KP Track Has Troubles at Bridgewater Tournament

King Philip entered the Eastern Mass Division 2 Outdoor Track and Field Tournament in Bridgewater hoping to come away with a handful of participants to return to Bridgewater State University next week.

Although there were three Warrior athletes that made an impressive bid to return to take part in the All-States, only one will be making the trek back on June 4th.

While the girls team finished in 28th overall and the boys 23rd, Chris Allen was the top finisher on the day for KP, grabbing second place in the two-mile with a time of 9:18.60. The Warrior runner was a good 10 seconds behind Mansfield's Shane Collins, but nine seconds ahead of Ipswich's Kieran Kinnare.

"Chris and Shane are in another level," KP Coach Julie Nievergelt said. "Chris ran 35 miles last week prior to this event, so I know he can and will run faster at the All-States next week."

KP male athletes who participated in Bridgewater included Matt Bowers (13th - 24.16) in the 200-meter dash and (14th - 18- 9.75) in the long jump, Cam Claffey (17th - 55.92) in the 400-meter dash, Dave Machado (14th - 2:04.15) in the 800-meter run, Brian Sarapas (26th - 19.06) in the 100-meter hurdles and Shane McKinley (17th - 1:01.11) in the 400-meter hurdles.

Mark Deblasio (5-10) finished 12th in the high jump,  while the 4 x 800 relay team finished 15th with a time of 8:48.66 and the 4 x 400 relay team was 10th posting a time of 3:38.55.

As was the case with their male counterparts, the females' best effort came in a distance event. Stacey Wojcik was one of three Warriors to qualify to run in the mile. Wojcik was the top finisher for KP, crossing the line in sixth place with a time of 5:21.80. Katie Lukes grabbed 10th place (5:31.31) and Kim Hillfrank was 21st (5:49.61).

Wojcik was not added to the performance list to run in the All-States, which is rather sad as Nievergelt felt she was close enough to go, but just didn't have one of her better races.

"Stacey was slower than I expected," the coach said. "She was leading the race at the 1200 mark, but she had no kick down the stretch, and it may have cost her."

While Wojcik just missed out in advancing, freshman Lukes was rather impressive in her first-ever outdoor tournament.

"Katie was very impressive with her tenth-place finish," Nievergelt said. "Running in the states as a freshman is hard enough, but to finish tenth — that's a really big deal."

Christine Miciere was 13th with a time of 13.59 in the 100-meter dash, Katie Brennan crossed the line in 17th place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 28.12 and Caitlyn Coke grabbed 13th (17.42) in the 100-meter hurdles and fifth in the high jump clearing 5-0. KP was 14th in the 4 x 800 relay (10:38.69), 12th in the 4 x 100 (51.97) and 22nd in the 4 x 400 (4:35.10).

Tori Mosologo took 14th in the high jump at 4-10), Audra Robbins took 18th in the long jump (15-.5) and Andrea Olsen captured ninth in the shot put (32-2.25).