Hornet girls’ team ready for ‘indoor’ season
Published April 1, 2021
NORTH READING — Girls’ indoor track and field will be contested outdoors this year from February vacation to April vacation due to COVID restrictions. This has not stopped a talented group of young athletes from training hard through what has been a mild winter as they seek to return to competition back on the track.
As the spring season never happened, this team has not trained together since last March and are very much looking forward to starting things back up again, albeit outdoors.
The Hornets are led by head coach Sotirios Pintzopoulos and assistant coaches Ryan Spinney (distance), Joe Davis (high jump), Kirsten MacLellan (hurdles), Josh Rocco (sprints) and Andrew Falanga and Tom Ledoux (shot put).
There are 33 athletes on the roster for the season, each looking to contribute to the program in their own way. They are led by five senior captains including Katelyn Gorgenyi, Marykate Lundy, Ashley Rabbitt, Kerri-Ann Sexton and Julia Thorstad. All five have been members of state championship teams both indoors and outdoors (2018 and 2019) so they know what it takes to be champions and are ready to lead the next generation of championship athletes.
There are seven juniors looking to offer experience and junior leadership to a talented squad. They are Maddie DiNapoli, Brooke Harrington, Jessica Hill, Annie MacLellan, Samantha Magner, Emma Mini and Ella Monteleone.
Nearly half the team (16) is made up of sophomores, which bodes well for the future of the team. They are Sophia Barker, Alyssa Bradley, Karleigh Budny, Kayla Budny, Annalise Butler, Jayden Craig, Margaret Fortin, Kylie Gettings, Colleen Gwozdz, Kayla Hannan, Ella Mazzei, Brynn McCormack, Ava McIntyre, Sophia Parrett, Samantha Patch and Ava Rosati.
The ninth grade class includes Maddy Arian Aitchison, Olivia Bakr, Isabella Fischer, Sabrina Mini and Madison Vant.
The team opened up on the track on Thursday, March 25 with a scrimmage against Lynnfield and is looking impressive after four weeks of training.
They opened up their regular season after press time on Wednesday, March 31 vs. Newburyport. Look for the story of those results in next week’s Transcript.
