Lancers Debut at BU While Alumni Shine

A day after the MIAA All-State Meet, senior captain Austin Carroll and sophomore Isabella Pietrasiewicz competed at the BU Last Chance Meet at Boston University's Indoor Track and Tennis Center. A very popular track, due to its high banks, the two Lancers made the most out of their early collegiate experience as they competed unattached for "Lancer Elite" among professional and collegiate runners.

With no indoor 800m race on record for Norton runners, Carroll sought out a personal best in his school record heat. Competing in the eighth heat, Carroll ran from the back of the pack, coming through 200m at 28.9. The rest of the field came back to him as he crossed through 400m at just under 60 seconds. The pack thinned out fairly quickly as he was poised to finish in front of the 8-man heat. Hitting the bell at 1:30, Carroll positioned out into lanes 2-3 to pass runners as they began to hit lacticity, ultimately striding to the line in a fifth place blanket finish in his heat. He ended up finishing fifth in his heat (56th overall) with a new indoor/outdoor personal best, and indoor school record time, of 2:00.78.

In one of the earlier heats, however, Norton alumni Chris Wrenn '16 broke a school record of his own. Competing for Bryant University, Wrenn went out like a mad man in the third fastest heat, coming through 600m (1:23.32) in a time that rivaled his Lancer school record set his senior year. But he held on strong and placed fourth in his heat (14th overall) in running a Bryant school record time of 1:52.56. It was a phenomenal day for the Bulldogs with teammates Brian Salit (Seekonk HS) and Will Bittrich (Duxbury HS) running personal bests of 1:56.25 and 1:57.98 respectively.

Wrenn (middle - 166) with Bryant coaches and teammates

Meanwhile, Pietrasiewicz had slightly tired legs from All-States the day prior but still looked to better her own school record. Running in the second heat among runners from Northeastern and Boston College, she came through 800m on PR pace at 2:34. Her 800-1,200 quarter slowed down as the top two runners in her heat split off even farther. Pietrasiewicz managed to make up ground with 200m to go but the two distanced themselves too far for her to catch them. Still, she placed third in her heat (15th overall) and narrowly missed her school record, breaking the line at 5:13.05.

A successful day of competition for the two Lancers!

Other Lancer alumni spotted included Adam Winiarz '15 (Bryant) and Justin Ireland '16 (Stonehill). Winiarz just missed his personal best in the 200m by running 22.69 (46th overall) while Ireland demolished his personal best in closing in on sub-22 by running 22.04 (27th overall).

Up Next: Carroll begins his off-season for outdoor track while Pietrasiewicz preps for the New Balance National Indoor Championships. On Tuesday, a Lancer contingency (Corey Stalters, Paul Wisnaskas and Alex Hamer-Moreno) will take to Reggie for the MSTCA Pentathlon while Eve Rodriguez and Krystal Macdonald will compete on Wednesday.