Sports 05-16-2012

Fitzy, Sahila, 4 x 100 relay set  boys records

Revere High star trackster Michael Fitzpatrick blazed yet another path of glory at Saturday’s State Coaches Invitational Meet held at Dilboy Stadium in Somerville when he broke the Revere High School record in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:57.18. Fitzy’s clocking shattered the old RHS mark of 1:59.33 that had stood since 1998 and which had been established by none other than his coach, former RHS great Sam Ros.

“I am very proud of the hard work Fitzy has put in this past couple years,” said Ros. “If anyone was going to break my record, I am ecstatic it was him.”

Fitzy’s record run earned him a fourth place ribbon at the meet, which is an invitation-only event and features the top runners in the state. The 800 was an exceedingly close event, with the top four runners separated by only 1.64 seconds.

However, Fitzy’s performance was not the only record-setting pace for the RHS boys at the meet, as the 4 x 100 relay quartet of John Lopes, Devin Colon, Younes Hartout, and Ricardo Maldonado also established a new school record with their clocking of 44.55, topping the previous mark of 45.19 that had been set in 2009. Their performance earned the foursome a fifth place ribbon at the meet.

Other Revere boys who competed in Saturday’s meet were Maldonado in the 100 with a time of 12.08; Lopes and Hartout in the 200 with times of 23.94 and 24.25 respectively; Karim Sahila in the 400 low hurdles in 1:01.57; and Tarik Maddrey in the high jump.

The two school records at the prestigious meet put an exclamation point to what has been an outstanding season thus far for the boys track team. Ros’s squad is undefeated in the South Division of the Northeastern Conference. A showdown for first place had been set for Monday in a tri-meet with Gloucester and Lynn Classical at Manning Field in Lynn, but the rain forced the meet to be called off shortly after it had started.

However, the 400 meter low hurdles race was completed and, in a twist of the Biblical maxim, “Do unto others as they do unto you,” Fitzpatrick saw his RHS school record of 60.1 in the 400 meter hurdles (which he set last year) fall to Sahila, who hurdled to a new RHS mark of 59.6.

In addition, a number of members of the team have qualified for the State Divisional Meet that will be held in two weeks: sophomore Maldonado and junior Simbert in the 100 meter dash; junior Sahila in the 110 meter high hurdles and 400 meter intermediate hurdles; junior Lopes in the 200 meter dash; sophomore Maddrey in the high jump; the 4×100 meter relay team; and Fitzpatrick in the 800 meters.

Another milestone for Ros’s crew this season was set by the sprint medley team of  Fitzpatrick, Colon,  Hartout, and Sahila, who ran a time of 3:40 at the State Relays which is a new school record and is fast enough to qualify them for the New Balance Outdoor Nationals Meet in North Carolina in June where they’ll face the best in the nation.

The boys will compete at the NEC all-league meet Saturday in Lynn and most likely will make up the Gloucester/Classical Meet next week to settle the NEC South champion.

MacDonald earns ribbon at State Coaches Meet

Revere High star hurdler Racquel MacDonald took home a sixth place ribbon at Saturday’s Mass. Coaches Invitational Track Meet held at Dilboy Stadium in Somerville.

Racquel finished in 10th spot (out of a field of 56 competitors) with a clocking of 16.66 in the first round and then advanced to the final round of eight with a time of 15.87 in the semifinals, which seeded her in sixth place. Her clocking of 15.97 in the final earned her the sixth place ribbon.

Teammate Comfort Toglon also competed in the meet, running in the 200 meter dash and finishing in a time of 28.30.

RHS softball team defeats Beverly, 9-2

The Revere High softball team received a strong pitching performance from Briana Lauletta and timely hitting to earn a 9-2 triumph at Beverly last week.

Lauletta tossed all seven innings, allowing just eight hits and striking out two enemy hitters. The Lady Patriots took an early 5-2 lead, though they left a lot of runners on base. However, Revere put the game away with four runs in the latter half of the contest.

Lady Patriots Cassandra DiBella and Kristina Stella produced the big hits to power the offense. DiBella also made some nice plays in the field.

“Our bats came alive against Beverly,” said RHS head coach Joe Ciccarello. “It would have been nice to have opened it up earlier than we did, but it still was a good effort by everyone.”

A Friday night contest under the lights at Salem State University against Swampscott turned into a pitcher’s duel. RHS hurler Sabrina Palermo deserved a better fate, as she yielded just seven hits and fanned six.

However, the Lady Patriots could muster only a single tally, that coming in the second inning when Logan DiCarlo struck for a base hit and eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly  by Lindsay Gurska. Revere had other opportunities to score, including in the fifth inning when th

Lady Patriots had runners on second and third, but they were unable to come up with the timely hit.

“Although we lost, I was happy with the way we played,” said Ciccarello. “I told the girls that they should treat this like a tournament game and they responded well to that sort of pressure.”

Ciccarello and his crew, who now stand at 8-7 on the season and need two wins in their final five games to qualify for the state tourney, were set to host Lynn English today (Wednesday); entertain Salem Monday evening under the lights at 7:00; and host Peabody next Wednesday.

Boys tennis nets 4-1 win over English

The Revere High boys tennis team improved to 4-5 on the season with a 4-1 victory over Lynn English last Thursday.

All three of the Patriot singles players triumphed. Nick Tran handily dispatched his English rival at first singles, 6-0, 6-1; Mladen Pepic won an epic, three hour match, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, at second singles; and Soun Lee triumphed 6-1, 6-4 in the third singles spot.

“All of our singles players played very well, but I was especially proud of the way that Mladen came back after losing the first set and then hung tough to pull out a close match,” said RHS head coach Mike Flynn.

The second doubles tandem of Nick Mucci and William Truong easily prevailed over their

English counterparts, 6-0, 6-1. “Nick and William played together very well,” noted Flynn.

The first doubles duo of Sela Leng and Duong Nguyen dropped a hard fought match in two close sets, 6-7 (3-7), 4-6.

The boys were set to play at Winthrop today (Wednesday) and at Marblehead tomorrow. They journey to Danvers Monday and to Lynn Classical next Thursday.

Girls tennis falls to Lynn Classical

The Revere High girls tennis team dropped a 4-1 decision to Lynn Classical last week. Mounia El Arar, playing in the third singles slot, topped her Classical foe, 6-1, 6-3, to earn the only point for the Lady Patriots.

However, all of the other four matches were hard fought affairs. Kristina DiFabio fell at first singles, 1-6, 3-6; Sara Grujic dropped her match at second singles, 5-7, 2-6; the duo of Venous Hamza and Mariah Rivera came up short at first doubles, 6-2, 2-6, 1-6; and the second doubles tandem of Nancy Nguyen and Meiling Theng also battled in three sets before losing in a third set tiebreaker, 5-7, 6-1, 6-7 (5-7).

“All of the matches were well played and closer than the some of the scores might indicate,” said RHS head coach Carla Maniscalco.

Maniscalco and her crew were set to meet Lynn English today (Wednesday), Winthrop tomorrow, and Salem Monday.