Newburyport gets two wins over Lynnfield in outdoor track

Steve Preston won the shot put, discus, and finished 2nd in the 100

DJ DeGeorge finished 2nd in the shot put and discus

(Newburyport) Plenty of sunshine and plenty of success for Newburyport in outdoor track competition with Lynnfield on Monday afternoon.

The Clippers (1-1) recovered nicely from last week’s losses to North Reading in their Cape Ann League opener.

The Newburyport boys defeated the Pioneers, 92-51, while the Clipper girls came out ahead, 90 ½ – 54 ½.

On a bright day (I’m making excuses for the pictures already!) I took a number of pictures of the participants.

I prepped for the race by taking a look at the 2012 CAL outdoor track championships at North Andover. That research alerted me to the best matchup in this meet – Steve Preston (Nbpt) versus DJ DeGeorge (Lynnfield).

The event was the shot put. In the CAL championships DJ was the winner with a put of 48’11”. Steve was third with 46’4”.

On Monday afternoon Steve turned out the winner reaching 49’. I don’t know DJ’s distance this time around but he ended up second.

Steve also won the discus with a throw of 142’ 5”. That length would have won last year’s CAL meet in which Steve ended up second throwing 138’ 1”. DJ was second today in the discus.

Tom Graham wins the 100

Steve also had a second in the 100 behind teammate junior Tom Graham.

Watching the Newburyport distance runners is always entertaining. You go into having no idea what the “script” will be.

In the two-mile, the “script” was determined by how long Lynnfield’s Chase Davidson could stay in contention. When he dropped back the front four orchestrated the way the race would go, in conversion as the race went along. In the final stretch, Max Vye “pulled away) from Joe Santo, Nick Carleo, and Chris Orlando to get the win.

Nick Carleo cruises in the one mile

The one mile event was run without scripting and Nick Carleo won decisively. His time was 4:47 which is quite a ways from his 4:29.8 at the CAL championships last May.

Lexi Buonfiglio was a decisive winner for Lynnfield in the 800. The senior was 4th in the CAL championships and all of the girls who finished ahead of her have graduated.

Next for Newburyport will be hosting undefeated Masco (2-0) on Thursday. For Lynnfield, it will be a trip to Ipswich (1-0) on the same day.

(All of the pictures above and below enlarge considerably if you click on them.)