Published June 17, 2021
WEST NEWBURY — The NRHS girls’ track and field team continued their undefeated streak by winning the CAL Open Championship on Saturday, June 12 at Pentucket. The Hornets won with 143 points with Pentucket finishing a close second with 135 points. Rounding out the rest of the teams in the league were Triton (89), Lynnfield (54), Newburyport (48), Ipswich (43), Amesbury (38) and Hamilton Wenham (6). The Hornets scored in 16 of 18 events contested winning seven events for 70 points. The team was led in scoring by senior captains Katelyn Gorgenyi and Julia Thorstad who scored 26 points each.
Triton took a quick lead in the meet amassing a whopping 25 points in the 2-Mile. Despite that eye opening performance, Annalise Butler kept the Hornets alive with a stellar 20 second personal best running 12:13.01 for 5th place and 2 points.
In the field events, the Hornets scored 81 of their total points compared to Pentucket’s 53 points and Triton’s 8 points. Which gave the Hornets a commanding lead. They won four of the seven field events contested scoring 20 points in the long jump, 11 in the triple jump, 20 in the pole vault, 14 in the shot put, 14 in the discus throw, and 10 in the javelin throw.
Katelyn Gorgenyi won the long jump, beating her own school record and stretching the new mark out to 18’ 4”, Madison Vant (17’3”) and Georgia Robarts (17’ 1”) picked up 3rd and 4th. Kayla Budny took 2nd in the triple jump with a mark of 34’ 3”. Madison Vant (33’ 5”) and Georgia Robarts (33’ 0”) picked up 5th and 6th. Jess Hill won the pole vault with a leap of 9’ 6”, Ashley Rabbitt picked up 2nd also going 9’ 6”, while Kayla Hannan went 8’ 0” for 5th place. Emma Mini (31’ 1”) and Katelyn Gorgenyi (30’ 11.5”) went 2-3 in the shot put.
The Hornets had two freshmen CAL Champions in the discus throw and javelin throw showing a promising future for this young team. Abigail Lilley had a huge personal best in the discus throw of 86’ 0” for 1st place followed by Sam Manger (82’1”) who took 4th. Madison Vant also had a personal best as she went 98’ 9.5” for first place in the javelin throw.
Pentucket was able to pick up the pace on the track to close the gap but the Hornets kept a comfortable distance leading up to the relays. Ashley Rabbit took 4th in the 400 Meter Hurdles (1:12.14). Annie MacLellan took 6th in the One Mile (5:44.89). Katelyn Gorgenyi won the 100 Meter Hurdles (15.07) as Kayla Hannan (17.39) took 6th. Ella Mazzie picked up 6th in the 100 Meters (13.47). Julia Thorstad was first in the 800 meters (2:24.64). And Ava McIntyre was 6th in the 200 Meters (28.52).
Leading into the relays, the Hornets were up on Pentucket 119 to 117. The 4×800 meter relay team made up of Annie MacLellan, Margaret Fortin, Karleigh Budny and Julia Thorstad took 1st, running a time of 10:24.07 while Pentucket took 2nd. The 4×100 meter relay team made up of Ella Mazzei, Kayla Budny, Ava McIntyre, and Sam Patch was 2nd running a time of 51.60 as Pentucket took 1st. This meant the Hornets were still up only by 2 points 137 to 135. However Pentucket did not have a team entered in the 4×400 meter relay as they had already maxed out their athletes. So the depth of the Hornet sprint squad rose to the occasion yet again. To wrap things up the 4×400 meter relay team made up of Kerri Ann Sexton, Margaret Fortin, Ashley Rabbitt and Julia Thorstad took 3rd with a time of 4:36.02.
The Hornets look to wrap up their season with a perfect 10-0 record this weekend as they compete in the Division 2 North Championship, a two day event held on Friday, June 18 and Sunday, June 20 at Weston High School. Look for that story in next week’s Transcript.
