The middle school track season came to a close last Friday in the annual five-school meet, held at the regional high school track. The West Tisbury girls picked up their second season-ending win in two years, finishing with 51 points. Oak Bluffs scored 35, holding off Edgartown (30 points). Tisbury finished with six points, and the charter school notched five. In the boys’ meet, Edgartown brought home the victory for their school with 59 points. West Tisbury took second with 29 points, just four more than third-place finisher Oak Bluffs. Charter school athletes scored eight points, and the Tisbury School had five.

Eighth-graders Juniper Ezanno and Livvy Smith picked up key wins to help the Hawks along in the girls’ meet: Juniper placed first in the shot put (21’8”) and 100-metre dash (13.72 seconds), and Livvy was first in long jump (13’7”) and high hurdles (13.68 seconds, faster than any of the 100-metre times). Mary McCarthy and Madison McBride of West Tisbury took second and third in the mile run, behind Rose Engler of Oak Bluffs, who blazed to a sub-six mile (5:57 minutes, which would have placed her third in the boys’ race). Natalia Lakis (first in the 200 metres and second in shot put), Tamara Nash (third in hurdles and the 100-metres), and Julia Debettencourt (third in shot put) helped Oak Bluffs hold off Edgartown. Julia Reagan of Edgartown took first in the discus (51’7”), leading a near-sweep of the event for her school.

In the boys’ meet, eighth-grader Daniel Gaines brought in three first-place finishes (shot put, long jump, and 100 metres) to lead the Edgartown Eagles, while schoolmates Mercer Kelly (discus, 74’9”) and John Gonsalves (high hurdles, 13.56 seconds) also picked up victories. John Morris of Edgartown took second in the high hurdles. Nevin Wallis of Oak Bluffs ran a 5:46-minute mile to take first in the event; Nevin also had two third-place finishes in the shot put and long jump. Fellow Blazer Aivaras Gedivilas was first in the 200 metres (29.85 seconds). August Engler of Oak Bluffs was second in the shot put. Gabriel Bellebuono of West Tisbury had two second-place finishes, running both the 200 metres (30.39 seconds) and the mile (5:52 minutes); support from Lohen Goodwin, Chris Mayhew, and Owen Bresnick helped secure the Hawks’ spot in the finishings.

The 100-metres proved an excited race, with Ricardo Andrade of the charter school edging out Tisbury’s Owen Porterfield by .01 second to take second place.

The West Tisbury girls and the Edgartown boys also won their respective 4x100 relay races, with both teams finishing in a time of exactly one minute.

Middle school basketball practices begin in two weeks.