Gorgenyi scores 24 points
Published July 8, 2021
NORWELL — The NRHS girls’ track and field team capped off a stellar season with three individuals and two relays competing at the All State Meet of Champions. The meet was contested over three days with pole vault contested at Westborough High School on Wednesday, June 23 followed by the Pentathlon on Thursday, June 24 and the remainder of the meet on Saturday, June 26 both at Norwell High School.
In order to qualify for the meet, athletes needed to be ranked in the top 16 in their respective events placing in the top 2-3 at the divisional state championship that was held earlier that week. The Hornets placed 7th as a team, thanks to captain Katelyn Gorgenyi’s 24 points. First-sixth place were as follows: Westford Academy (40.5), Wellesley (34), Concord-Carlisle (31), Newton North (28.5), Lexington (27) and Milford (25).
Captain Ashley Rabbitt started things off for North Reading as the sole competitor on Wednesday traveling out to Westborough for the Pole Vault. Ashley had just been crowned D2 North State Champion only four days earlier and had also competed in the 400 meter hurdles and the pentathlon at that meet. She was obviously still recovering from the meet as athletes typically only compete in one meet a week towards the end of the season. At the All State Meet she was just one height shy of her personal best as she vaulted 9’0” and placed 14th as 5th-16th all vaulted either 9’0” or 9’6”. Ashley graduates tied for 6th all time in school history in the event with her personal best of 9’6”.
On Thursday, Madison Vant and Katelyn Gorgenyi competed in the Pentathlon. Madison was the only 9th grader to qualify and compete at the event as the other 14 competitors were either juniors or seniors. She opened up with a personal best in the 100 meter hurdles of 17.73 seconds. Vant then went on to high jump (1.36m), long jump (4.97m), shot put (7.77m), and finished up with a 2:55.12 in the 800 meters. This gave her a combined score of 2335 for 12th place. Her personal best in the event of 2462 which she achieved the previous week to qualify for this meet ranks her 4th all time in school history behind only Ali Grasso (20), Sonja Priest (85), and Gorgenyi (21). Look for her to improve over the next three years as this was only her second time competing in the event.
Katelyn Gorgenyi had an historic performance at the meet having qualified to compete in three events, all three of which she had won at the D2 North Championship just the previous week to amass 30 points for her team. At the All State Meet of Champions, she faced stiffer competition but she still did not disappoint, taking home a gold, silver and bronze medal and scoring 24 points, single-handedly earning her team the 7th place spot in the team score.
To lead things off, Gorgenyi contested the grueling Pentathlon along with Madison Vant on Thursday and had to come back two days later to compete in the preliminary rounds and finals of both the Long Jump and 100 Meter Hurdles.
In the Pentathlon, Gorgenyi took the gold medal earning the All State Championship title with a score of 3188 points which broke her own school record by over 100 points. Her victory was led by a solid 14.72 100 meter hurdle race followed by an improved jump in the high jump of nearly half a foot as she leapt 1.56 meters (5’1.25”) placing first in both events.
From there, she was on cruise control, going 5.40m in the long jump for second place and 9.38m in the shot put for 3rd place. Her solid performance in the first four events allowed her to hold back a bit in the 800 meters where she went 2:50.32, well back from first place in the race but well ahead in the overall point total beating out her closest competitor by 70 points.
Katelyn came back two days later taking 3rd in the long jump with a leap of 18’ 1”, well short of her personal best of 18’ 10.5” as she was clearly feeling the pain from the pentathlon two days earlier. She was only beat by three inches by two other competitors but at that point she couldn’t let that hold her back as she was up against her stiffest competition only minutes later in the 100 meter hurdles. The number one qualifier had run 14.01 the previous week which was well ahead of Katelyn’s personal best of 14.41 that she had run the previous week. The meet record was 14.25 set 10 years ago and both athletes had the sites set on breaking the record. In the end, it was Katharine Duren from Central Catholic who was only competing in the 100 meter hurdles that won the race with an outstanding time of 13.72 seconds, shattering the meet record by half a second, which is unheard of in the event as records usually fall by a tenth of a second at most. Katelyn improved on her personal best and went 14.36 seconds for second place. A time that would win the meet nine times of of 10.
To wrap up the meet, the Hornets had two relays qualify: The 4×100 meter relay and 4×400 meter relay. Both had personal best performances amongst some great teams.
The 4×100 meter relay took 10th with a time of 50.31 just .4 seconds off of scoring in the top eight. The team of Ella Mazzei, Kayla Budny, Ava McIntyre and Samantha Patch is a group of four sophomores that have continually improved their time all season having run 52 seconds earlier in the season. As the 2020 season was not contested due to COVID, all four were in their rookie season of outdoor track and field and were able to compete at the highest level.
The 4×400 meter relay only took 15th place was still equally impressive dropping their season best down from 4:18 earlier in the season to 4:09.65 in the meet. The team was anchored by captain Julia Thorstad but the other three (Kayla Budny, Madison DiNapoli and Margaret Fortin) will all return next year looking for another 400 meter runner to join their ranks. The 2021 season was one for the record books. The NRHS girls track and field team went undefeated in the regular season at 7-0 to capture the Cape Ann League Championship, they won the CAL Open Championship Meet and the MSTCA Division 3 Relay State Championship and were runner up to Pentucket at the MIAA Division 2 North State Championship. All this despite losing nearly a full year of training due to COVID. Championships were won, friendships were made and memories will last a lifetime. See you all next season.
