Seniors on the Craftsbury Track and Field Team are, front row (left to right) Calvin Cucciamani, Cormac Leahy, Alan Moody, Cole Van Winkle; back row (left to right) Linden Stelma-Leonard, Ella Gillespie, Dalton Gravel, Rachel Bjerke and Verna Stoddard.
by Ken Brown
NEWPORT – The Craftsbury Academy (CA) varsity and middle school track and field teams were both in action last week at North Country High School and the Montpelier Invitational.
Senior Dalton Gravel captured the first title of his career for CA in the shot put, besting North Country’s Zander Johansson with a throw of 10.74m. Teammate Cormac Leahy finished tenth. Gravel capped off his stellar day with a runner-up finish in the discus event behind Watson Laffoon of North Country, with Cole VanWinkle finishing sixth for the Chargers. Alan Moody finished third in the 800m and fourth in the 400m, with Alan Esposito (North Country) and Richford’s Avery Choquette taking home first place honors.
Senior Calvin Cacciamani finished eighth for CA in the 1500m behind event winner Mason Porter of Lamoille.
Leahy finished off a solid day for the boys’ squad with a tenth-place finish in the javelin behind Adler Lahar of Lake Region.
Adelina Augsberger led the Charger girls’ team with a third-place finish in the 400m, with Madison Pelletier of Lamoille claiming the title. Augsberger also placed tenth in the 200m, with Molly Dearborn of BFA-Fairfax besting the field.
Senior Rachel Bjerke had a strong third place finish in the 300m hurdles, with reigning state champion Sabine Brueck of North Country taking home first place honors.
Alan Moody also had a solid showing over the weekend for the Chargers at the New England Qualifiers in Essex with a tenth-place finish in the 800m.
“Our team had a great meet this week. Dalton and Roean McLellan have been training with a throwing coach about once a week and we’re really starting to see the results! Alan broke the school record in the 400m with a time of 55.23s and Adelina had a personal best in her 400m to qualify for the Essex Invitational. New England qualifiers were over the weekend, but overall as a team we’re focusing on getting prepared for the State Meet coming up both mentally and physically,” said head coach Jess Barber.
The middle school team competed in their biggest event of the season over the weekend at the Montpelier Invitational.
Kosmos Gletos had a strong third-place finish for the Chargers against 32 competitors in the discus event and bested more than half of the field in the shot put with a fifteenth-place finish. Folsom’s Forrer Watson took home first place honors in both events.
Olive Garulio placed seventh in the long jump for CA, with Fair Haven’s Leigha Kretzer beating 50 other competitors. Garulio also finished fifteenth in the 75m hurdles, with Kretzer capturing her second title of the afternoon.
CA’s Ada Allen also had a solid fifteenth place finish in the 1500m and teammates Amelia Terrone (16th) and Emma Stout (19th) had strong showings in the 400m event.
Theo Alexander posted top 20 finishes for CA in both the 200m and 400m, with Seamus Dumas of Brown’s River capturing both titles.
Seventeen middle school teams from across the state competed over the weekend, with Montpelier winning the girls’ overall and Folsom capturing the overall on the boys’ side. Peoples Academy posted runner-up finishes for both the girls’ and boys’ overall.
CA’s varsity team will be back in action this Friday at the Division IV State Meet in Manchester, where the boys’ team will defend their 2022 title.
