Published in the May 17, 2018 edition
NORTH READING — The NRHS boys’ spring track team finished the regular season with exciting wins over Triton (73-72), Lynnfield (75-70) and Ipswich (111-34), while falling in a tough contest with Pentucket (84-61).
In the meet against Lynnfield and Triton on May 9 at Triton Regional, overall event winners included Billy Lord in the 110 meter hurdles (15.44), Lionel Beane in the 400m hurdles (60.11) and the 4×100 relay team of Joey McCarthy, Grayson Budny, Jack Donohue and Billy Lord (45.1).
A number of personal and season bests were achieved that day as well. James Garniss threw 39’1” in the shot put and 89’8” in the discus to help score points for the Hornets. The 110 meter hurdles squad of Lord, Beane and Andrew Crotty once again swept the event for the Hornets with times of 15.44, 15.94 and 17.15 respectively. Cam Chinchillo improved his triple jump mark as he hit 41’4.5” which is 7th all time in NRHS history.
Just like the meet against Amesbury, this one came down to the pole vault event as Nick Carpenter and Joey McCarthy both cleared 10’6” to take 2nd and 3rd against Lynnfield and 1st and 2nd against Triton to eek out the victory against both teams.
In the Senior Day meet at NRHS on May 14, the Hornets bested Ipswich and fell to a strong Pentucket squad.
Against Ipswich, the Hornets won 14 out of the 17 events. Victors against Ipswich included Lionel Beane (400 hurdles, 58.79, 4th all-time in NRHS history), Matt Dovale (long jump, 19’ 9.25” and 100 meter 11.5, tied-10th all-time in NRHS history), Cam Chinchillo (high jump, 5’ 8” and triple jump 41’ 3.5”), Joey DiSanto (shot put, 40’ 2.75”), Peter Wood (discus, 93’ 11”), Nick Carpenter (pole vault, 10’ 0”), Justin Hong (2 Mile, 11:21.76), Billy Lord (110 meter hurdles, 15.25), Casey Robarts (1 Mile, 4:53.20), Zach Rinaldi (400 meter, 55.53), the 4 x 400 Relay team of Casey Robarts, Zach Rinaldi, Andrew DeBenedetto and Jake Doucette (3:52.55) and 4×100 Relay team of Joey McCarthy, Grayson Budny, Jack Donohue and Billy Lord (44.26) which is just .16 off the school record.
Despite the loss to Pentucket, head coach Ryan Spinney could not have been prouder of his team.
“We competed to the best of our ability today and were bested by a better team so hats off to Pentucket. That does not take anything away from our kids as we have all-time performances across the board both in school history and also in many of our athletes’ personal achievements. I am very excited to see how we do going into the championship meets in the next two weeks.”
The Hornets will be taking on the rest of the Cape Ann League at the CAL Open on Saturday, May 19 at Masconomet.