Taunton Daily Gazette Write GREAT article on NHS Boys Team!!

Kevin LaBounty

Taunton Gazette

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Kevin R. LaBounty

Correspondent

NORTON – It has been a season of firsts for the Norton High boys’ cross country team.

The Lancers beat Hopkinton in a dual meet for the first time in their Tri-Valley League history. They then beat Medfield in a TVL dual meet for the first time ever.

Those pair of key victories would eventually lead to the first undefeated league dual-meet campaign for Norton and its first dual-meet championship since joining the TVL.

If all that wasn’t enough, the Lancers culminated an outstanding campaign by earning the first state-meet appearance in the program’s overall history last Saturday in Wrentham.

“Making All-States is an incredible feat for this school,” Lancer head coach Kent Taylor said. “The boys and I could not be more proud than to represent this town with the best 26 cross country high schools in the state out of a total of 336 schools.”

All the success this fall has been because of the talent and commitment of the Lancer student-athletes as well as the terrific guidance provided by Taylor, who is in his sixth season of building outstanding boys’ and girls’ cross country teams at Norton.

“The team is not only comprised of the athletes, but the school administration and the parents,” Taylor said. “We had so much support at the division meet. It was great to see.”

The Lancer boys have been a close-knit band of about 25 runners this fall.

Norton’s top three runners have been senior captains Billy Sullivan and Max Marcotte and junior Mike Tierney. Junior Eric Sanford and sophomore Chris Wrenn have shared the duties at the fourth and fifth positions with freshman Joe Annand in the sixth spot and junior Mike Travers in the seventh position. Sophomore Parker Cleathero and senior Nathan DiOrio have also worked hard this year to get into the team’s top seven spots.

Following the season, Taylor was named the TVL Boys’ Coach of the Year. As a group, the Norton boys earned second place in the voting for the TVL Sportsmanship Award.

Sullivan was named to the TVL All Star first team, while Tierney and Wrenn were second-team selections. Marcotte, Sanford and Annand were honorable mention choices.

There have been several reasons for the success of the team this fall.

“First off and most importantly, the kids did their summer training,” Taylor said. “They got their base training done before practice started. We were able to hit the ground running at the start of practice. That was important with the tough early meets we had.”

“Second, for the most part, we have been able to stay injury free. You have to stay injury free if you want to win this league and we were able to do that. It showed we had a lot of dedicated kids. If you work hard good things will come. We also had great, great leadership from our senior captains. They have been amazing captains for me.”

After dispatching Bellingham 18-41 in their season opener, the Lancers traveled to Hopkinton and beat the Hillers for the first time ever in a dual meet, 20-35. Norton secured five of the top six positions at Hopkinton State Park. Marcotte finished second with Tierney third and Sanford fourth. Sullivan placed fifth and Wrenn was sixth.

It didn’t get an easier for Norton during its next dual meet as they had to host a talented Medfield squad. But the Lancers took a giant step towards winning the dual-meet crown by edging the Warriors, 27-29, for their first dual-meet victory ever over their rivals. Norton earned six of the top 10 spots. Sullivan finished third, Marcotte was fourth and Tierney was fifth. Sanford placed seventh, Wrenn was eighth and Annand was 10^th.

“I knew with what they had coming back that it would be Medfield and Norton battling it out for the title,” Taylor said. “We knew Medfield would be really strong. After seeing them, we thought we could win, but we knew we needed to run our best race. We wanted to peak the kids for that meet and we ran out best. It was a well thought out race by our kids. They executed the race perfectly. They couldn’t have executed it better.”

Norton won a home non-league meet against West Bridgewater (20-43) and an away TVL meet in Ashland (15-49) before facing a stiff challenge at Dover-Sherborn. The Lancers overcame a tough course to win, 25-30. They won two home meets over Westwood (15-50) and Millis (20-43), the latter coming on Senior Day, securing their first dual-meet title with a 20-43 in Holliston to finish 10-0 overall and 9-0 in the TVL.

“I’m ecstatic,” Taylor said of the title. “It was a tough meet against Dover-Sherborn. Holliston was another great race. That meet seemed a lot closer than the score indicated.”

It was the first dual-meet title of any kind for the Norton boys going all the way back to 1988 when the team was a part of the Mayflower League. It was also the first time a Small School from the league has won the crown in more than 15 years as Large School squads Medfield, Holliston and Hopkinton had dominated the field over that span.

“To see the excitement on the boys’ faces was great,” Taylor said. “This is a very tough league to win in. It is a really impressive feat. I couldn’t be more proud of them. It says a lot about the character and hunger of the boys. They had motivation and determination.”

Norton then finished second during the TVL Meet in Medfield with 71 points, outlasting Dover-Sherborn, who was third with 76. Medfield, which had loaded itself up with soccer players since the dual meet with the Lancers, captured the team crown with 26 points.

Norton capped its outstanding team season with a fourth-place finish last Saturday during the Eastern Mass. Division V Meet at the Wrentham Developmental Center, assuring its spot in the MIAA Division II State Meet this Saturday on the Gardner Golf Course.

“We will keep it simple on Saturday,” Taylor said. “We will run the fastest we have ever run. I want the boys to shoot for personal bests and just go for it. They really have nothing to lose at this meet. Just being there is a privilege.”

Newburyport won the division title with 47 points, followed by Hamilton-Wenham (66 points) and Seekonk (115). Norton was fourth with 143 points. The Lancers had four of their top seven runners earn personal bests. Sullivan finished 15^th overall with a personal-best time of 16:46. Tierney placed 25^th with a personal-best 17:08 and Marcotte was 28^th in 17:12. Wrenn placed 34^th overall in a time of 17:18. Sanford was 41^st (personal-best 17:29), Annand (personal-best 17:43) was 50^th and Travers was 81^st (18:15).

“I was very pleased with the way the boys ran last Saturday,” Taylor said. “Four of our top seven runners had personal bests, how could I not be. They ran exactly the way they were supposed to, not going out too fast and keeping their splits even.”