Published June 5, 2025
WESTFIELD — The NRHS outdoor girls’ track and field team won their third straight MIAA Division 5 State Championship competing at Westfield State University over two days on Thursday and Saturday.
A stormy weekend with weather conditions being cold, rainy and windy was less than ideal but the Hornets still prevailed. For the senior athletes, this capped off a stellar four years where they were runners-up in 2022 and then state champions in 2023, 2024 and 2025. For the juniors, they go into their senior year undefeated and ready to keep the streak going into 2026.
This is North Reading’s 9th state championship under head coach Sotirios Pintzopoulos since 2007, having won 8 of the last 12 titles and finishing in 2nd three times and 3rd once in the other four years.
“I attribute the team’s success over the last 18 years to hard working committed athletes who are passionate about their sport, a great community support network and a stellar coaching staff that can’t be beat,” said Pintzopoulos.
The Hornets scored a whopping 99 points to best second place Dennis Yarmouth (61 points) as well as Dedham (53), Cardinal Spellman (50), Whitinsville Christian (44.5) and a total of 38 scoring teams and 52 total teams competing at the meet.
Leading the team to victory was the triumvirate of Callie MacLellan, Hayden MacLellan and Giuliana Ligor who scored 66.5 of the team’s points. Each of them was crowned state champion in their respective events: Callie in the Pentathlon, Hayden in the Pole Vault and Giuliana in both the 400 Meter Hurdles and 100 Meter Hurdles.
Callie MacLellan broke the meet record and school record winning the Pentathlon with 3219 points, setting pentathlon meet records in the 100 Meter Hurdles (15.22), and 800 Meters (2:23.00), having already claimed the High Jump record last year (1.60m). She also tied for 4th place in the High Jump at 4′ 8” and led off the second place 4×400 Meter Relay that ran 4:14.15 with a 60 second opening leg. These achievements bring her to six state meet medals, having won a silver in the High Jump and Pentathlon and a 4th place medal in the 4×400 just last year, a remarkable feat considering she only joined the team last year as a junior.
Hayden MacLellan won a medal of every color, earning the Gold in the Pole Vault, a silver in the Long Jump and a bronze in the 100 Meter Hurdles. Her Pole Vault victory is her third state championship in the event and her fourth gold medal overall as she won the gold in the 100 Meter Hurdles last year. This brings her total medals won to 9 across the last four years as she also took 8th last year in the Long Jump, 3rd in the 100H in 2023 and 2nd in the pole vault in 2022 as a 9th grader.
Ligor capped off an undefeated career at the state championship in the 400 Meter Hurdles winning her fourth straight title with a new meet record time of 1:00.65 holding off her top competition in Solan Varela of Weston who ran 1:00.97. Ligor also broke the meet record in winning the 100 Meter Hurdles with a time of 14.38, just .02 off of the school record. She then ended the meet with a stellar anchor leg 58 second split in the 4×400 Meter Relay that Callie led off. Ligor has won 11 medals across her 4 years. Her junior year, she not only won the 400H but also the 400M and took 4th in the 4×400 Meter Relay. Her sophomore year, she won three golds in the 400H, 400M and 4×100 Meter Relay and her freshman year she won the 400H, took second in the 400 Meters and just barely missed out on a medal in the 4×400 Meter Relay which finished 10th.
These three senior captains certainly led the way but the Hornets scored another 32.5 points which in itself would have been good enough to earn the team 5th place at the meet. Shea Farmer and Maya Grossi ran with Callie and Giuliana to second place in the 4×400 Meter Relay. Sydney Scholz took 3rd in the Javelin Throw and 8th in the Shot Put. Kate Denehy took 4th in the Triple Jump and 6th in the Long Jump. Giuliana Auciello tied Callie for 4th in the High Jump.
Sophia Gallivan was 6th in the Long Jump. Lindsey Cook was 6th in the Pentathlon with Madelyn Favuzza taking 7th in the same event. The 4×800 Meter Relay made up of Quinlan Kelly, Abigail Meier, Katie Attwood, and Paige Vant took 6th place. The 4×100 Meter Relay made up of Julia Scammon, Sophia Gallivan, Kate Denehy, and Katie Zimmerman took 8th place. All but Julia Scammon (senior) will be returning to the team next year and many of them are 9th and 10th graders which means the future of NRHS track and field is in good hands.
“Congratulations to this fine group of athletes,” said Pintzopoulos. “You have made your coaches, teammates, family, friends, and community proud. Go Hornets!”