Reading Track Places High at Division 3 State Championships
This article was written by resident Tom Grant, a parent of a student-athlete.
(6-7 minute read)
Lightbody (19 points) and Encarnacao (11.5) lead girls to 8th-place finish
Emmanuel, Pulpi, and Rogerson are state champs
Pulpi wins three events, leading boys to second place
Rogerson and Pulpi set new school records
Pictured (left to right): Annabelle Repucci, Rachel Grady, Aryanna Neth, and Kamryn Encarnacao placed third in the 4x100 relay. Photo credit Danielle Caraco.
Reading’s boys’ and girls’ track teams had the biggest meet of the year last week - the Division 3 State Championships. Despite a rain postponement of the second day of events from Saturday, the 30th, to Sunday, the 31st (first day was Thursday, May 28th), the Rockets rose to the occasion and delivered multiple season-bests and personal-bests. At the end of the day, Reading had three state champions in five events, and three school records were broken. A handful of athletes will move on to compete at the Meet of Champions (MoC) on June 4th and June 6th at Merrimack College.
Reading Girls’ Track finishes 8th out of 33 in Division 3 State Championships
Seniors Isabelle Lightbody and Kamryn Encarnacao have led the team all season, and the Division 3 State Championships were no exception. These two showed they are two of the best female track athletes in the state, racking up 30.5 of the team’s 37 points between them.
Lightbody demonstrated her all-around skill by finishing third in the pentathlon, scoring 2,891 points. However, competing in those five events was not enough for Lightbody - she also placed fourth in the long jump (17-09.50) and second in the triple jump (36-02.50). It is worth noting that her time in the pentathlon’s 100H would have placed her fifth in the open 100H. At this point in the season, Lightbody ranks 25th in the long jump and 13th in the triple jump across all of Massachusetts, not just D3. Look for her to set new personal bests in the MoC this week.
Reading girls’ track scorers in the Division 3 Championship meet.
Encarnacao has been one of the fastest female athletes in Massachusetts since her sophomore year, and she did not disappoint in the D3 championship meet. Encarnacao finished fourth in the 100m (12.40) and in the 200m (25.46) in what was her season best. She also led the 4x100 team to a third-place finish (50.38), bringing home a total of 11.5 points for the Rockets. Encarnacao set a personal best of 12.31 in the prelims of the 100m, the 17th fastest time in the state (all divisions) this year. Her 200m time places her 19th in the state (all divisions), so look for her to hit a new personal best at the MoC, no matter which event she runs.
Reading’s other scorers were Annabelle Repucci (long jump - 17-03.00; 7th place), junior Rachel Grady, freshman Aryanna Neth, Repucci, and Encarnacao from the 4x100 team (50.38; 3rd place).
Reading Boys’ Track finishes 2nd by 0.5 points in Division 3 State Championships
Michael Caraco (right) placed 5th in both the long jump and triple jump; Ryan Audley (left) placed 7th in the triple jump and 8th in the long jump. Photo by Danielle Caraco.
In what can only be described as an emotional roller coaster, the boys finished second to Walpole by a mere half a point - 99.5 to 99. While the final field event - javelin - was wrapping up, the track events were down to the relays. Longmeadow had a solid lead with 92 points, compared to Walpole in second at 77.5, and Reading in third at 64. Longmeadow had racked up an incredible 26.5 points from five scorers in the pole vault, a clever strategy for winning this meet. Pole vault is a less competitive event, as only five of the 29 teams even contested it, making it relatively easier than other events to place in the top eight. Walpole, meanwhile, scored 18 points in the pentathlon alone. This was a similarly strategic way to gain a lot of points outside of the traditional track and field events, as only 7 of the 29 teams entered an athlete in the pentathlon. Both Longmeadow and Walpole were trying to hold on to their advantage over Reading, while the Rockets tried to claw their way back.
The 4x800 was first, featuring junior Finn Johnson-Houlihan, junior Max King, sophomore Declan Grant, and junior Sebastian Orsini. The Rockets finished third in 8:13.44, while Longmeadow finished first and looked to have locked up the state championship. However, Longmeadow was disqualified due to a baton-handling violation at the end of the race. This opened the door for Reading, as the team was pushed up to second, ahead of Walpole in fifth. After the 4x800, the scores were 92 for Longmeadow, 81.5 for Walpole, and 72 for Reading.
Next was the 4x100, which Reading would have to compete in without star sprinter Ryan Pulpi. However, the Rockets’ relay team of freshman Brady LaMontagne and juniors Zalen Puff, Matthew Dougherty, and Domenic Pate were ready for the challenge. They posted the team’s second-fastest time of the year, but still finished second to Walpole by 17 hundredths of a second. Longmeadow’s team did not compete, so after the 4x100, the scores stood at 92 for Longmeadow, 91.5 for Walpole, and 80 for Reading.
Luke Rogerson set the school record and took 1st place in the javelin. Photo by Becky Rogerson.
The final track event was the 4x400, an event that is always a strength for Reading. The team of Pate, senior Owen Sinclair, senior Cameron Gigler, and junior Jack Millerick powered to a third-place finish at 3:29.66, scoring six points and moving Reading achingly close to the lead. However, Longmeadow was fifth, and Walpole managed to finish seventh by six-tenths of a second, leaving the scores as 96 for Longmeadow, 93.5 for Walpole, and 86 for Reading.
This left only the javelin, which was wrapping up. The remaining athletes and fans made their way over to see how it would all shake out. Reading’s senior Luke Rogerson is the school record-holder in the javelin and the #16 thrower in the nation, so his new personal best of 210-07.00 easily took first place, scoring 10 points for the Rockets. Meanwhile, junior Brody Ruggiero had a seven-foot personal best (149-09.00) to move into sixth and tally three points for Reading, moving the team ahead of Longmeadow, which did not have a thrower who placed. However, Walpole’s top thrower was up to the task. On his last throw, he set a new personal best that moved him from fourth to third, giving Walpole six points and pushing them to the D3 state championship.
Reading boys’ track scorers in the Division 3 Championship meet.
Reading only had a chance to win thanks to senior Ryan Pulpi, who took on the challenge of competing in three individual events at the state championship. Pulpi crushed all comers on Thursday in the 200m, setting a new school record and #1 time in the state (all divisions) at 21.11. Saturday would be much tougher, however, as the 400m final was just 20 minutes before the 100m final, giving him little time to recover. Pulpi, however, was up to the challenge. He used just enough energy to win the 400m by 13 hundredths of a second (48.97). Coming into his last event of the meet, Pulpi finally did not have to save any energy and could let himself fly in the 100m. Fly he did, setting a new school record and #1 time in the state (all divisions) at 10.44. This was the fastest 100m in the state since 2022 and a big improvement over his previous school record of 10.71 set against Woburn. With these three victories, Pulpi scored an outrageous 30 points for the Rockets and established himself as the top sprinter in all of Massachusetts.
In addition to Rogerson and Pulpi, Reading had one more state champion in senior Levi Emmanuel. What a way for Emmanuel to complete his first season on the track and field team, taking first place in the high jump at 6-04.00, tying his personal best. It was an incredibly tight competition, as the top seven finishers all cleared 6-02.00. Emmanuel and one other jumper were the only ones to clear 6-04.00, and Emmanuel took the title due to fewer misses.
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