LYNNFIELD – It’s official. Lynnfield High track and football standout Joey Cucciniello is taking his talent to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut this fall.

The speedster, surrounded by family and friends, signed a letter of intent earlier this week at the high school, announcing he will be running indoor and outdoor track for the Bantams. 

Cucciniello said he feels Trinity is the best school for him as it offers him the chance to compete in college while, at the same time, giving him the best opportunity to prioritize academics. He said he also considered Babson, Amherst, and other NESCA schools before deciding on Trinity.

“Signing day was just a great moment. I finally found the one school that felt like home to me,” Cucciniello said. “And that’s all that matters. A bunch of NESCAC coaches reached out to me, but the best thing about all the NESCAC schools is the balance between academics and athletics. That played a really big role in my decision. Trinity has the athletics and yet I can balance that with great academics to set me up for the future and that’s why I chose Trinity.”

Cucciniello carries a challenging course load with Advanced Placement classes in psychology, statistics, Spanish, and literature. He’s also taking honors physics and carries a 3.82 GPA. He said that while Trinity doesn’t have a business major, he intends to major in economics while taking as many business-centric classes as possible.

“I wanted to challenge myself academically this year because that’s what most students should do if you want to play a sport in college,” Cucciniello said. “I felt like I have a spot in the Trinity community. But ultimately, Trinity is all about academics. I’ve used sports as a way of supporting my view of the outside world. Being on a team helps you with so much in terms of communication. It shows leadership and can set you apart especially when it comes to getting into a school like Trinity.”

At Lynnfield, Cucciniello is a jack of all trades when it comes to track. While he’s competed in a variety of events, his main focus is on the pentathlon events, especially the long jump, 4×100 relay, and the triple jump, an event in which he set the indoor school record of 43-0.75 as a junior.

He also holds the indoor 4×200 record (1:36.27) and indoor shuttle record (23.79)  with Jesse Dorman, Charlie Morgan, and Dillon Reilly and the outdoor 4×100 record (44.5) with Dorman, Reilly, and Zahir Mitchell that was set Wednesday in a dual meet against Hamilton-Wenham. 

Cucciniello said a key factor in that race was a better handoff with anchorman Mitchell.

“Instead of forcing the baton right away for a better split, I should have been waiting a couple of seconds just so I could take my time to get a clean handoff,” he said.

A captain of both the indoor and outdoor boys track teams, Cucciniello also served as captain of the Pioneers’ football team last fall. He led the team’s receiving corps with 28 catches for 594 yards and a team-high seven receptions for touchdowns. A Pioneer Offensive Player of the Year, Cucciniello was also a standout in the secondary, snagging two interceptions.

“I first started doing track to increase my football speed,” he said. 

At the team’s annual awards banquet, head coach Pat Lamusta said Cucciniello was “the pulse of the team, a barometer” who had an “awesome” four-year career as a Pioneer. Lamusta described Cucciniello’s ability to sense the needs of his teammates and push them to become better players as “an impressive leadership quality.”

Cucciniello expects to compete in the long jump and triple jump at Trinity but hopes to “sneak in a 400” from time to time.

“The sprinters really fly in the 100 and 200, but I think I have more endurance over the longer 400, so I hope that maybe I’ll get the chance,” he said.

Cucciniello said he will never forget the email from Trinity informing him he had been accepted.

“I got deferred when I applied early decision, but I think Trinity was just wanting to see how I did in my AP courses before accepting me. They didn’t know how I would hold up with all those APs this year after taking just honors last year. Once I showed them I had the grades to do it, I was in. I was with my mom and my family when I read the email so it was really exciting to open it up and see all the confetti. It’s something I will remember for a  very long time.”

For now, however, Cucciniello’s focus is on one thing – Saturday’s MSTCA Division 5 Relays at Seekonk High School.

“That’s a huge meet tomorrow,” he said. “We’ve been building up to this. I think of it as our team’s state meet. When it’s states at the end of the season, it’s pretty much mostly individual. This will judge how good we are as a team. We want to show everyone in the state that we are a good team with individuals who are also good, but mainly to show it as a whole team.”