Athlete’s death spurs review of race process Runner found 25 feet off course

loading...

BELFAST – The teenage athlete who died during a weekend cross-country meet was discovered in 3- to 4-foot-tall grass about 25 feet from a wooded portion of the course nearly two hours after he was last accounted for, authorities and participants said Monday.

The unusual circumstances surrounding the death of Joseph Diprete-DiGioia, 14, a freshman at Belfast Area High School, are prompting questions about how such events are handled.

An autopsy conducted by the state Medical Examiner’s Office has been completed, but did not immediately reveal the cause of death, the office reported Monday afternoon. Further study will be made, the examiner’s office said.

The boy apparently collapsed sometime after the one-mile mark in the second race of the four-race Maine XC Festival of Champions. He was not seen at the 1.5-mile mark.

The meet Saturday drew more than 600 student athletes to a course at the Troy A. Howard Middle School. About 160 runners participated in the second race, which began about 1 p.m.

Diprete-DiGioia was found about 3 p.m. He was pronounced dead at Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast.

The runner was not discovered until after two other races had been run over the 3.1-mile course at the school off Route 52. The course begins and ends in a field, but passes through woods on the 86-acre school property.

The last of the runners in the second race crossed the finish line about 1:30 p.m., said Terry Kenniston, the high school’s athletic director, on Monday.

The boy’s parents, Michael DiGioia and Maura Diprete, both of Belfast, were waiting at the finish line, but did not see him cross, Kenniston said. Coaches and volunteers waited at the finish line and checked off the uniform numbers of those who crossed.

Ray Danielson, a teacher and cross-country coach at the middle school who was assisting with the meet, said Belfast’s high school coaches ran the course, one from the finish line and one from the one-mile mark, where Diprete-DiGioia had last been seen, sometime after he was reported missing.

Diprete-DiGioia was clocked at 6:20 at the mile mark, Danielson said, a respectable time.

The coaches did not find Diprete-DiGioia, and the boy’s parents also began searching.

Danielson said the boy’s mother, who apparently rode a bicycle to the meet, told coaches at one point that her bicycle was missing and suggested that her son may have taken it home. So searches were made at the boy’s mother’s home, about a mile away, and at his father’s home in downtown Belfast, as well as at the homes of friends.

When Diprete-DiGioia could not be found elsewhere, the search resumed along the course.

Danielson said meet organizers were on the verge of calling for state search and rescue assistance when Jo-Ann Nealey, a teacher who coaches Belfast’s cross-country team, found the boy.

Police Chief Allen Weaver said Diprete-DiGioia was in grass that was 3 to 4 feet high about 25 feet from the trail.

Nealey shouted for help and directed the other adults to her location. Danielson and others said the boy could not have been easily spotted where he was lying in the tall grass.

People involved with cross-country meets said Monday it is common for runners not to finish a race. Athletes can develop cramps, twist an ankle, trip and fall, walk to the finish line, or limp off the course without checking in.

Kenniston said another athlete suffered a broken arm from a fall during one of Saturday’s races.

Jeff Sturgis, assistant executive director of the Maine Principals’ Association, said runners sometimes stop and vomit during a race or suffer from diarrhea, which will prompt them to wander away from the trail.

Athletes also become discouraged about being unable to finish and walk to a team’s bus or locker room, he said. These would not be accounted for at the finish line.

“In light of what happened [in Belfast], we certainly will have discussions about what are the protocols for our meets,” Sturgis said, including “whether you start the next race” if an athlete does not show up at the finish line.

Still, Sturgis said, it may not be practical to try to track the whereabouts of each athlete because of what is a rare event.

Saturday’s meet was organized by local schools. Sturgis said the MPA runs Eastern and Western regional cross-country meets, as well as the state meet. At those events, the pack of runners in each race is followed by “sweepers” – adults on a golf cart or a mountain bike – who try to ensure no one is left behind due to injury.

“You’d literally have to have someone standing every 10 feet along the course to monitor everyone,” he said. “I think you do the best you can.”

Some 650 athletes competed in Saturday’s meet in Belfast. The course was lined with observers and timers, Danielson and others said, but there were no sweepers following the runners.

SAD 34, like most districts, requires students to have a standard physical examination before allowing them to participate in athletics. The district has created a checklist that a physician must complete before certifying the student eligible for participation.

Weaver said a Belfast Area High School student collapsed and died of a heart attack while playing basketball in the early 1980s.

Diprete-DiGioia’s death was still under investigation Monday, the chief said, and a large portion of the middle-school property where Diprete-DiGioia was found remained off-limits to the public.

Gary Bosk, principal of the Troy A. Howard Middle School, was distraught Monday over Diprete-DiGioia’s death. Bosk’s son and Diprete-DiGioia were friends, and Bosk knew the boy’s family, he said.

Students at the middle school were upset Monday, the principal said, and took advantage of an open door in the guidance office. Teachers and staff were affected, too, Bosk said.

“He was a great kid,” the principal said.

Dan Horton, who taught Diprete-DiGioia, remembered him fondly.

“He was an outstanding, cheerful student,” he said. “It’s a tragedy for the community because he was so well-liked. You believed this boy would have been a success.”

Danielson described Diprete-DiGioia as a “happy-go-lucky kid.”

“Joe always seemed to have a smile on his face,” he said.

On the track team last year, “he was starting to run the mile and reduce his time.”

Butch Arthers, principal at Belfast Area High School, said school nurse Laurie Cunningham of the district’s crisis team managed a room at the school Monday where students could go to talk about their feelings about the death. Students worked on creating a “memory book” about Diprete-DiGioia, he said, which would be presented to the boy’s family.

Diprete-DiGioia has an older brother who attends the high school.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.