Generals Track Teams Hope to Repeat Last Year's Success

The boys and girls outdoor track teams certainly have their work cut out for them if they are to repeat the success of last season.

With both teams coming off stellar campaigns in 2010 – champions of State Div. 4, State Class Relays and Cape Ann Small League – the boys team will be led by its group of distance runners while the girls boast a deep, senior-laden squad.

“Both of my teams have been good for the past four or five years,” said head coach Steve Sawyer, who has been at the helm of the Generals since 1969. “I’ve had a string of real good athletes, not only at the local level but the state level, too.”

Hamlton-Wenham also enjoyed and Sawyer expects the team to take that momentum into the spring outdoor track season.

“We had an outstanding year in indoor track and for most kids it translates into success in outdoor,” he said.

Sawyer said he feels his girls team has what it takes to repeat as league champions but the boys will have an uphill battle to win the league, as well as a fifth straight Div. 4 championship.

While the Generals are in recent years, this girls team appears to be strong in all areas with its senior core.

Alison Lanois is one of the top distance runners in the state, while Natalie White (hurdles, jumping events, relay), Andrea Sergeant (sprinter, jumping events), Bridgett Brown (sprinter), Tyler Parady (pole vault, sprinter) and Hannah Millimet (middle distances) should lead the team.

“We will rely a lot on those seniors,” said Sawyer. “Our girls team should be strong. We will be competitive in all of the event. We don’t have many weaknesses.”

Sawyer noted that his junior class will also pick up points on a consistent basis: Camilla Worsfold (hurdles, sprinter, relays), Emily Senning, (distance), Kerry Phelan, (distance) and Robin Doroff (hurdles, sprinter, relays).

The Generals should be at the top of the league, according to Sawyer, with North Andover, Masconomet and Lynnfield in the conversation. Hamilton-Wenham finished 8-2 in league competition last year.

For the boys, the distance running group of seniors Conor Lyons, Chris Benevento and Jonathan Hills, plus junior Ian MacLean, can all excel at the two mile, mile, 800 meters and 400 meters.

“We will have strong relays with those boys, too,” Sawyer said.

The stop of the bunch is Lyons, in the New England Championships in indoor track this past winter.

, a senior sprinter, and Kendrick Poulin, a senior pole vaulter, are also expected to have a solid year.

After that, Sawyer is not sure where points will come from. He feels this season could be a rebuilding campaign.

“We have a lot new kids, a very young team,” he said. “It might take two to three years to get back to where (we’ve been the past five years). We have a lot of talent, but we’re young.”

The boys, off a 9-1 mark last spring, could be looking up at North Andover, Masconomet and Newburyport in the Cape Ann Small League.

Both teams open on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.