“Reading’s a very good team but we played them tough,” said Busa. “I can’t be disappointed with the effort level.”
The Warriors, unfortunately, took a step backward against Melrose, a team it should have, and needed to beat.
“We came out slowly the first quarter,” said Busa of a start that left the locals in a 3-0 hole. “You can’t get three-goal deficits and win games.”
The Warriors eventually knotted the score but were never able to take the lead. One thing hampering them were penalties, where the Red Raiders had eight man-ups to their three, and scored on the first two.
The game was tight after the initial 3-0 Melrose lead and the Warriors had closed the gap to 6-5 at halftime. Unfortunately, the Red Raiders were able to give Brown fits, as the Warriors’ leading scorer scored only once on 15 shots. Urbano was also heavily covered and, although he managed to get off 22 shots, many weren’t clean and a few missed the mark. But he still led the Warriors with four goals.
In the end the Warriors outshot the Red Raiders by a huge margin, which didn’t reflect in the final score.
“Their goalie made a ton of saves,” said Busa. “We beat them in every category but taking penalties. Their goalie played very well but they look forward to playing us and we didn’t have the intensity to match them.
Brandon Grinnell had two goals and James McAuliffe and Max Frank one each to round out Wakefield’s scoring. Defensively, the Warriors stemmed Melrose’s top two shooters but struggled with the rest of the offense.
The Warriors still had a shot at pulling out the win in the end but Brown’s shot as time ran out went wide.
The loss was Wakefield’s fourth by two or fewer goals, showing how close this team still is to have been an unbeaten tourney team. The Warriors still need four wins to get in but have two weak opponents on the horizon and can play with everyone they have left.
The one they’d like to win, however, is the game tomorrow at Wilmington (4 p.m. at the Woburn Street School) in which they take on a 10-1 team that has scored in double figures every game but the one loss to Arlington. The first time they met, the Wildcats barely survived Wakefield in a 10-9 win.