The Bromfield boys outdoor track team overwhelmed the Lunenburg Blue Knights on Friday, April 3, at the McCurdy track. The 85-59 point victory, coupled with three new school records, marked an optimistic start for the Trojans.
The Bromfield boys charged into the spring season with their built-up momentum from their remarkable indoor track performance as the undefeated Midland Wachusett C league champions and the runners-up in districts. Even with their tremendous success, the Trojans brought a new weapon for the spring season: the pole vault.
The daunting pole vault undoubtedly grabbed the attention of all onlookers, as this new field event propelled athletes sky-high.
“Pole vault has never been available to the Bromfield track teams until now,” boys coach David Boisvert said. “The crowd has never cheered louder than when Glenn [Steranka] cleared the first pole vault in Bromfield history.”
Even Bromfield senior and team captain Ellis Toll “easily heard the noises from across the track,” despite blasting his “pump-up” music.
Bromfield junior Brendan Beale cleared the pole vault at a height of 8 feet, 6 inches, earning both second place in the meet, and technically, the school record. Junior Glenn Steranka and sophomore Sam Dyer both placed third with heights of 8 feet.
At the long jump, the school record was broken, twice. At first, junior Patrick Griffin soared to an incredible distance of 19 feet, 11.75 inches, cutting out the last school record held by junior Roniel Foster by a mere .75 inches. Several jumps later, Foster drove down the pathway and leapt to an extraordinary 20 feet, 1.25 inches, shattering his old record by more than a foot.
“I got to keep my record,” said Foster. “Pat is really good, which just makes things more competitive for me.”
Foster, Patrick Griffin, and junior Dan Colony placed first, second, and third with Colony’s distance at 17 feet, 10.25 inches.
Junior Job Clayburn launched a javelin to a distance of 146 feet, 8 inches, placing first in the meet and replacing the previous school record of 139 feet, 3 inches, held by Kevin Molinaro. “This is just the first meet, and Job broke the old record by over five feet,” said Boisvert. “If things go as well as they are now, Job should be breaking this record over and over again.”
Other first-place field event performances were made by Foster, who hopped the triple-jump at a distance of 35 feet, 9 inches, and senior Deji Oyekunle, who threw the shot-put a distance of 39 feet, 3 inches.
As for running events, the 200-meter fell to the talent of Colony, who sprinted to first with a time of 23.4 seconds. Junior Matt Griffin trailed closely behind as he sprinted to third with a time of 24.5 seconds.
At the 400-meter, Patrick Griffin and junior Jeff Adelson placed first and third with times of 53.4 seconds and 59.3 seconds, respectively.
Bromfield dominated the 800-meter, as freshmen Price Day and Will Malloy, and senior Elllis Toll placed in the top three with times of 2 minutes 10.5 seconds, 2 minutes 14.4 seconds, and 2 minutes 18.6 seconds, respectively.
Toll and junior Emmet Norton placed first and second for the 1-mile with times of 4 minutes, 53.8 seconds, and 5 minutes, 10 seconds.
At the 2-mile, Day and sophomore Paul Malloy placed first and third with times of 10 minutes, 35.8 seconds, and 11 minutes, 8 seconds.
The 4×400-meter relay team placed first with a time of 4 minutes, 3.1 seconds, with the legs covered by Patrick Griffin, Beale, Adelson, and Paul Malloy.
“Even past the first-place winners, it’s important to credit all the second- and third-place runners that bring an equal amount of support to the team,” Boisvert said. “I’m looking forward to this season…I think they will do something great.”
Toll said, “It was a very important win, because these guys [Lunenburg] are some of our best competition. There were lots of broken records and other great performances that were really key to our win, and I think we really fed off the great energy around the pole vault.”
