Kevin LaBounty
Taunton Gazette
...........................................................................................
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 10th.
“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 15th
overall with a personal-best time of 16:46. Tierney placed 25th with
a personal-best 17:08 and Marcotte was 28th in 17:12. Wrenn placed
34th overall in a time of 17:18. Sanford
was 41st (personal-best 17:29), Annand (personal-best 17:43) was 50th
and Travers was 81st (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.”
