Lancers Gain Experience at the East Coast Invite

A day before the Division 4 State Relays, a small group of Norton trackletes went on the short trip to Providence to compete in the East Coast Invitational on Friday night. The fields were must deeper than last year's meet which brought about a strong challenge for the Lancers, who made the most out of the experience.

Kicking off the relay-oriented evening was the girls 4x55m shuttle hurdle relay. Competing out of the second semifinal heat, the Lancers ran a flawless race, displacing no hurdle, capturing second with a time of 38.91. The quartet of senior captains Julia Newell and Lilly Holloway, and underclassmen Heather Kurland and Madeline Dolack had to sweat out the final two heats to capture the last spot in the finals. In which, the girls managed to improve on their semifinal time to solidify their medalist finish, grabbing sixth place with a time of 38.80.

L-R: Newell, Kurland, Holloway and Dolack pose with the Providence Oscar

The Lady Lancers also brought several mid-distance gals to PVD to get in additional work prior to the State Relays. While it wasn't the strongest showing by the girls 4x800m relay, plenty of lessons were learned in preparation for post-season competition. Senior captain Hannah Delea led off the group of Hannah Kubinski, Sarah Kubinski and Destiny McGrath who all fought a back-and-fourth race to finish a hard-fought 10th place in a time of 11:36.30.

Concluding the short night was the lone male Lancers relay, the 4x800m relay, aiming to improve their state-qualifying time run at WinterFest. Headed by senior captains Austin Carroll and DJ Nihill, season best splits charged the Lancers forward while Sean Wynne and Ethan Tetrault ran hard to keep Norton in contention. The Lancers placed fifth in their heat with their 8:44.77 being displaced by one team in the second heat. Nevertheless, their split clinched the last medalist position and improved their state-qualifying time.

Smile! L-R: A. Carroll, Tetrault, Wynne and Nihill