By Dillon Mulhern

     “Even though there are a lot of kids at the Merrimack Valley meet, I think the meet at Coe-Brown really proved that we are contenders,” said Devan McClain (‘18).

     On Saturday April 23rd, Merrimack Valley High School is hosting the 16th Annual Merrimack Valley Invitational track meet. In previous years the meet has been “one of the most competitive meets it’s often referred to as the midseason classic,” said Coach Nick Ricciardi. The meet welcomes a plethora of schools and competitors that don’t typically race each other until the divisional ‘Meet of Champions.’ This meet is also going to be Maegan Doody’s first meet of the year because of the existence of strong competition.

     “I’m expecting to perform well, and for our relay teams to show a strong showing. Our relays are some of our strongest races,” continues McClain. The girls A team relay has placed well in relay based meets previously, such as the Dartmouth relays during the winter track season.

     “I expect we’ll see strong performances from Neville Caulfield (‘16), Maegan Doody (‘16), Kendall Brant (‘17), Gavin Allen (‘16) in javelin, Ethan Haug (‘17) and Bella Saputo (‘16) in pole vault,” said Patrick O’brien (‘17) a strong member of the distance team.

     This meet will also be the first showing of many pole vaulters. “My freshman pole vaulters will hopefully perform well; they’ve been practicing hard in anticipation of the meet,” said Saputo (‘16).

     “Oyster River has been going to this meet as long as I’ve been a coach, around 14 years. This is where we typically see our breakout athletes,” said Ricciardi. As with any sport, the race isn’t won until after the competitors cross the finish line, so come support Oyster River Track at Merrimack Valley High School this Saturday.