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FITCHBURG — The day began in somber fashion for Andover High track.

The team spent Saturday morning attending the funeral for Steve Rothmann, the father of Golden Warrior teammates Sarah and Emily Rothmann.

There were a slew of spectacular performances by local athletes at Saturday’s 70th annual New England Championships in Saco, Maine. Methuen junior Wileshka Samuel broke her own area records with a 12.19 in the 100 meters and a 24.94 in the 200. She placed third in the 200 and finished just out of the money (top 6 score) with a seventh in a loaded 100 field. “It all came together nicely,” said Rangers coach Nick Collopy. “It’s fun to coach her and fun to watch. Her times have improved every week the last four weeks.” The Rangers also came up big in the boys relays with a fifth in the 4x800 and a sixth in the 4x400. John St. Hilaire and sophomore Fernando Damota ran on both. Caveney vs. Coach Andover coach Peter Comeau saw his 31-year-old 300 intermediate hurdles record fall to Golden Warrior senior Sean Caveney. Andover usually runs the 400 hurdles but Caveney made the transition with a 38.64 to place second. That’s considered faster than former New England champ Comeau’s hand-timed 38.6 and the automatic time by AHS’s Steve Shepard with a 39.05 in 1992. ”People think I’m crazy for saying this, but I’d rather be the coach of the guy who breaks it. That was awesome. It was very exciting,” said Comeau. Andover’s 4x400 team brought home the gold with anchor Hamza Naveed running a 48.8 split to make up a 10-yard deficit. They ran a speedy 3:19.61 to move up to second all-time in our area. Naveed teamed with Caveney, Raymond Gorzela and Jeremy Travaglini. Ace high hurdler Sebastian Silveira was just off his school record with a 14.24 for fourth. Duffy, 4x800 records North Andover’s super sophomore Erick Duffy soared 15-3, continuing his remarkable recent stretch of personal bests, to take third in the pole vault. The 4x800 team of Zach Frahlich, Chris Dalke, Chris Lord and Marty Conrad nipped their own school record for a fourth place. Howes another record Londonderry’s Natalie Howes added over two feet to her own area javelin record with a 139-1 to win the event. She also placed fifth in the pole vault while Skyler Goss of Pelham was runner-up (11-9). Faucher, Pettis shine Haverhill junior Jack Pettis took fifth in the javelin with a personal best 171-9 while another talented junior, Timberlane’s Kyle Faucher. uncorked a big 184-11 heave, smashing his own school record by more than seven feet. He brought home the silver.

BURLINGTON — Joe Staudt had an impressive performance last year at the North Sectional decathlon, placing fifth with a school record 5,627 points. Tuesday and Wednesday at Burlington High, though, was more than impressive. He smashed his North Andover record with 6,010 points to place second out of 75 competitors in the North. He held the lead until the final event, but the 1,500 meters isn’t a natural fit for the husky 6-2, 210-pounder. Framingham’s David Welch (6,043 points) surpassed him for the narrow win. He ran a 4:54.98 to Staudt’s 5:27.13, good for a 175-point differential. In the last 17 years, only multi-time N.H. state champions Freddie Wills and Tristan Hall of Londonderry have surpassed Staudt’s 6,010. Both were Division 1 college track recruits.  Staudt, a Bowdoin recruit, also teamed with sophomore Matt Manteiga (26th, 4,307), sophomore Connor Grant (27th, 4,287) and senior Xavier Laguerre (37th, 3,923) to place second in the team competition. Their 14,240 points was another Scarlet Knight record. Wilmington was tops among the 22 teams with 14,710 points. “This is what Joe’s going to do in college,” said Knights coach Steve Nugent. “He’s going to Nationals, too. This is something he has been looking forward to, He’s just a competitor. He’s so multi-talented, He put it all on display.” Staudt has totally rewritten the North Andover record books. Hall of Famer Jack McManus had the original mark back in 1978 but Staudt easily erased that last June. Pentucket’s Alex Demeule (18th, 4,615) and Sam Coppola (20th, 4,615) were the next highest local scorers. Massachusetts does its sectional decathlons and heptathlons a few days before New Englands so some top athletes opt to skip the events.

Andover beat Chelmsford 95-44 to wrap up a 5-0 regular season. Justin Mantrana went 40-9 to win the triple jump, Joe Aronov was the pole vault winner at 12-0 and Sebastian Silveira captured the 110 hurdles and 100 meters.

Scoring the most points it ever has at the meet, North Andover came up short to North Attleboro at the Division 2 EMass Relays. 

North Attleborough was at 76, North Andover scored 68 and Central Catholic was third at 53. 

ANDOVER — Two of the state’s best boys track squads came down to the final stride of the final event.  
Jeremy Travaglini had just enough to pull it out and Andover won the battle of unbeatens by an eyelash. The Golden Warriors (4-0) were clocked in 3:32.51 to North Andover’s 3:32.71.
North Andover’s Chris Dalke, who just 25 minutes earlier gutted out a tough 800 meters win, poured his heart and soul into it. He fought off the talented Golden Warrior sophomore for about 50 yards before Travaglini beat him in the last 1-2 strides.
“That kid (Dalke) competed like a champion,” said a drained Andover coach Peter Comeau, whose team won the All-State team title indoors. “Travaglini is tough as nails.”
Andover’s third runner Ray Gorzela cut the lead from about 25 yards to 10 yards as he, like Travaglini, were both clocked in 51.1.
Comeau called the atmosphere “electric.”
A large contingent of North Andoverites made the trip and the vocal Andover lacrosse team lent its support to give the highly-anticipated showdown a state title feel.
Andover just has to beat rebuilding Chelmsford next Wednesday to win the Merrimack Valley Division 1 crown outright.
To get to the final relay, Andover needed clutch efforts throughout. Joe Vetere posted career bests in the pole vault (13-6) and javelin (159-5).
Andover was vulnerable as relay whiz Hamza Naveed had already run his events and wouldn’t be doing the relay. But the Knights were doubling up and had more distance runners than sprinters.
And as Nugent wearily noted, when it comes to Andover the 4x400, “There is something in the water there.”
The girls matchup also was a battle of unbeatens but as expected Andover was too strong in a 98-47 win. Hannah Chapman (long jump/triple jump) and Brianna Deloury (5-5 high jump, 100 hurdles) were the stars of the day.

ANDOVER — Even as his times dropped and the number accolades rose, Sean Caveney still found himself a bit in the shadow of superstar teammate and fellow hurdler Sebastian Silveira.

In a 106-39 win over Lowell, Andover's Joe Vetere won the pole vault (12-6) and javelin (143-3) and Ray Gorzela ran a personal best of 23.06 to win the 200.