The 2017 Beeman Trophy Games between the spring varsity sports squads from Londonderry High and Pinkerton Academy officially began with a track meet at LHS last Tuesday, April 18. And the visiting Astros made out quite well in both the boys’ and girls’ competitions.
The Astro males defeated the arch-rival Lancers by a big 106-21 tally by winning more than a dozen events and taking a great many top-six places. And the Lady Astros took care of business against the host Lady Lancers as well, besting them by a somewhat more modest 83-52 margin.
High points for the LHS males that day included event victories from Declan Hotter in the 1,600-meter run (time of 4 minutes, 42.54 seconds) and young star Patrick Hagearty in both the discus (124 feet, 4 inches) and the shot put (41’8″).
Other top Lancer finishes were delivered by Chris Zaino in the 800-meter run (second), Nate Seeley in the 1,600 (third), and Pat Zepf in the high jump (third).
On the girls’ side of the ledger, the Lady Lancers received event wins from Gretchen McGrath in the 400 (1:00.24), Maddy Croteau in the pole vault (9′), and Akolam Wambu in the discus (77’7″). Londonderry also took first in the 4×400 thanks to the efforts of Jess Brien, Croteau, McGrath, and Bella Ziolek.
Other top-three performances were delivered by Croteau, Brien, Ellie Goodspeed, Jasmine Brown, Kaelyn O’Rourke, Suzie Moore, Gianna DelViscovo, Kaylie Longua, Lindsey Guenther, Kiera Wright, and Devin Enwright.
Then on Saturday the 22nd at the 12th Annual Nashua North Invitational, the Lancer boys had top-six finishes come from Kerry Daley in the freshman/sophomore mile (fourth), the 4×400 relay quartet of Zaino, Hotter, Seeley, and Brian Metro (fourth), and Hagearty in the shot (fifth).
The Lady Lancers tallied a half-dozen very solid, top-six performances at that well-attended event, with McGrath taking second in the 800, Croteau bagging second in the pole vault, the 4×400 quartet of Brien, Kalin Gregoire, McGrath, and O’Rourke finishing third, Wambu notching fifth in the discus, and Brien and Croteau taking sixths in the high jump and the 200 respectively.