LYNN — Over the last two years, Lynn Tech has become the city’s signature school for track and cross country.
Two years ago, the Tigers’ Justin Lewis was a state champion in the high jump, and currently stars in the same event for Worcester State.
Then, last year, for the second straight fall, the Tigers scored the clean sweep for technical schools in cross country, winning the Commonwealth Conference dual meet title, the CAC league meet title, and the state vocational championship.
However, all students must move on. And last June, the Tigers lost two of their best — one to graduation and the other to a change in sports. Edgar Ortega, a 2-year captain who was first overall in the CAC last year, has graduated; and Brendan Mendez, coach John Hogan’s No. 2 runner a year ago, switched back to soccer this fall. No hard feelings, Hogan says.
“He’s from South America,” Hogan said, “and as you know soccer is very popular. A lot of his friends play.”
In fact, Hogan said, Mendez, who also played the sport two years ago, will be a captain this year.
“They’re looking to have a good year,” Hogan said.
As for the Tech harriers, Hogan admits that repeating the glory of the past two seasons won’t be easy.
“There are a lot of schools who have just been getting better and better of the last couple of years, and they’ve been chasing us,” he said.
“It’s been a pretty good couple of years,” he said. “We had a good group of kids, and they worked hard for it. And the school got behind us in a big way too.”
However, Hogan likes his top three runners, two of whom are captains.
“They’ll be looking to keep it doing,” he said.
Captains Rodrigo Mora and Jayden Lowe will be the standard bearers. Both are seniors, and Hogan says they appear ready to compete.
“Jayden is looking very good,” he said. “Rodrigo had to work all summer, so he’s still working to get himself in shape. But he’s motivated to do something this fall.”
Hogan considers Brian Deleon a real find. He ran the 2-mile last spring, “and discovered he really like running.
“He’s put in a good summer of workouts, and he’s already running well.”
As for the new runners in the program, Hogan likes freshmen Billy Anthony and Ike Oraekaia.
“Both have been putting in some good practices,” he said.
Sophomore Robert Delangis is also someone he’s counting on.
“We’ll do the best we can,” he said. “We’ll certainly shoot for the championship. We’ve got a real strong Top 3. If they do well, the team will do well.”
He also hopes some more kids end up coming out once school starts.
“You get a couple of kids who see those championship jackets, and you hope they want to join the team too,” he said.
