BOSTON — The NRHS girls’ indoor track and field did it again, winning their third straight state championship.
Having won the D4 state championship in 2023 the Hornets continued their winning ways when they moved down to D5 in 2024 and repeated the feat this year in D5 in 2025. Based on current school enrollment numbers the MIAA has them slated to stay in D5 for the next two years.
In total, there were 81 teams competing for the title with 35 teams scoring points at the meet. Division 5 is made up of schools with student enrollments of under 650 but it is the largest division with over 80 teams.
It was Feb. 17 and February Vacation had just begun for North Reading student athletes but the Hornets were clearly not on vacation as they had one goal on their mind that day: winning a state championship.
The Hornets scored 53.25 points surpassing the 50-point mark, which is what coach Sotirios Pintzopoulos thought they needed to secure the title. Lunenburg (44) and Weston (42) were not far behind with Hamilton-Wenham (42), Triton (26) and Pentucket (25) close by.
Giuliana Ligor continued her historic season, scoring a whopping 28 points of the team’s 53-plus points winning the 55 Meter Hurdles (1:30pm) and 600 Meters (2:00pm) and taking 2nd in the 300 Meters (2:50pm). Her victories in both the 55 Meter Hurdles and 600 Meters set new Division 5 state meet records. In the 55 Meter Hurdles, Ligor’s time of 8.29 was off of her school record of 8.15 but set a new state meet record, breaking the record set in 2014 by Aly Comeau of Gardner. In the 600 meters, her time of 1:33.82 broke her own school record and the previous state meet record of 1:34.18 set by Amy Piccolo of Ursuline Academy in 2014. Ligor wrapped up her day finishing in 2nd place in the 300 Meters with a time of 40.43 being bested by Breanna Braham, who is the top 300 meter runner in the state across all divisions and the number 2 runner in the event in the entire New England region.
Callie MacLellan also earned individual state champion status with her victory in the High Jump (5’2”). She was the only jumper to clear the height as the remaining scorers went 4’ 10” and 5’0”. Callie has a current best of 5’ 4” indoors and holds the outdoor school record with a height of 5’5.25”. She also scooped up a bronze medal with an impressive 1 foot personal best in the long jump with a leap of 17’ 6”!.
Giuliana Auciello added .25 points with a 4-way tie for 8th in the High Jump (4’10”) and Katie Zimmerman just missed the finals in the Long Jump going 15’ 9”.
Hayden MacLellan came back for the meet having been recovering from an injury over the last few weeks. Her early season time of 9.25 seconds in the 55 Meter Hurdles qualified her for the meet and she improved greatly on that time going 8.91 in the trials and 8.95 in the finals to finish in 5th place and score 4 points for her team.
The Hornets were now at 48.25 points but Weston and Lunenburg were not far behind with 3 events to go: The 4×200, the 4×800 and the 4×400 meter relay. With teams entered in all three relays, the Hornets felt confident that if they put up a few points across all three the the title was theirs and that is exactly what they did.
The 4×800 team of Quinlan Kelly, Adelyn Kelly, Riley MacDonald, and Abigail Meier dominated the unseeded heat with a huge 30 second season best time of 10:53.71 which displayed half of the field in the seeded heat and earned them a 6th place finish and 3 valuable team points.
The 4×400 team of Avery Keller, Abigail Meier, Katie Zimmerman, and Quinlan Kelly was nearly just as successful taking 7th place and 2 points with a time of 4:27.22. Quinlan Kelly and Abigail Meier pulled off an impressive double running in both relays just 30 minutes apart.
The Hornet title marks the 5th in school history for indoor track and field (2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and now 2024-2025), all happening within the last seven seasons (there was no 2021 due to Covid-19 cancellations).
“The entire track and field program, parents, fans and coaches are tremendously impressed and proud of the team’s accomplishments this season,” said Pintzopoulos. “We had 25 girls on our roster and 13 girls on the state roster, which is a smaller group than we’ve had in previous years but an impressive percentage of qualifiers, showcasing the work ethic and dedication of the team.
“The North Reading Hornets have clearly presented themselves as a perennial favorite and we hope to continue with this success for years to come.”