Winthrop’s Cappuccio off and running
Story and photos by Bob Marra
blocks on his way to a personal best time of 21.68 in the
200-meter dash at the Dave Hemery Invitational track meet at
Boston University on February 13.
Nick Cappuccio slowly, deliberately stepped into the starting blocks for his heat in the 200-meter dash during the Dave Hemery Invitational on the blazing fast track at Boston University’s Track and Tennis Center last month. Tensed and ready to burst forward at the crack of the starter’s pistol, the words “strong, strong, strong” were his only thoughts, a little cue he uses for a quick and powerful start of a race.
Exactly 21.68 seconds after the gun sounded, the Boston University freshman crossed the finish line in a personal best time on his way to a 14th place finish among over 150 collegiate runners from across the country. The same day, Cappuccio achieved his personal best in the 60-meter dash with a 6.92 clocking. More recently, on March 1, he anchored BU’s 4×400 relay team to a 3rd place finish in the 2026 Patriot League Indoor Track and Field championships.
It’s been a remarkable freshman year for the 2025 Winthrop High graduate, a season of collegiate track success continuing a story that began inauspiciously when he was a youngster. “I loved football and basketball and also played baseball,” he recalled. “I barely knew track existed.”
But as an eighth grader, he decided to forego baseball and join his older brother Chris on the Winthrop High track team. “I figured it would be good to get in shape for football.”
There was also a shade of Nick’s competitive nature. “If you’re a younger sibling, you know that in sports you always are looking up to them (older siblings), trying to copy what they do, and that’s what I tried to do,” said Nick. “It was fun to try to catch up to him my eighth-grade year in track.”
But there was more at play than just sibling rivalry. “I started to like (track) more and more and realized I could do this at a higher level,” he said.
Nick also was drawn to the sport’s individualism. “Yes, you are running against other people, but the main goal for me is running for a personal best. I enjoyed the aspect that it was you against you,” he said.
Cappuccio’s success on the football field and on the track during his Winthrop High career is the stuff of legend. An outstanding running back, he was named football All Scholastic by both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald following his junior season in the fall of 2023. During track season the following spring he won state divisional titles in the 100m, 200m, and long jump and competed in the Adidas Track Nationals in North Carolina.
His good fortune took a bad turn, however, when an ankle injury sidelined him midway through his senior year football season and hampered his track season. “A pretty forgettable senior year of track,” he called it. “I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to.”
It was evident, however, that his track career wasn’t over. Several Division One collegiate programs were calling, and “BU was the right fit academically and for track” says the Accounting and Finance major at BU’s Questrom School of Business.
Cappuccio has shown steady improvement at BU. The personal best he ran in the 200-meter at the Hemery Invitational February 13 was 1/21-second quicker than his January 26 collegiate debut in that event. His 6.92s 60-meter time was a tenth-second faster than in his season opener. In track sprints, tenths-of-a-second are huge chunks of time.
Kemar Mowatt, the sprints coach at BU, sees big things for Cappuccio. “I think Nick will continue to improve steadily over the course of his years in the sprints program,” Mowatt commented in an email. “I can foresee him eventually have great success in our Patriot League conference and even making it to the NCAA national level meet.”
Mowatt praised Nick’s work ethic and his ability to listen. “Nick is a good communicator and his ability to take constructive feedback and immediately put it into practice is pretty impressive.”
The characteristics underlying Cappuccio’s accomplishments were cultivated while he grew up on Winthrop’s playing fields with his brother Chris—now a senior at Merrimack College—and his sister Arianna, a senior at Winthrop High. “I’ve had a close relationship with them my whole life, and being so close in age definitely helped,” he said.
Cappuccio is also quick to commend the coaches who guided him through the formative years of his sports career. “Two of my football coaches, Coach (Jon) Cadigan and Coach (Mark) D’Ambro. Coach D’Ambro always encouraged me and was there to let me know I could do it. Coach Cadigan was also like that but the most important thing he taught me was discipline and I will hold on to that for life,” Nick said.
His family ties also bolstered him. “My Mom and Dad of course,” Nick says of his mother Kathleen and father Gerry. “They were always my biggest supporters, they always showed up for me no matter what and they taught me how to have fun.”
The soft-spoken Cappuccio has made a smooth transition from Winthrop High student-athlete to the college environment. Unlike high school, where he mingled daily with myriad classmates, life as a college athlete means spending most of his time with teammates. He is one of 15 freshmen on the BU track roster. ‘There is an insane amount of talent here,” he says. “Everyone here got here for a reason and they show it every day through practice—which is intense.”
Cappuccio is the latest in a memorable line of Winthrop High alumni who made their marks in Boston University athletics annals. Winthrop High hockey coach Dale Dunbar, storied hockey Olympian Mike Eruzione, football stars Chuck Sullivan and Jim English were all former Winthrop Vikings who became BU Terriers. “I find it really cool, especially recognizing all they have done,” said Cappuccio. “For example, Mike Eurizione, truly appreciating what he has accomplished and to now be at the same school is an honor.”
Much lies ahead, but Cappuccio already portrays the maturity of a seasoned athlete. He thinks back to his youthful athletic pursuits that were only a few short years ago, and he offers this bit of advice for young athletes who aspire to collegiate success: “Be intentional when you train and be consistent, don’t go out there and just go through the motions,” he says. “Really think about what is going right and what you can fix. That works for any sport. Also, don’t be so quick to judge yourself; if you truly put in good work, results will come.”
Wise thoughts from a runner who says that his mind goes blank while he’s running a race. “I’m solely focused on running as fast as I can.” It’s that kind of single-minded concentration and fierce commitment to excellence that collegiate success demands. For Winthrop’s Nick Cappuccio, it’s a world where he thrives.