LYNN — The St. Mary’s boys and Lynn Tech girls track and field teams proved to be the fastest at the Lynn All-City Track Championships Tuesday afternoon at Manning Field.
Records were broken and memories were made. With the Lady Tigers finishing on top, coach Laura Swendig was proud of her team’s work ethic.
“The girls have worked so incredibly hard this entire season. Despite individual and group obstacles and setbacks, they pushed beyond what they thought they could in practices and meets, and, ultimately, proved to themselves and everyone in Lynn that they are, indeed, winners,” Swendig said.
St. Mary’s coach Tristan Smith was happy with how his boys team performed.
“We are so thrilled with how everyone competed today, and I just loved the sportsmanship and fierce competitiveness from the boys,” Smith said. “Obviously, it means so much for this special senior class to send it off in this manner, and I’m so glad they’re all going home with a lot more hardware.”
Simply put, Tech coach John Hogan loved how all five Lynn schools competed.
“We started in 2019 and, at the time, it was the only event where all five schools are competing,” Hogan said. “Normally, like in basketball, you’ll have to have one school rotate in and out.”
Leading up to the meet, Smith and Hogan became more and more excited.
“We are extremely excited this year. I think doing it at the end of the season helps build that excitement,” Smith said. “This past weekend, we had the divisional state championships, but not everyone qualifies from your team. What’s nice about this meet is that the kids who didn’t qualify for the state meet get to compete in this meet. To have a championship-level meet at the end of their season is great.”
“From the first gun to the last gun, there will be a lot of great races,” Hogan said. “We established some meet records over the last two city championships. Records are made to be broken, and I’m sure some will get broken.”
Hogan was right. More than seven records were broken, starting with the first event – the girls 400m hurdles where Lazuli Clark of KIPP ran a 1:12.40 to best Hannah Trahant’s record from 2019, which stood at 1:16.40 for Lynn English.
Clark wasn’t done breaking records, shattering the girls shot put record by more than eight feet with a throw of 41-2.
With this being the final track meet (regular season) for each team, it allowed each senior to run in Lynn one last time.
“It’s really a nice last hoorah for the season,” Smith said.
Family, friends, and alumni showed up to support the runners, something Hogan said he enjoys.
“The city comes out and people want to see who’s the fastest in Lynn,” Hogan said. “The cheering from this meet is the loudest compared to any other meet we go to. Friends and families really come down to support.”
Winners from each school:
Classical: Kassandra Pena (400m), Pamela Riveria (2-mile), John Nasky Jr. (100m), Anthony Rodriguez (200m), and the boys 4×100 team.
English: Victoria Samuel (100m), Eamon McHale (800m, mile), and the girls 4×100 and 4×800 relay teams.
Tech: Lee Lewis (javelin), Jireilis DeJesus (100m hurdles, triple jump), Bryton Osgood (2-mile), and the boys 4×800 and girls 4×800 relay teams.
St. Mary’s: Tina Amin (long jump, 200m), Kelsey Kwiatek (mile), Ellie Fox (discus), Thomas Hooks (high jump), Dylan Moroney (long jump), Anthony D’Itria (triple jump), Sal Vigliotta (shot put), Brett O’Brien (javelin, 100m hurdles), Jesse Moriello (400m hurdles), Nick Miller (400m), Tyler Cunningham (discus), and the boys 4×400 relay team.
KIPP: Lazuli Clark (400m hurdles, shot put, high jump, 800m).
