Published February 7, 2019
ROXBURY — The North Reading boys’ indoor track team finished their regular season dual meet campaign against a tough, seasoned Newburyport squad last Monday evening at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Both teams came in with records of 3-0 and the victor would be crowned the CAL Kinney Division champion. On paper, this would match up to be a close and very competitive affair. It did not disappoint.
When the dust settled, the Hornets would emerge as the division champions as they bested the Clippers with a 47-39 victory. This is the Hornets’ first title since 2016.
A total team victory
Going into the meet, head coach Ryan Spinney and the rest of the Hornet coaching staff knew this contest would come down to a few key performances in some close events.
“Our team has certain event strengths, Newburyport had other certain event strengths. It was going to be a true test of who’s best on best would emerge victorious,” said Spinney. “Our guys really were determined to earn the league crown today and they delivered. It was a total team victory and the coaching staff and I could not be more proud of this group.”
JACK MURPHY won the 600 meters with a time of 1:30.33 to help the Hornets stay perfect by beating previously undefeated Newburyport in the last regular season meet to become CAL Kinney Division champs. (John Friberg Photo)
300 and shot put sweep, hurdles and high jump take 1st and 2nd
The Hornet attack was led by the efforts of the 300 and shot put athletes as they were able to sweep the Clippers by taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in each of those events. In the 300, David Tingley, Ryan Good and Joey McCarthy got the brooms going with times of 38.24, 39.67 and 40.55 to best the Clippers. In the shot put, league leader Joey DiSanto threw a state qualifying 42’ 4.5” toss to win the event. James Garniss and Will Carpenter were close behind with tosses of 41’ 3.5” and 41’ 3” to complete the sweep.
“Both of those events were key for us today,” said Spinney. “Coming into the meet, we knew we had to dominate those events and the boys stepped up.”
Those two events alone gave the Hornets a 18-0 lead.
In the 55 meter hurdles, league leader Billy Lord took 1st with a time of 7.89 and Cam Chinchillo ran a huge personal best in a time of 8.75 which gave him 2nd overall by a slim .03 over Newburyport’s Eric Capri. That duo also replicated their 1-2 finish in the high jump as Lord jumped 5’11 and Chinchillo leapt 5’ 9”.
“Huge efforts by Billy and especially Cam. Cam got two season bests including that personal best in the hurdles. The team really got a boost from those two boys today.”
Jack Murphy had a big victory in the 600 meter run as he ran a solid 1:30.33 to take the event.
“Jack is a quite a force out there for us,” said Spinney. “He has been great all season and has potential to be a real factor at the state level in the future.”
Other Hornets contributing to the victorious effort included Grayson Budny (7.08) and a tie between Joey Frammartino and Joey DiSanto (7.10) which gave the Hornets 2nd and 3rd in the 55 meter dash, Andrew DeBenedetto who took 2nd in the 1000 meter in a time of 2:50.20 which is the 7th fastest time in NRHS history for the event and Anthony Petrosino took 3rd in the two mile in a time of 11:31.68 which was a 28 second personal best for him.
With this victory, the undefeated Hornets will take on the rest of the Cape Ann League at the League Open Championship which was held after press time on Tuesday, February 5 at the Reggie Lewis Center. Congratulations to the champs and good luck the rest of the way!
