Indoor track is one of the least paid attention to sports that Pentucket has to offer, but the few that are interested in it believe it to be very interesting. During the 2023–24 indoor season, six school records were broken by a team coached by Pentucket teachers Mr. Sherman and Mr. Bixby. The 27-person team would be captained by seniors Josh Foley, Michael Inger, Joel Spaulding, and Tighe Hosman.
Winter sports officially started in Massachusetts on November 20th, 2024. Among the hundreds of teams competing in different winter sports from all over the state, Pentucket Boys Indoor Track demands extra focus.
Six months prior, the Pentucket boys team lifted the MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association) D5 state champions trophy for the first time in program history, despite not winning the CAL (Cape Ann League) title the previous week. Stellar performances from a small group of people allowed the team to lift this coveted trophy, but unfortunately, most of the people who went to the state championships graduated. Of the 12 people who qualified, only five would be returning next season.
This meant the boys had a lot of work cut out for them and would need their very best to live up to the expectations. The season began led by captains Foley and Inger, but eventually, Hosman and Spaulding would also be added to the list. The team was very keen on seeing Spaulding return to track, as he is the reigning 100-meter D5 champion.
The first meet of the season was held at the TRACK, at New Balance in Brighton, Massachusetts, against Essex Tech. The team arrived eager and ready to race. The first event was the 55 mH(hurdles), where Hosman and junior Owen Corkery scored the first points of the season in a 1-2 victory.
Next up was the boy’s 55-meter dash, where Spaulding would take first overall by nearly a quarter second, as well as taking the school record. The rest of the meet would follow in a similar fashion. The Pentucket boys took first place in 12 out of 13 events, giving them their only regular-season victory.
The next meet for the team was the MSTCA (Massachusetts State Track Coach Association) Speed Classic, held at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, Massachusetts. This was only a developmental meet aimed at giving athletes strong times early in the season, meaning that no medals would be given out and no events would be scored. The first event was the boy’s 55 mH, where Hosman entered as the fifth seed but left as the number two, beating the other competition by 0.003 seconds.
The next event was the boy’s 55-meter dash, and Spaulding once again won and broke his own school record a second time. This time would also qualify him for the New Balance Nationals Indoor meet held at the TRACK at New Balance in March.
The next meet was a “pre-nationals” held December 27th with strict entry standards, and as such, only three boys on the Pentucket team ended up qualifying. The first Panther to run was Hosman, running in the 60 mH. He placed 25th overall out of 54 runners and also claimed a school record. New up was Spaulding running in the 60-meter dash, who would place 5th in the preliminary rounds and would place 7th place in the finals. He set the school record in the preliminary rounds and would break that record again in the finals. The final runner for the Pentucket boys was sophomore Gabriel Macleod, running the 300m. Macleod would place 52nd in a deep field while being one of the few underclassmen at the meet.
The next meet would come ten days later, with the MSTCA freshman-sophomore meet held at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Macleod was the standout athlete at this meet and would get 7th place after running a PR (personal record) in the 300-meter dash. His fellow Panthers at the meet would be sophomores Shea Mutti, Zachary Hannula, and Mathew Silva.
The team was set to compete against Lynnfield next; however, that meet would be canceled due to transportation issues. Because of how booked the TRACK is, it was never able to be rescheduled.
More of the team would be back at the “Reggie” for MSTCA D5 relays. Two school records would be broken that day. The 4x50m shuttle dash record would be crushed by over half a second last year, as well as earning them 8th place. The 4x110m shuttle hurdles record would be set, earning them third place and making them the only Pentucket boys team to receive a medal at the meet.
The Panthers were keen on returning to “New Balance” on January 16 for a meet against North Reading, as many had not been there since early December. However, their hopes would be crushed because inclement weather forced the entire meet to be called off.
Their hopes would be met as the team would finally return to the track on January 23 in a strong match against reigning Cape Ann League champions, Newburyport. This would prove to be a rough meet for the team, and they would lose by 30 points.
For the final regular season meet of the year, the team was set to go against Triton, but had a digital meet where the times achieved by both North Reading and Pentucket were set against each other to account for the lost meet. Both teams would prove difficult for the boys, as they would lose by 41 points to North Reading and 42 points to their rivals, Triton.
The Pentucket boys track team would end their regular season 1-3, but they are optimistic heading into the postseason. Sean Bixby, assistant coach, said that his personal favorite moment of the season was “seeing you guys compete… upping your times and distances every week.”
The season may not have been the one that they dreamed about, but it was an absolute blast.
