Norton TC Concludes Season at New Balance National Indoor Championships!

A long season came to a close this past weekend as the girls sprint medley relay (Julia Newell, Kirsten Loring, Kylie Dion and Isabella Pietrasiewicz) and the boys shuttle hurdle relay (Corey Stalters, James Partridge, Paul Wisnaskas, and Peter Rivard) ran their hearts out to finish the Lancers season at the New Balance National Indoor Championships, for the second winter in a row.

The Nationals Crew (minus Peter)

Indoor Complete!

Girls: 4:25.04 (39th out of 44 teams) - Emerging Elite

The familiar 200-200-400-800 format did not fool the Lancers, who ran the same order at the Last Chance to Qualify Meet to make NBNI. Senior captain Newell led off the relay in a speed :27 and change 200m opening split, before handing off to fellow senior captain Loring.

Loring kept up the pace to ran a near identical 27 second split, nailing the cut in after one-turn before getting the baton to Dion. Dion worked the first lap cautiously before chasing back down the rest of the field to split 64.37 officially, getting the baton to anchor Pietrasiewicz.

Pietrasiewicz, making a return trip to NBNI after racing the freshmen mile last year, started to battle a foot issue late in the season that impeded on her build-up for Nationals. Utilizing a cautious approach towards her training ultimately cost her a tad of her sharpness, as she mustered together a gutsy 2:25 closing 800m split to bring the SMR team home. Competing in a heat of teams form NJ and NY, Norton TC ultimately beat Woburn (4:25.69) competing two heats after them.

Boys: 32.84 (22nd out of 26 teams) - Championship

Reaching the Championship division, the hurdlers came to the Armory with laser focus. Racing out of the second heat, with a slightly altered order, the boys took off ready to chase the 4x55m (5 flights) school record (32.46) set back in 2012.

Leading off the relay was senior captain Stalters (8.11 split) opened up the relay with, not only an incredibly strong leg, but his most technically sound race of the season. Stalters maneuvered the five hurdles cleanly to exchange the lead off to Partridge.

Partridge (8.71) ran a personal best from his leg, as the rest of the field caught back up to him. Exchanging to Wisnaskas (7.52), the sophomore commanded the lead back from the field with the fastest leg of the morning from the team. Senior captain Rivard (8.51) was put in a position to anchor the relay, after hip mobility issues severely limited his training following the TVL Showcase. However, with adrenaline pumping, Rivard ran a personal best in the split to seize the race back. A small stumble after the third hurdle was the only miscue on an otherwise flawless race that had the Lancers just 0.38 seconds off the school record. But conditions considering, the Men of Norton managed their task well.

The New Balance National Indoor Championships conclude another successful season for the Lancers Indoor Track & Field team! The coaching staff would like to thank all of the athletes, parents, and Boosters for their support and hard work put in to make this season as great as it ended up being. Off to outdoors!

-Coach Al