The North Yarmouth Academy Indoor Track & Field team had their last regular season meet on Friday night at USM Gorham. Sickness and family commitments took a toll on the squad but the athletes who were in attendance scored an impressive number of points and racked up a sizeable number of personal bests.
In the sprints and hurdles, NYA once again had a stellar meet. Jack Lent ’19 started us off with a huge PR in the Jr. Division 55m Hurdles running under 10 seconds for the first time. His time of 9.77 was good enough first place. Jack came back later in the meet to run the 400m dash and ran a second PR (59.70) which put him in 3rd place in the junior division. For these efforts, Jack was voted the MVP of the meet for the Jr. Division by the Western Maine Conference coaches. Tessa Quattrucci also dropped her time in the 55m dash by .04 seconds after a strong start out of the blocks. Amber Rose ran in the 55m dash for the first time this year and was very competitive in her heat. Markus Russell continued to impress finishing just off his PR but still placing 2nd. Henry Quesada was the lone representative in the senior division 400m and he was able to narrowly win his heat with a season-best time of 55.49 which was good enough for 2nd place.
In the distances, Xander Bartone ran his first mile of the season pacing Kieran Rowe to a time just off of his career best. They ran 5:20 and 5:25 respectively. Megan Alberding ran a solid even race even though she was still sick to finish just out of the top 6 in 8th. In the 800m Kieran Rowe was just again just shy of his PR but not far behind him was Lody Lathrop, a first time 800m runner, who impressed his coaches and the crowd with a strong effort almost winning his heat.
In the field events, Isabelle See tied for 2nd place in the high jump clearing 4’8″. Tessa had her second PR of the meet jumping a 3.5″ PR in the long jump. In the shot put circle Jack Sillin had the sole PR for the team. It was a career-best toss and his first time over 36′. His throw of 36’2.5″ placed 6th. Reece Bartolini was not far off last week’s amazing performance (just 5″ short) and placed 3rd.
Finishing off the meet for NYA was the senior boys 4×200 which saw Jack Sillin, Henry Quesada, Kieran Rowe, and Reece Bartolini team up for a solid performance which was good for 7th.
The NYA Panthers are back in action on February 8th for the Western Maine Conference Championships. Hopefully, the two-week break will allow everyone to rest and heal so we can be at full strength when it matters most.