The Gloucester boys and girls track teams had already turned in a highly successful conference campaign heading into Sunday’s Northeastern Conference championship with both squads taking the Lynch Division championship.
In Sunday’s meet at Peabody High School with every NEC program competing, the Fishermen added to their already impressive 2023 resume with the boys turning in a third place finish and the girls finishing fourth.
The boys scored 85 points, just two points behind second place Marblehead. Peabody ran away with the boys meet with 171 points. On the girls side Peabody also took the win with 155 points followed by Marblehead (127), Masconomet (63) and Gloucester (58). The Fishermen were the highest scoring NEC Lynch squad in both meets.
Leading the way for the Fishermen was Nate Gardner, who was the program’s lone athlete with multiple first place finishes winning both the 400m hurdles (57.34) and the triple jump (42-feet-2.8). Finn O’Hara also picked up an individual win in the mile (4:28.03).
Megan Hurd led the way for the girls with its lone first place finish taking the triple jump (37-feet-2). The boys 4x800m relay team of Deston Cauthers, Logan Cooper, Max Littman and Finn O’Hara also turned in a gold medal performance with a time of 8:58.17.
The Gloucester boys saw several other athletes score points with top six finishes as Cauthers was second in the 800m (2:02.22), Colby Rochford was second in the 400m (51.57), Newton was third in the high jump (5-feet-8) and sixth in the 400m hurdles (1:01.41), Littman was fourth in the 2-mile (9:59.62), Mike Toppan finished fourth in the shot put (41-feet-9) and Cooper was fifth in the mile (4:43.34). The 4x400m relay team of Gardner, Newton, Bryce Rochford and Colby Rochford finished 2nd (3:33.85) and the 4x100m relay team of Brady Patten, Dylan Smith, Nick Clements and Dylan Rochford finished sixth (47.21).
The Gloucester girls saw Aili Spencer place in multiple individual events, placing second in the long jump (16-feet-11.5) and fourth in the 200m (27.01). Kendal Newton was second in the 2-mile (12.36.41), Caroline MacKinnon finished second in the 800m (2:26.6), Cia Donohoe was fourth in the 400m hurdles (1:14.91) and Skye Ciolino was fifth in the 400m (1:02.91).
The Gloucester girls also placed in three relays with the 4x800m team of Mackay Brooks, Sabine Cooper, Newton and Donohoe finished 2nd (10:45.85), the 4x100m team of Ava Coelho, Spencer, Abby Stauffer and Hurd finished fourth (52.59) and the 4x400m team of Georganna Cauthers, Hope Castellucci, MacKinnon and Ciolino finished fifth (4:29.17).
The Fishermen will now prepare for the Division 4 State Meet, which takes place at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham on both Friday and Sunday.