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Sports

Girls Track Remains Unbeaten; Lyons Sets Hurdles Record

The girls' high school outdoor track team is at 4-0 in the Cape Ann League this season while boys' runner Conor Lyons set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles at 57.9 seconds.

Prior to this season, track coach Steve Sawyer was pretty confident in saying that his girls team was solid and would contend for a Cape Ann League title and the run of success would end for the boys in a rebuilding year.

After the first two weeks of the season, he was pretty dead on.

The girls remain perfect at 4-0 with a tri-meet win April 11 , and a dual meet triumph at home on April 14.  The team on April 6.

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Despite many strong individual performances, the boys sit at 0-4 after losses against Wilmington and Lynnfield, at Wilmington and against Pentucket.

“We’re a small school and we’re starting over,” said Sawyer, in his 42nd year as coach of the boys team. “It goes up and down, in cycles. We have a new set of kids and we are letting them develop and we are training them.

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“I’m not surprised at all (with the girls). We are strong throughout the team and they're competing pretty well right now.”

The girls won by scores of 79-66 (against Lynnfield) and 109-36 (Wilmington) in the tri-meet. Pentucket fell 78-66 to the Generals.

“We beat some pretty good teams in Lynnfield and Pentucket,” Sawyer said.

In the tri-meet many girls excelled.

Natalie White took the long jump (16-1) and the 100-meter hurdles (16.6 seconds), and Alison Lanois won in the mile in 5:27 and the 800 meters in 2:23 for the two double-winners. Camilla Worsfold (high jump, 4-10), Kerry Phelan (2-mile, 12:39) and Emily Senning (400 meters, 63.0) all won one event.

The 4x400 relay team Hannah Millimet, Emily Horgan, Worsfold and Senning placed ahead of the other two squads with a time of 4:27.

The Pentucket meet saw three Generals take home a pair of first-place finishes: Worsfold (400-meter hurdles, 70.4; triple jump 33-60); Tyler Parady (long jump, 15-3; 100-meter hurdles, 16.7); Meg Blatchford (mile, 5:45; 800 meters, 2:29).

Providing depth with single wins was Lanois, an 11:16 in the 2-mile, Robin Doroff, 12.9 seconds in the 100 meters, and Senning, 62.6 seconds in the 400 meters. Another 4:27 was recorded in the 4x400 relay, this time the quartet was Worsfold, Sarah Duffy, Emily Horgan and Senning.

Lanois, a senior captain, has come out of the gate strong with the fast league times in the 2-mile (11:16), mile (5:27) and 800 meters (2:23).

“She’s got good long distance speed and good short speed,” Sawyer said. “I am looking for her to do well at the state level this year.”

The boys lost 85-60 to Lynnfield and 100-45, they dropped a 96-49 decision to Pentucket.

The winners against Lynnfield and Wilmington were Tyler Mulley in the triple jump, 36-2, Kendrick Poulin in the pole vault, 11-0, Ian MacLean in the 2-mile, 11:01 and John Hills in the mile, 4:50. The 4x400 relay foursome of Chris Benevento, Max Frye, Alex Green and Hills finished ahead of the two opposing teams with a time of 3:49.

In the second meet Conor Lyons continued to show Sawyer that he is going to be a valuable performer in every meet. After setting a school record in the 400-meter hurdles at 57.9 to open the season against North Andover, he followed that performance by nearly setting another record. His time of 50.5 seconds in the 400 meters, good for a first-place finish, was a little more than a half second off of Darin Shearer’s 1992 mark of 49.96. Lyons didn’t compete in the tri-meet due to an injured heal.

“He’s having a pretty good year (already),” Sawyer noted. “I’m trying him in different races and he’s pretty fast. I knew he’d run well.”

Other winners at Pentucket included Connor Adamik (discus, 98-6), Poulin (pole vault, 11-6), Scott Goodrich (2-mile, 10:56) and Benevento (mile, 4:52).

Sawyer feels good about the boys team as he sees positive signs every day.

“The strongest part of our team is distance, but I’ve seen a lot of improvement in a lot the field events. We’re improving. That’s all you can ask of the kids.”

Both the boys and girls will be in action on Wednesday, April 20, when the team host Newburyport at 10 a.m.

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