BOSTON — The NRHS girls’ track and field team traveled to the Reggie Lewis Center on Saturday, Feb. 22, just five days after winning their third straight state championship, to compete at the Meet of Champions.
This meet showcases the top 24-32 athletes in every event in the sport from across the state in all five divisions. In total, there were 161 teams in attendance.
Representing the Hornets were Giuliana Ligor in the 55 Meter Hurdles and 600 Meters, Callie MacLellan in the High Jump and the 4×400 meter relay team made up of Callie MacLellan, Quinlan Kelly, Katie Zimmerman, and Ligor. Hayden MacLellan also qualified to compete but opted out to continue with injury recovery leading into the national championships schedule for March.
Ligor had another impressive day albeit one that did not witness her winning an event. At this meet, she was up against two of the strongest athletes we have had in the state in quite some time: Emanuella Edozien of Natick in the 55 Meter Hurdles and Macey Shrinter of Plymouth North in the 600 Meters. Edozien had just set the all-time state record in the hurdles the previous week with a time of 7.96, slightly ahead of Ligor’s best of 8.15 and Shriner had the number two time all time in the state in the 600 meters of 1:31.75, which was two seconds ahead of Ligor’s best of 1:33.8 set just five days earlier at the D5 state championship.
In the 55 Meter Hurdles, Ligor had two great runs going 8.27 in the trials and 8.18 in the finals, just missing her personal best time. Edozien went 8.05 beating Ligor by .1 seconds which was about a 1 meter win.
The hurdle race was great but it was in the 600 meters that there were fireworks. Meet management had slated the race as the premier event on the track with all athletes in the final having personal best times under 1:36. In the three lap race, Shriner took it out fast in 28 seconds with the field chasing. Ligor got boxed in by Newburyport and Framingham and had to make a quick move 200 meters into the race to move her way up from 4th to 3rd and finally into 2nd 250 meters into the race, trailing Shriner by nearly 10 meters. Ligor picked up speed and closed in on Shriner with one lap to go and made a move on the back stretch getting up to Shriner’s shoulder trying to pace as she came off the final turn. Unfortunately, Shriner still had something in the tank and was able to hold off Ligor’s surge. Both girls had personal best times with Shriner going 1:30.54 and Ligor going 1:30.96 a huge, 3-second personal best. Their times rank them 2nd and 3rd all time in the state just behind current University of North Carolina standout Mikayla Paige who went 1:29.70 in 2020 for Tewksbury.
Callie MacLellan also medalled at the meet going 5’2” in the high jump yet again in an exhausting competition that lasted nearly three hours with 18 athletes clearing the opening height bar of 5’0”. Callie cleared both 5’ 0” and 5’ 2” on her first attempt which resulted in her earning 7th place. The 3rd-6th finishers all cleared 5’4” and the top two athletes went 5’ 6”.
Callie then wrapped up the day moments later in the 4×400 Meter Relay as the lead off runner, followed by Kelly, Zimmerman and Ligor going 4:10.35 for 12th place which was a few seconds off of the school record time the team had set just weeks earlier.
Callie MacLellan and Ligor along with Giuliana Auciello would go to compete just three days later in the State Pentathlon Championship. Callie and Giuliana will then go on and join forces with Hayden MacLellan and Katie Zimmerman on March 16 to compete at the National Championship Shuttle Hurdle Relay.
Look for those stories in future Transcript articles.