THE HORNETS are the 2023 Div. 4 Indoor State Champions. (Courtesy Photo)
BOSTON — This past Wednesday night, at the Reggie Lewis Center, the NRHS girls’ indoor track and field team earned the title of MIAA Division 4 State Champions.
This win was a major success and served as the perfect ending to this year’s 2022-2023 indoor season, which also included the girls being named Cape Ann League Open Champions, CAL Kinney Division Champions and MSTCA State Relay Champions.
The Hornets competed as a team in four regular season meets and three championship meets and were undefeated in all competitions. The team was led by some remarkable athletes but it was ultimately the depth of the program that allowed for the Hornets’ success.
At the state championship they managed to place within the top 6 in 10 out of the 13 events contested at the meet and by the end of the night North Reading had scored a convincing 69 points. Rounding out some of the other top scoring teams were as follows: Whitinsville Christian (55), Holliston (46), Middleboro (36), Pentucket (35), Newburyport (34).
Starting off with the field events, Madison Vant threw 32’ 7” in the Shot Put, placing her in 5th and scoring 4 points for her team. Abigail Lilley also gave a strong performance, throwing 31’ 0” and coming in 11th place.
In the Long Jump, North Reading had two athletes place within the top 3. Madison Vant came in 2nd, earning 8 points and jumping an impressive 17’ 7.5”. Captain Ava McIntyre jumped 17’ 7”, coming in 3rd and earning 6 points. To add to the team total points, Georgia Robarts (16’5”) picked up another point with her 8th place finish. Coming in 11th and 12th place and showing the depth of the Hornet Hop Squad were Captain Kayla Budny (16’ 1”) and Katie Zimmerman (15’ 11”). In the High Jump Abigail Lilley cleared 4’ 10” and came in 9th place.
During the 55m prelims, Captain Ava McIntyre ran an impressive time of 7.43. Captain Kayla Budny also gave a solid performance, running a 7.53. Georgia Robarts was not far behind with a time of 7.80. Both McIntyre and Budny would go on to compete in the 55m finals, where McIntyre lowered her time to a 7.40 and Budny ran a 7.61. This placed McIntyre in 5th and Budny in 8th, enabling the two athletes to score a combined 5 points for their team.
For the first round of the 55m hurdles, both Madison Vant and Hayden MacLellan’s performances of 8.94 and 9.14 enabled them to move on to the finals. Although Katie Zimmerman’s performance did not allow her to move on to the finals, she ran a solid time of 9.63 at her first state meet and came in 11th. During the finals for the 55m hurdles, Vant ran a 9.02 and came in 6th place, while MacLellan ran a 9.58 and came in 8th place. Together these girls earned a combined 4 points for their team as Vant capped off an impressive triple scoring 15 points across the SP, LJ and 55MH in only the first 45 minutes of the meet.
This brought the team total to 28 points with the Hornets tied with Middleboro and Pembroke (20.5) and Pentucket (17) close behind. But the Hornets weren’t finished. They took to the oval and started to pull away from the competition en route to their State Championship victory.
Annalise Butler started things off on the oval, placing 4th overall with her time of 5:32.66, earning 5 points for the team. Callie MacLellan ran an impressive 5:43.70, managing to place within the top 10 just outside of scoring contention. Ava Collins (6:02.30) also performed well. Annalise came back 60 minutes later in the Two Mile Run and placed 6th for 3 points with a time of 11:59.17.
Giuliana Ligor earned back to back state championship titles with her 1:38.63 in the 600 Meter Run. Only 30 minutes later, she came back and took second in the 300 Meters with an impressive 40.66, just .05 seconds off of the school record. From both of these events combined, Ligor was able to individually score 18 points for her team.
North Reading’s own 4x200m relay team made up of Georgia Robarts, Captain Ava McIntyre, Captain Kayla Budny, and Giuliana Ligor were crowned State Champions with an impressive time of 1:46.33. This victory brought in an additional 10 points for the girls’ track and field team.
The 4x800m relay, which was run by Captain Karleigh Budny, Callie MacLellan, Quinlan Kelly, and Annalise Butler, finished 10th with a time of 10:45.76, which was a 25 second season best for the team. To conclude the meet, the 4x400m relay team composed of Tiara Lamont, Julia DeAngelis, Madelyn Arian Aitchison, and Reilly Tassinari finished in 4th place. These girls ran a 4:22.00, earning an extra 5 points and bringing their team’s score up to 69.
This year’s State Championship was the first time the girls’ track and field team had won since 2019, marking the first championship for the seniors on the team. It marks the 3rd indoor state championship in school history in the past five years (2021 was not contested) as the Hornets won back to back titles in 2018 and 2019. Last year, these girls came in 7th place with 30 points, scoring less than half of what they were able to accomplish this past Wednesday.
Although the 2022-2023 indoor track and field season has come to an end for a majority of the team, North Reading still has a handful of athletes who will be competing at future meets such as the Meet of Champions were the best athletes from all five divisions and the state will compete head to head as individuals at the Reggie Lewis Center on Feb. 25 as well as the New Balance National Championships which will be held this March in Boston at the Track at New Balance from March 9-March 12. Looking ahead to the future, these girls will be looking to continue their legacy into this year’s spring outdoor track and field season.