You can call them “The Cardiac Kids.â€
The young Winthrop High girls track team officially claimed the right to that moniker after winning their second meet in three weeks in dramatic fashion in the last event, the 4 x 400 relay, to come away with an exciting 72-64 triumph over Revere last Thursday at the Saugus track.
The big victory catapulted the Lady Vikings past their rivals from the Beach City into first place in the South Division of the Northeastern Conference.
With the teams having battled each other evenly throughout the afternoon, the outcome of the meet came down to the final two events of the day, the high jump and the 4 x 400. The high jump was moved into the field house because of the rain. With both teams watching every jump with much anticipation, Lady Viking Julia Wallace placed second in her final jump-off at a height of 4-9, thus setting the stage for a winner-take-all five points in the 4 x 400, with Winthrop ahead 67-64.
After a quick team meeting, head coach Warren MacPhail chose the quartet of Annie Mahoney, Teresa Jones, Felicia Jones, and Gina Guiliano to bring home the baton for Winthrop. Annie held strong on her leg, handing it over to Teresa, who pulled even with the Revere girl before handing it off to her sister Felicia. Felicia took off like a rocket and opened up a 50 meter lead. Gina grabbed the baton from Felicia and bolted to her second anchor winning performance of the year in a final time of 4:41.
Playing key roles for Winthrop prior to the dramatic final events were: Carly O’Keefe, who was the only double winner for Winthrop, capturing the 100 high hurdles in 18.1 and the 400 low hurdles in 1:15; Lexi Vaccaro, who finished first in the triple jump with a landing of 32-2 and third in the 200 dash in 29.1; Jordan Griffiths, who won the mile in 6:17; and Kaitlyn Hershey who captured the 800 in 2:45.
Also adding key points to the Winthrop side of the score sheet with second and third place efforts in a meet where every point counted were: Amy Sena, who placed second in the 400 hurdles in 1:16 and second in the mile in 6:23; Alyssa Mackey, who took second in both the 100 dash in 13.3 and in the 400 in 64.1; Mayomi Meggison, who placed third in the 100 dash in 13.9, third in the high jump in 4-8, and second in the long jump with a leap of 15-2; Felicia Jones, who placed third in the long jump with a leap of 14-9 and third in the 400; Christina Russo, who took second in the 200 in 28.8 and third in the 100 dash in 13.9; Jessica Dowson, who grabbed third in the 400 hurdles in 1:19 and second in the high hurdles in 19.1; Julia Wallace, who placed second in the high jump with a leap of 4-9; Corey Charvis, who took third in the two mile in 14:56; Liz Anderson, with a second in the shotput with a heave of 26-4; Laureen LoPresti, who placed second in the discus with a toss of 70-2; and Gina Guiliano, who nabbed third in the triple jump with a hop, skip, and jump of 30-1.
The team will be heading to Saugus to meet Gloucester today (Thursday) for what looks like a potential clincher for the South NEC title.