With State Relays only a week away, the Lancers carpooled a handful of relays up to the Providence Career and Technical Academy in Rhode Island to compete in the East Coast Invitational. Competing against teams from across New England and New York proved not to be a challenge for Norton as nearly every relay podiumed capitalizing on improving seeds heading into the State Relays this weekend.
Girls
The girls hurdle shuttle relay of Crystal Macdonald, Hannah Delea, Lilly Holloway and Mary Diestel started the night off strong for the Lady Lancers. After running 39.54 in the semifinals, the Lancers were surprised to grab a spot into the finals as Old Rochester was disqualified following the third semifinal heat. Successfully bringing their best about 15 minutes later, the Lady Lancers improved by a hundredth of a second to run 39.53 in the final and improve by one spot to take 5th overall in the meet.
 |
| Norton hurdlers (far right) celebrate a surprise 5th place finish! |
Following the Lancer hurdles, the girls Sprint Medley Relay in the rarely run 200-200-400-800 order. Junior
Kirsten Loring got the Lancers out hard in the second heat running a 29.72 first leg allowing for
Julia Newell to cut it around the curve and hand-off the baton in a blazing 27.83.
Carly Murphy took over on the 400 leg as the field started to widened. However, she maintained pace and began to reel in the rest of the field with a 66.85 split giving
Kylie Dion a fair opportunity to win the heat for the Lady Lancers. Out like a bullet, Dion moved the team into second and made up ground on first place Griswold but ran out of real estate and time to catch the final runner. Dion ran a respectable 2:38 in the final leg of the SMR to give the Lancers a second place finish in the heat, producing the 6th fastest time in the event with a 4:42.44 time overall.
 |
| Girls SMR would like to thank the Academy for their 6th place finish |
The final girls relay on the night proved to be Lancers' highest finish on Friday as the girls 4x800 took to the track looking to improve on their state-qualifying time from Winterfest. Senior captain
Katie Bradley led the relay off with a dominant 2:28 opening split moving the Lancers to the front of the field. Freshman
Isabella Pietrasiezwicz held her own in the second leg, despite racing down from her usual long-distance preferences, running a fantastic 2:33 split to keep the Lancers on the heels of second place South Kingston. Turning in a double on the night, Delea came back from the hurdle relays to run the third 800 leg keeping the Lancers within reach of SK, handing off the baton after a 2:39 leg. From there,
Julia Palin took over and seized second back after 200 meters and held on chipping away at Barrington's lead. Ultimately, Palin pulled Norton away from SK to 10-second lead over third. Her 2:25 800 split solidified the Lancers's runner-up finish to Barrington (RI), improving the 4x800 relay's state-qualifying time to 10:06.46. The nearly 28 second improvement also puts the girls only 11 seconds away from the school's 4x800 record (9:55.34), set back in 2015-16.
 |
| Katie Bradley takes off during the opening 4x800 leg |
 |
| Girls 4x800 celebrate their season's best time and 2nd place finish! |
Last and certainly not least on the girls side of the track, Julia Palin came back up to Providence on Saturday to compete in the Girls 800 meters. Looking to better her 2:20.96 school record time the last time she came to the PCTA, Palin came through the 400 in 69 seconds as the field broke off leaving her and Oxbow's Izzy Giesing alone in the front. A slower third lap led for an exciting bell lap finish with Giesing holding off Palin in the final straightaway. Palin crossed the line in 2:19.75, less than a half second behind Giesing, but over a second better than her school record set just over two weeks prior. Congratulations Julia!
 |
| Palin and Oxbow's Giesing separate themselves from the field |
Boys
The Men of Norton started off the Friday evening with the shuttle hurdle relays as well. A combination of youth and experience led the team as Pat Bingel, Derek Bamford, Paul Wisnaskas, and Corey Stalters squeezed into the finals with their 38.67 in the semifinals. In the finals, the Lancers laid witness to a US Top 5 time in the Uniondale (NY) quartertet. However, a disqualification and a slightly slower time of 37.89 did not phase Norton and they finished the evening placing fifth overall in the event.
 |
| Norton boys shuttle hurdle relay joining in on the podium fun |
Traditionally NHS's 4x400 meter relay,
Peter Rivard, Sam McGrath, Aidan Lerner and
Ian Pereira opted into the sprint medley relay in preparation of next weekend's state relays. Despite a heat of only one other team, Rivard remained focused through his 200 leg, splitting 25.59. Handing off to McGrath, Norton was still within range following a quick 23.94 split. Ground was lost in the third leg as East Boston's 400 leg outpaced Lerner despite Lerner's 57.85. Running nearly all alone, Pereira was left to chip away at East Boston's lead and almost caught up to the 800 anchor, running a 2:15 leg to bring the Lancers just a shade over four minutes in 4:02.70, two seconds behind East Boston in the heat. However, the Lancers were disqualified as McGrath cut in a few meters too early before the break 60 meters into his second leg. Nevertheless, the experience in the event had the boys psyched for relays up in Boston.
 |
Senior captain Aidan Lerner mid-400 leg of the Boys SMR
|
And finally, to mirror the girls 4x800 state-qualifier, the boys took advantage of the rarely run mid-distance relay to punch their ticket to MIAA Division 4 States. Having been only a second off the time state-qualifier at Winterfest, the guys were hungry to get it done. Led by
Austin Carroll, the Lancers got out to a quick start putting themselves in contention for a top finish. Carroll's 2:07 split was handed off to
Ethan Tetrault who got out to a fast pace leaving himself to fight back through the second 400. But Tetrault stayed tough and gutted out a 2:16 split passing the stick to
Dj Nihill who fought back into the pack, getting the Lancers back up to South Kingston's fourth place squad. Nihill's 2:11 800 gave
Pat Bingel, who had run the shuttle hurdle relay earlier, a position to overtake SK and steal a fourth place finish for the Lancers. Yet, a back-and-fourth fight over the last 400 meters left Bingel out of gas and out of room as his 2:12 split was not enough to outpace SK. Alas, the goal was achieved: the boys 8:48.64, 0.29 seconds out of fourth place, easily bested their Winterfest time, punching their ticked to Division 4 States.
 |
Carroll takes off down the back straightaway during the opening 4x800 leg
|
A very successful weekend in Lancer country, Norton returns back to the track on Monday against Holliston and Medway. Hurdles will start the meet at 3:30 pm.
-Coach Al
No comments:
Post a Comment