Katherine Conlisk placed in the top two in three events in the field to take advantage of a new track and field rule and Frontier Regional School crushed Belchertown High School, 126.6-18.4 in a Suburban League girls’ meet Thursday afternoon in South Deerfield.
On Wednesday, the MIAA changed a rule in track and field that now allows teams to use an athlete in any four events. Previously, athletes could only compete in two field events and two track events. That is in line with many other states, according to Frontier coach Bob Smith.
“I think a team can be smaller and have four or five really good athletes and be competitive,” he said.
Conlisk won the javelin in 92 feet, 3 inches and also placed second in both the shot put (24-6¾) and the discus (83-10).
Caitlin Burnett swept the distance events for the Red Hawks, winning the mile in 5 minutes, 54.6 seconds and the 2-mile in 13:59.6. Kat Miner also won a pair of events, capturing the 100-meter dash in 13.5 seconds, and the high jump in 5-6. The reason for the decimals in the score was due to a three-way tie for second place in the high jump as Frontier’s Sarah Conlisk and Remi Quesnelle tied Belchertown’s Marissa Shaw for second at 4-8.
Marisela Ackerman won the 400 in 69.2 seconds, Grayson Young won the 800 in 2:51.9, Jenna Martin captured the 100 high hurdles in 18.4, and Zoe Barker won the 400 low hurdles in 77.2.
Quesnelle, Miner, Kathy Burke and Lisa Portier teamed up to win the 4 x 100 relay in 53.1 seconds, while Barker, Kate Hickey, Kimani Topolski and Ackerman teamed up to win the 4 x 400 relay in 4:53.4.
Portier won the triple jump at 31 feet, Megan Grace-Slocombe won the discus in 85-8, Paige Eddy won the shot put at 24-10½, and Jaime Byrne won the pole vault at 8 feet.
Greenfield 3, PV Christian 1 — In a battle of shorthanded teams, Greenfield High School was able to pull out a 3-1 boys’ tennis victory over Pjoneer Valley Christian Academy in Tri-County League play Thursday at the Davis Street Courts in Greenfield.
Both teams had only five players due to vacation conflicts.
Leading 2-1, the Green Wave’s Victor Ivancev and Fahrah Day survived two tight sets to knock off Ethan Ondrick and Kevin Sharpe, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1), to earn the victory and remain unbeaten in the TCL.
Greenfield also won the first two singles matches — Stefan Walker upended Andrew Taft, 6-4, 6-3, at No.1, and George Felogloy cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 verdict over Andrew Rossashanskiy at No. 2.
The Eagles got their only point at third singles, where Chris Patenaude got past Connor Pedigree, 6-3, 6-1.
Greenfield (3-1, 3-0 TCL) hosts independent foe West Springfield Monday at 3:30 p.m.
Turners Falls 4, Sci-Tech 1 — Turners Falls High School won two of the three contested matches and added two forfeits to post a 4-1 win over Springfield High School of Science & Technology in a TCL boys’ tennis match Thursday at Blunt Park in Springfield.
Avery Palmer continued his stellar play at second singles with a 6-0, 6-0 whitewash of Mudather Abdelrahman, while Mason Whiteman and Ricky Craver did the same to Richard Plant and Ehab Abdelrahman at second doubles.
Brandin Stewart earned the CyberCats’ only point at first singles with a 6-0, 6-3 verdict over the Indians’ Jimmy Vaughn.
Turners (3-3, 3-1 TCL) plays next at Holyoke Monday at 4 p.m.
Holyoke 3, Athol 2 — Holyoke High School rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat Athol High School, 12-25, 25-20, 13-25, 25-22, 15-13, in an independent boys’ volleyball match Thursday at Jinx O’Connor Gymnasium in Holyoke.
Tyler Lajoie recorded 5 kills, 28 assists, 6 aces, 21 points and 2 digs to lead Athol. Carter Amadon added 23 kills, 4 blocks, 15 points and 18 digs, Lorenzo Carra had 13 assists and 4 digs, Hudson Carlson had 8 kills and 7 digs, and Nick Casella contributed 2 kills and 10 digs.
Athol head coach Donna Lajoie was less than thrilled before the match even started – the on-site trainer from Holyoke told her that he wouldn’t allow Red Raider libero Nelson Leadbetter to play due to poison ivy on his arm, despite Athol’s offer to wrap it.
“That still shouldn’t have stopped us from winning (today),” added Lajoie. “We blew them away in (sets) 1 and 3 and we absolutely fell apart in (sets) 2 and 4. In the fifth (set), they got the momentum early and we almost came back, but we just couldn’t get out of our own way at the end.”
“This was a very disappointing and frustrating loss,” she added. “I’m not trying to make excuses, but it’s very tough to make an adjustment from having one of the best liberos in western Mass. to not having him on the court at all. But in reality, even without him we still should have won.”
Athol faces East Longmeadow High School today at 5 p.m.