Londonderry High School senior track and field star Starlin Ortiz capped off his excellent indoor career last Saturday, March 14 by finishing an exceptional third in the pentathlon at the 2015 New Balance National Indoor Track and Field Championships at The Armory in New York City.
The Lancer standout competed against top high school track stars from across the nation in the five-event competition and tallied 3,584 points to wind up third at that major competition.
Ortiz, who has been one of LHS Lancer coach Matt Smith’s top scoring weapons in both indoor and outdoor track and field over the last few years, tied for first places in the long jump with a top effort of 22 feet, 1 1/2 inches, and in the high jump with a top performance of 6’4 1/4″.
The 12th grader also snagged a second place in the 60-meter hurdles (time of 8.23 seconds), seventh place in the shot put (37’8 3/4″), and 10th in the 1,000-meter run (3 minutes, 08.58 seconds).
Ortiz had continued his superb 2014-15 winter season on Feb. 28 by placing an excellent third in the high jump at the 28th Annual New England Interscholastic Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury, Mass.
He managed a top jump of six feet and seven inches that day to wind up with his superb third place finish at that huge competition.
Ortiz was a regular point machine for his Lancers at the Division I championships at the University of New Hampshire the previous weekend, claiming first places in the 55-meter hurdles (7.71 seconds), the high jump (6 feet, 7 inches), and the long jump (21 feet, 5 1/4 inches) on his own. He also helped the LHS boys’ team’s 4×160-meter relay quartet snag a second place.