Girls' Indoor Track Previews

Titans return key pieces, should contend in D-I

Matt Metcalf, Assistant Sports Editor
Posted 12/23/14

The Toll Gate girls’ indoor track team has been solid year-in and year-out and that won’t change this season. 

The Titans went 6-2 in the Headley subdivision of Division I a …

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Girls' Indoor Track Previews

Titans return key pieces, should contend in D-I

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The Toll Gate girls’ indoor track team has been solid year-in and year-out and that won’t change this season. 

The Titans went 6-2 in the Headley subdivision of Division I a season ago and they’ll return some of their top performers for this season. 

“We have a pretty good team this year,” head coach Norm Bouthillier said. “We still have big building blocks with Erika Pena, Heather Allstrom and Ashley Chin.” 

Pena, a senior, and Chin, a junior, will be two of Toll Gate’s top sprinters this year and they’ve already seen results.

On Wednesday night at the Headley-Sullivan meet, Pena finished third in the 300-meter dash. She also finished second in the 55-meter hurdles and the long jump, while Chin finished in seventh in the 55-meter dash. 

Bouthillier noted that numbers were small coming out for the team this year, as the roster has shrunk from 60 a few years ago to 35 this season, which he noted may be a result of the school getting smaller. 

The numbers sure didn’t hurt the team’s results in the first meet, however. 

The Titans’ middle and long distance runners performed well, even though it may be one of the team’s few weaknesses – if you even want to call it that – this season. 

Senior Nora Hall finished seventh in the 600-meter run, while junior Sarah Lavallee placed 11th. 

Senior Jessica Cowley placed second in the 1500-meter run and fifth in the 1000 on Wednesday and should pace the distance runners this year. 

Another senior, Morgan Dugan will also contribute in the distance events, as will sophomore Lian Smithers and freshman Sophia Maynard. 

The Titans will be strongest in the field events, where they’ll return junior Courtney Jacobsen and sophomore Ani Armenakyan. 

Armenakyan placed second in the shot put at the Headley-Sullivan and also finished in the top 10 in the weight throw along with Jacobsen and junior Paige Carmichael. 

Bouthillier is hoping that his team’s balance will allow them to achieve their ultimate goal. 

“Our desire is to win our division again,” Bouthillier said. 

The Titans should have a good opportunity to do just that. If Wednesday night’s results are an indication of what the Titans are capable of, then that feat isn’t farfetched at all. 

“We went 14 years without losing a meet,” Bouthillier said. “The last two years, we’ve had some fall-off. This year I think we can get back on the saddle.”

Pilgrim will look to runners to carry team 

Usually a well-balanced team is the one to prevail over a team that is strong is one area, but Pilgrim is hoping to prove that old adage wrong this season. 

The Pats have about 30 girls on its roster this season – 20 runners and 10 throwers – but the runners are much more experienced than their young group of throwers. 

Pilgrim will bring back a strong core from last year’s team, a team that finished 6-2 in Division I’s Headley subdivision last season.

Pilgrim will rely heavily on one of its senior captains, Melanie Brunelle, who is arguably the top girls’ track athlete in Warwick. She’ll compete in the high jump, hurdles and long jump this season and placed well in all three at the Headley-Sullivan Meet on Wednesday. 

Brunelle finished first in the 55-meter hurdles, second in the high jump and third in the long jump. 

In the sprints, the Pats should be in good shape. Juniors Emma Landroche, Nicole Morales and Madison Stanley will pace Pilgrim in those events. 

Landroche finished fifth in the 55-meter dash and 11th in the 300-meter dash, while Morales placed 12th in both. 

In the distance events, two sophomores – Bryana Mullin and Maranda Duffie – are leading the way right now, but junior Danika Wayss will in time when she returns from injury. 

Mullin placed ninth in the 3000-meter run at the Headley-Sullivan and also finished 15th in the 1000. 

The Pats’ 4x200 relay team will also be very competitive this season, placing second on Wednesday. 

“In the running events we’ll be decent, we’ll be respectable,” head coach Tom Dolce said. 

In the weights, however, Pilgrim has some work to be done. 

“The weight team is young,” Dolce said. “We’re just trying to develop some throwers.”

The Pats were led by sophomore Blessin Premy in the weights, who placed eighth in the shot put on Wednesday. Another sophomore – Chelsea Young – placed 11th in the shot put as well. 

Pilgrim believes that it can put together a strong year, but it also believes that an intra-city foe will be the team to beat in the Headley Division. 

“I think that Toll Gate is the team to beat in our division this year,” Dolce said. “We’re going to try our best to score some points.” 

Shorthanded ‘Canes will rely on few veterans

Vets had a solid season last year, finishing 7-3, which was good for second out of 10 teams in Division II’s Sullivan subdivision. 

But the ‘Canes have a new-look this season, as they graduated many key contributors. 

“The numbers are pretty low this year, so that’s putting us back a little bit,” head coach Stephanie Shields said. “We graduated a decent amount of kids and we didn’t get the same number to come out this year.”

Even though it’s a little tough to fill events right now, the ‘Canes will move forward with what they do have. 

In terms of distance events, juniors Carlie McPherson and Kylie Lyon will lead the way, as both ran in varsity meets as sophomores. 

McPherson placed 23rd in the 1500-meter run in Vets’ first meet on Wednesday night. 

In the sprints, the ‘Canes don’t have many experienced runners, but two young runners – sophomore Corinne Gregoire and freshman Jaime Moretti – should be solid contributors throughout the season. 

Moretti placed 27th out of 68 runners in the 55-meter dash in her first high school meet. 

For the young runners that Vets has, there’s nowhere else to go but up the rest of the season. 

“The first meet is to just see where we are,” Shields said. “By the fourth meet, hopefully we’ve done a great job to improve.”

Vets should be strong in the weights, though, particularly with senior Kim Buchanan. Buchanan had a solid junior year, not qualifying for varsity states, but performing well at the junior varsity state meet. 

“We’re definitely looking for her to qualify for the state meet this year,” Shields said. “She worked incredibly hard in the off-season and should do well this season.”

Buchanan finished 15th out of 47 in the weight throw at the Headley-Sullivan meet. 

Junior Kayla Bourbon will also be a main contributor for the ‘Canes in the weights, particularly in the shot put. 

Vets will be looking to just get better as the season goes along, as it’ll try to fill more events as the season progresses. 

“We’re hoping to pick up where we left off last year and improve as the season goes along,” Shields said.

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