Milford athletes showed improvement all season

By Chris Villani

The Milford High School girls’ track and field team lost a number of seniors from last year’s team, and the graduates stood out in both quality and quantity.

“We lost a couple of state medalists, we lost seniors who scored at both state and league championships,” head coach Dan Gordon said. “I don’t want to use the term rebuilding, but we are developing a lot of freshmen and sophomores into future track athletes.”

Gordon said his relatively small team has been trying out new techniques and giving new events a try.

“It’s a big learning year,” he said.

The Scarlet Hawks have several athletes who consistently scored points this winter. 

Junior Julianys Rentas has been an integral part of the team’s 4x200 relay and the top runner in the 300 meters and top high jumper. Milford also received a boost from first-year track athlete Talya Seri, a sophomore. 

“She is really flexible in terms of events she can run,” Goron said. “She can run the 300, the 600, she does the 1,000, the 4x200, the 4x400, and she has done the long jump in the past. She is another great asset on the team.”

The best runner in the dash for Milford this winter is a freshman, Laysa Moura. Gordon praised her ability to be flexible in the events she does, including the 600 and the 300.

“She is just having a great season for us,” Gordon said.

Milford’s distance group is paced by Junior Lauren Flanagan, who runs both the mile and the two mile and finished the dual meet season with personal bests in both. 

“Our distance team is only four girls, I can’t even fill all the events,” Gordon said. “But Lauren has been working really hard despite the small numbers.”

Sophomore Katheryn Barrientos proved to be MHS’ best in the shot put, with junior Yasmin Martinez right on her heels. A key leader for Milford is junior Claudia Solitro, a team captain.

“I don’t usually make juniors captains,” Gordon said. “But Claudia has some great leadership qualities that I thought should be recognized.”

Speaking ahead of the Hockomock League championships and the postseason meets, Gordon said he could envision this young group sparking a turnaround in the program over the next couple of seasons.

“Track is tough, it takes a while to develop,” he said. “There is certainly a lot of promise with the underclassmen here and I think this season really ignited a love of the sport. No doubt we can get back on top with some more hard work and putting people in the right events.”