ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
English freshman Hannah Trahant flies over a hurdle.
By KATIE MORRISON
LYNN — Lynn English girls track coach Brenda Martin was all smiles after her team’s first meet of the 2017 season Monday at Manning Field.
For the first time in her six years with the Bulldogs, her team topped rival Classical, hanging on for a 69-66 win over the Rams.
“It’s incredible,” Martin said. “It was very close, that makes it an enjoyable meet. It definitely feels good to win one.”
On the other side of the track, Classical boys coach Angel Melendez was also feeling pretty good. In his first meet as coach of the Rams, his team topped rival English, 76-60.
“We’ve been working toward this,” Melendez, who has served as an assistant coach for the Rams for the past few seasons. “It’s great I have this group of kids starting as a head coach my first year. I’m excited, they’re very talented and working really hard.”
It was a fun start to the spring season at Manning Monday, and it was all you could ask for from a Classical-English meet. Both the boys and girls meets were competitive, and all four coaches took positives away from the day. A big theme for each team was young kids stepping up and performing well in events they have little experience with.
The English girls got good performances from Kaylee Smith, who won the shot put and the 100.
“She does four events, she’s a big contributor,” Martin said.
Also doing well were seniors Taylor Sullivan, won the 2-miles for English, and Kylie Moorehouse, who won the 400 hurdles. Elizabeth Rozon had a good showing in her four events (100, 400 hurdles, high jump and long jump).
Jackie Ramirez had a big win for the Bulldogs in the mile.
“That was an incredible race, a good strategic race,” Martin said of the mile. “(Ramirez) came from behind and won it.”
Hannah Trahant, a freshman who is new to the team, came up with some big performances for the Bulldogs.
“She came in second in the 100-meter hurdles, she came in second in the long jump and she also ran the 4×400,” Martin said. “These are events she’s never done before, she did incredible.”
Those second-place finishes, along with many others, proved to be huge because Classical won its fair share of events. Devyn Astuccio had a big day, winning the 110 hurdles with a state qualifying time and winning the triple jump. Agnes Bangura won the long jump and Jayla Blevins won the high jump.
In her first time running the 800, Classical’s Sydney Spiess took first. Ashley Calixte won the discus, and in her first-ever time throwing the javelin, senior Rachel Jordan took first for Classical.
“She will run in her event, and then pick up a clipboard and help coach,” Classical coach Scott Fiore said of Jordan. “I’ll definitely miss her when she graduates.”
On the boys side, Melendez was pleased with his distance runners and jumpers, but sees room for improvement in sprinting and throwing. But he has a solid group of very talented athletes to rely on to come through.
Kalambayi brothers Eli and Emmanuel racked up four wins between them in the 400, 400 hurdles, long jump and triple jump. Samson Srey had a huge day, winning the 110 hurdles (“he even surprised us,” Melendez said) and the javelin. Gilley Kabamba was in midseason form in the 800.
“He’s looking to go to states, and we hope to train him hard enough so maybe he can go to nationals,” Melendez said of Kabamba.
Among the top performers for English were Juan Avelino, who won the 100 and the high jump, Adal Morales, taking first in the shot put, Prince Brown, Tyshawn Anderson, and the 4×400 and 4×100 relay teams.
“I’m really proud of guys and the way they worked, we had a lot of high notes and some events that didn’t go as well as we’d hoped,” English boys coach Sam Hill said. “There are a lot of positives to take away, and I think we’ll have a good year. We scored a lot of points, so it’s a good way to get the season started.”
Mixed into the events were athletes from Beverly and Danvers, as those rivals were competing against each other, but not against the Rams or Bulldogs. With the Northeastern Conference merging with the Greater Boston League this season, English and Classical will have new opponents to compete with, like Medford and Somerville. It also means that they’re in a different division than teams like perennial powerhouses Beverly and Peabody.
“When we ran against them, it would kill our girls’ confidence,” Fiore said. “We’d tell them even though you lost, you did good! But Beverly and Peabody, they’re the standards that you measure your team against.”