Gloucester High track records fell Tuesday evening in Weston, as the Fishermen’s top athletes dazzled at the annual MSTCA decathlon and heptathlon state championships.
Boys standouts Seamus Linehan, Jeferson do Carmo and Vinny Mannone — each of whom were coming off outstanding performances in the 4×400 relay event at the state level — took home the team decathlon title with a combined 16,050 points.
That lofty total shattered the previous GHS record of 12,925 points set by Marc Smith, Dean Campbell and AJ Romero-Oliver back in 2017. And perhaps more importantly, it narrowly one-upped this year’s runner-up squad out of Newburyport, which finished with 15,902 points.
“We went into it with a goal of breaking the team record; we thought we could do that,” Gloucester outdoor track coach David Coleman said of his gifted trio. “We knew it was a little more recent (of a record) and looking at the guys I previously had, I thought these three would at least be close to that. I didn’t think we’d break it by the 3,000 or 4,000 points that we did, but it was a nice surprise.”
The talented boys’ trio completed 10 events across two days: the 100 meter dash, 100 meter hurdles, 400 meter dash, 1500 meter run, long jump, triple jump, high jump, discus, shot put and javelin. And they weren’t competing against just other programs in their division, but rather all of the top teams across all divisions in the state.
For comparison, third place St. John’s Prep (15,153 points) and fourth place Framingham (15,130) are both Division 1 representatives. A total of 144 athletes made up the competition.
Linehan, a junior, stole the show on an individual level, finishing third overall while setting another new school record of 5,934 points. That record, previously held by James Liacano, had stood for much longer — over five decades, to be exact, as Liacano had set the high water mark in 1975.
“After day 1 (on Monday) we knew we were in a pretty good position. Seamus (Linehan) had his eye on that individual record, but we were all still pretty surprised we got both of those records,” said Coleman. “But the biggest surprise was to win as a team against St. John’s Prep, Newburyport and some of these other really strong programs. It was super impressive to do that.”
Linehan, who finished third as an individual, set new personal bests in seven different events: the 100 (11.37 seconds), long jump (21-feet-10-inches), shot put (32-9.5), triple jump (41-5), 400 (50.98 seconds), javelin (132-0), discus (92-11), high jump (5-3) and 1500 (4:43.91). He also achieved season bests in two other events, with the 110 hurdles being the only event he did not get a PR or SB in but still ran a great 16.79 seconds.
Linehan’s top individual finish across all of his events came in both the 400 and long jump, where he secured a pair of second places. He was also fourth in the 100 and sixth in the javelin.
Mannone, meanwhile, finished with 5,103 to claim 17th place individually. He set seven PRs, with his best event coming in the 100 meter race where he finished in 10th with a PR of 11.58 seconds. He was also 11th in the 400 (52.80) and 16th in the javelin (PR of 122-04).
Do Carmo was the only GHS athlete to win an event outright, doing so in the 1500 with a sizzling time of 4:24.22 (an equivalent of 4:45.36 in the mile). Do Carmo finished 21st overall with 5,013 points and seven PRs. His other top event was the 400, where he captured fifth with a PR of 51.75 seconds.
“They all have a great work ethic and they thrive off of each other,” said Coleman. “They had more fun competing with each other from event to event, pushing one another and seeing which one of them could beat the other. That made it more fun for them, and they weren’t really thinking about other teams; they were just trying to push each other and I think that’s the best way to get results.”
In addition to the championship team, fellow GHS standouts Leo Cosentino, Gabe Pate and Declan Pate competed as the Fishermen’s “B” team and finished 25th out of 40 teams. Individually, Cosentino was 52nd with seven PRs, Gabe Pate was 102nd with nine PRs, and Declan Pate finished 118th with eight PRs.
On the girls side, Gloucester’s “A” team of Cia Donohoe, Tess Taylor and Hope Castellucci finished in an impressive eighth place overall out of 27 teams in the heptathlon. They tallied 8,597 points, collectively, across seven events: the 100 meter hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, javelin, 200 meter dash and 800 meter.
Individually, Taylor was 23rd with 3,081 points to lead the charge. Her best event was the long jump, where she snared fifth overall with a leap of 16-feet-0.25-inches. She was also 13th in the 100 hurdles (PR of 17.09 seconds) and 18th in the 200 (SB of 27.79 seconds).
Donohoe was 37th individually with 2,846 total points. She grabbed 29th in the 800 (2:45.42) while setting a PR in the 100 (18.78) and a season best in the 200 (29.16).
Castellucci was 48th overall with 2,670 points, earning as high as fifth place in the 800 (PR of 2:29.69).
Finally, Gloucester’s girls all-freshmen “B” team of Kalia Cauthers, Adeline Wood and Claire Yukins was 25th out of 28 teams.
“I thought the girls did great. Hope in the 800 was awesome, that was her fastest time of the year,” said Coleman. “It really is a grind, and even if you’re not your best at a particular event, being able to constantly step up in the next event and say, ‘I’m gonna come in here and compete, compete,’ that’s not easy to do. They were all at their best or near their best at every event, which is just super hard to do.
“And then the freshmen girls did awesome,” he continued. “That was really good for them; they were probably the best all freshmen team there, as most (competitors) are upperclassmen.”
Donohoe, Taylor and Castellucci were chasing the GHS program record set last year and were able to get within 1,000 points of it. Both Donohoe and Taylor were a part of that record-setting trio last year, and according to Coleman, both had a better meet overall this time around.