Chester, Vt.
Still, Palone’s team was all smiles after the Vermont Division IV state meet at Green Mountain Union High on Friday as the Royals girls and boys both took second place behind Northfield. Whitcomb’s girls team placed sixth, its boys placed fifth and Rivendell’s Owen Pelletier amassed 22 points on his own, putting the lone Raptor in 10th place as a one-person team.
“It’s amazing,” Palone said. “The kids did a great job. They really deserved (first place) but … we were just trying to figure out where we could have gotten extra points. But they gave everything they had.”
South Royalton’s strength has been its field events this season, led by Connor Lambert in boys javelin and pole vault and Cora Honigford in girls discus and shot put. Honigford set a D-IV state record in the girls discus throw at 91 feet, 9 inches, and Lambert took first in both of his events.
“Connor held up his end with the jav,” Palone said. “We really knew it was going to be close. We thought Richford would be a little bit closer to us. They’ve been kicking our rumps in the regular meets.”
The South Royalton girls edged Richford by one point, the boys by five points.
Honigford also took second in the girls shot put, 0.25 inches behind Craftsbury’s Aysha Hodgdon. Julianne Lambert added a fourth-place finish at the girls high jump, and William Wuttke added a fifth-place finish at boys high jump to help South Royalton take team leads early in the meet.
Northfield’s dominance on the track, however, slowed the Royals’ momentum. The Marauders placed first in eight different track events on Friday, five girls and three boys, including three of the six relay events. South Royalton, comparatively, won only the boys 400-meter relay, edging the Marauders by 0.35 seconds.
“The boys running (surprised me),” Palone said. “The 4×100 was neck-and-neck, and Chris McCullough pulled it. That was amazing. And the fact that they made up so much distance in each race. We really gave it our all. Nobody held back.”
Whitcomb’s Harrison Allen led the way for the Hornets, taking first in the boys 200 and third in the 100, 0.19 seconds behind Rivendell’s Pelletier.
But it was the third-seeded Whitcomb boys’ 1,600 relay team of Liam Walker, Seth Larson, Marcus Sheldon and Allen that stole the show in the meet’s final event. Allen, finding another gear with the crowd’s full attention, blew past Northfield’s Warren Yacawych down the stretch to put the Hornets on top by 3.05 seconds.
Allen was mobbed by his teammates, and head coach Sue Burgos, near the scorers’ tent. It was Whitcomb’s only other win of the meet.
“That was really exciting,” Burgos said. “These guys took three or four seconds off their best time.”
Allen also took third in the boys long jump. Whitcomb’s Zoe McCormack placed fifth in the girls shot put. Alexandra Timmins took third in the girls 1,500 and second in the girls 3,000. Gwen Timmins placed third in the girls 100 hurdles and long jump.
“Our team’s not big enough to have people in every event,” Burgos said. “Every event we were entered in, someone placed in the top six. There were a lot of personal records. Everyone exceeded their seed times.”
Taking second didn’t seem to matter to the Royals, who celebrated with smiles and hugs. This year’s 10 seniors, some of South Royalton’s biggest contributors, said they take this year’s achievement more personally.
The hope, they said, is that the foundation they built will help their track program grow.
“It’s a little salty (to fall just five points behind),” Wuttke said. “But honestly, I don’t even care. Second place is just as good. … We win a lot of baseball championships, and a lot of people still think of us as a baseball school. There are kids on the baseball team who aren’t good at baseball but would be really good at track.”
For South Royalton senior Chris Lucas, that goes double. Lucas joined the track and field team for the first time this season after tiring of watching baseball games from the dugout. He took fourth in the shot put on Friday.
“Coming from baseball, being on track is just so much better,” Lucas said. “Just being part of it, you help out more. You don’t just sit on the bench all the time. Being able to be here and participate, it makes you feel like you actually won it for your team.”
Boys team scores: Northfield, 90, South Royalton 86, Richford 81, Winooski 44, Whitcomb 36, Craftsbury 31.5, Twin Valley 30, Proctor 26, Mount St. Joseph 24, Rivendell 22, Danville 18, Chelsea 18, Green Mountain 15, Stowe 12, Poultney 10, Arlington 2.5.
Girls team scores: Northfield 121, South Royalton 73, Richford 72, Chelsea 64, Craftsbury 61, Whitcomb 47, Winooski 45, Green Mountain 34, Twin Valley 10, Arlington 6, Mount St. Joseph 4, Rochester 3.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or at 603-727-3306.