Gloucester senior Gus Margiotta, currently ranked third in the state in the shot put, will join fellow senior Andrew Ryan, and juniors Gilbert Brown and the Hurd brothers, Kevin and Kyle, at the MIAA All-State Indoor Track and Field Championships tomorrow night (5 p.m.). Senior Abbie Rogers from the Gloucester girls track team will also compete.
The meet is held each year at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Complex in Boston. It is considered the Super Bowl of high school track and field in Massachusetts, with the top five finishers and four next-best performances in each of the MIAA's four divisions advancing to the final and most important competition of the year.
Margiotta enters the meet seeded third behind Falmouth's Samuel Bombaugh and Lowell's Ryan Davila. As in all of the other events, there will be 24 throwers in the shot put field. Margiotta will compete in the third and final, top-seeded flight of eight.
Gloucester's 4x800 relay team will also compete in the top-seeded heat, though not in the No. 1 poll position, having dropped to eighth following the team's unexpectedly sub-par performance at the state Division 2 Championships last Saturday.
According to Fishermen boys' coach Jim Munn, the relay team's running order has been shuffled, and the boys are looking forward to reclaiming their title as the No. 1 4x800 team in the state. To accomplish that, Ryan, Brown and the Hurds will have to go under the eight-minute mark, or so Munn believes.
"In the last three weeks, our boys have run a 7:57 and an 8:18," Munn said. "It will probably take a 7:57 to win the All-State 4x800. An 8:18 won't even get us a seat in the luggage compartment of the bus. It's going to be interesting to see which team shows up on (tomorrow)."
Munn expects Gloucester's main competition to come, once again, from Andover, a team Munn claims performs "consistently well, is balanced, and will be running fresh." Other teams with medal aspirations include Cambridge Rindge and Latin, Methuen and Mansfield.
Rogers will compete in the mile, after running a 5:20.89 in last Saturday's Division 2 Championships. That time was good for third place last weekend.
The running events start at 5 p.m. with Rogers in the mile. Margiotta should step into the thrower's circle at about 6 p.m., with the Fishermen 4x800 unit scheduled to make its appearance an hour or so later.
