The Whitman-Hanson boys track team wasn’t considered to be a contender in the distance events based on their seed times heading into the Division II State Relays on Sunday, but they caught the rest of the state by surprise when they left the Reggie Lewis Center with some jewelry.

The Panthers medaled in both the 4x800 and distance medley relays out of unseeded heats for two of their four team medals.

Pat Ryan, Nate Stephansky and Pat Mulrey had the Panthers at second in their heat when Mulrey handed the baton to Dylan Foureau for the anchor leg of the 4x800, and Foureau chased down Shepherd Hill to win the heat with a time of 8 minutes, 25.11 seconds. The team’s time would be good enough to give the Panthers third place after only Marshfield and Holyoke were able to catch them out of the seeded section.

Ryan, Stephansky and Mulrey pulled another upset later in the day when they teamed with Dom Cacciatore to earn medals in the distance medley relay by placing sixth with an 11:06 time, again out of the unseeded section.

“The highlights of the meet were definitely the 4x800 and distance medley teams scoring from the unseeded heats,” head coach Jeff Andrews said. “Scoring this way is pretty difficult because the athletes have to run on time and hope that it beats out performances in the seeded section. The 4x800 was actually able to place third, which is amazing.”

Foureau and Cacciatore also picked up a second medal later in the meet when they placed fourth in the sprint medley relay with Mike Reimer and Anthony Iannone. Iannone also earned two medals on the day when he, Steve Croghan, Andrew Clemens and John Caliri came within a fraction of a second of breaking the school shuttle hurdle record with their fourth-place time of 28.59 seconds.

The boys shot put team just missed a medal with their seventh place finish, while the high jump and long jump relay teams also placed in the top 10, both taking ninth.

“The boys indoor track team had an excellent showing,” Andrews said. “There were great performances throughout the day with 10 different athletes earning State Relay medals in a variety of events.”