SEEKONK — There are dynasties. Then, there’s what has been transpiring with North Reading High School’s girls track and field team for the last few years.
On Saturday, the Hornets simply added one more chapter to what has become one of the greatest streaks in state history, shattering multiple meet records en route to capturing their second straight Div. 5 crown, and eighth consecutive state track and field relay title, with a dominant performance at Seekonk High School.
“It’s a goal of ours every year,” North Reading girls coach Sotirios Pintzopoulo said. “We know that this is a goal, and we plan accordingly from the get-go. We know we need three field event athletes in every event. We know we need to field together some strong teams on the track. But this year especially, like last year we won, and we only won one event – the pole vault. Everything else, we got second or third. This year, we won eight of 15 events, and we set records in all of them. We focused on doing well in the sprints and the throws.”
The Hornets finished with a whopping 108 points, 65 clear of runner-up Dedham. Junior Madison Vant paced North Reading to two meet records in the field events, as the Hornets won the javelin throw relay with a distance of 36.78 meters, while also capturing the long jump relay (5.43 meters). Meanwhile, Kayla Budny, Ava McIntyre and Giuliana Ligor combined to lead the Hornets to two more records in the 4×100 (49.59 seconds) and 4×200-meter relays (1:45.44).
North Reading placed among the top five in 12 of 15 possible events.
“One thing we try to work on and think about before we come here is that we have a title to defend,” Budny said. “We know what we need to do to win it, and I think that we did great today. As a senior, I think this is the highest number of points we’ve had in my four years, at least. It’s a great way to go out. As a team, we all did our best and clearly, it worked in our favor.”
The Div. 5 boys title came down to the wire. Despite winning just one event on the afternoon, Weston managed to make history due to its depth by winning its first championship in about a decade with 57 points.
For years, Wildcats track legend John Monz had seen nothing but success with his girls teams, but this time around, it was a fun switch for the tenured coach.
“I think we won two years back-to-back (in 2012, 2013), but we haven’t won this outdoor meet since,” said Monz. “It’s nice. It’s good for them. They’ve been second fiddle for a while. It’s nice for them to get the spotlight for a little bit.”
The Wildcats picked up their lone win of the afternoon in the 4×100, as they set a meet record time of 44.66 seconds. However, Weston was able to place highly in multiple events to stay afloat. With only one contest remaining, the Wildcats were in a dead heat with Middleboro with 49 team points apiece. At the end of the day, the school’s javelin throw relay team of Aidan Chien, Hunter Gutting and Gautheir Bodet combined to deliver the school the title, the latter firing a toss of 46.24 meters to seal the deal.