PEMBROKE – Picture yourself in this position. Your team needs a victory in the final event of the evening, and the weight of the world is on your shoulders.
This becomes magnified when the very scenario comes at the state championship level, and it’s a moment that Newburyport’s Devin Stroope found herself literally experiencing in real-time. At the end of the night the sophomore delivered for the Clippers, anchoring her team to a victory in the 4×400-meter relay (4:05.31) as her program won the Division 4 girls track and field relay title in walk-off fashion at Pembroke High School on Friday.
“It’s been a while,” said Newburyport girls track coach Mike McCormick. “But this team was very deep, very talented. We’ve got a fusion of some good athletes who are throwers. Our distance runners are solid. We’re solid all the way through.”
The Clippers went on to accumulate 60.33 points as a group, barely outpacing Holliston by a single digit for the championship. Stroope also set a meet record for Newburyport in the javelin throw with a distance of 33.78 meters. Julia Schena also turned in a fantastic performance for the team, winning the girls’ triple jump competition (10.54 meters).
Entering the 4×400, Newburyport trailed Holliston by one point in the school rankings. You couldn’t have painted a more dramatic scene. After Annie Shay, Morgan Felts and Annabelle Murray helped build a slight lead, it came down to Stroope to finish the race. On her heels chased Holliston track star Carmen Luisi, trying to rally. When the sophomore crossed the finish line, she was instantly mobbed by her teammates.
“It was like a dream,” Stroope said. “I was so scared. I thought she was right behind me. I thought they were all cheering for her to catch me. So, I was just trying to give it all I got until the end. When I finished, I was like: ‘This is a dream.’ It was crazy.”
Meanwhile, Burlington was able to keep its dynastic run alive on the other side, winning its third straight Div. 4 boys track and field relay championship with a whopping 96 points.
“When we put things together, I came up with 97 points for the team, legit,” said Burlington boys track coach Matt Carr. “We got 96. I’m not sure who screwed up. We knew our distance runners were good. We ended up winning the DMR, we were third in the 4×800, second and fourth in the 4xmile. Throws we knew would be solid. We won shot, were second in disk and third in javelin. Long jump, we won …scored in high jump, scored in pole vault. 4×400 was third, 4×200 was third, so we scored in almost every event.”
It was the sixth outdoor track relay title for Burlington in the past eight years. The Red Devils were powered by senior Elijah Wolinski, who won the long jump relay (6.31 meters) while aiding the Red Devils during a victory in the shuttle hurdle relays (1:05.13). Rithikh Prakash anchored his team to a victory in the distance medley as well (10:49.29).
Other impressive performances included Holliston’s 4×1600 girls track team, which set a meet record with a time of 21:12.53. Pembroke’s short distance groups dominated all day, as the Titans set meet records in both the girls’ (48.49 seconds) and the boys’ (43.48) 4×100 races. The two squads also swept the 4×200 races with the girls clocking in at 1:45.75, and the boys at 1:31.49.