'Stangs Hitting Their Stride

Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Article by: Tom Fargo Norwood Transcript & Bulletin

With last Thursday’s 53-32 victory over Wellesley leveling the Norwood High boys indoor track squad’s record at 2-2 on the season, Norwood coach Jim Forrest joked, “We are twice as a good as we were last year.”

While that might be statistically true with the Mustangs coming off a one-win season last winter, what has impressed Forrest most about this particular group hasn’t been the improvement in results, but rather the increase in desire.

That was evident against the Raiders as Norwood won six of the 10 events at the Reggie Lewis Center to break a two-game slide. Norwood wraps up Bay State Conference Herget Division competition today against rival Walpole before ending the dual-meet season next week in the crossover meet with the Carey Division.

“(The win) doesn’t change who we are. We matched up well with them,” said Forrest. “The biggest thing is that I thought we competed much better. The kids are coming out a little hungrier than they have the last couple years.”

The trio of junior Jon Canniff and seniors Rob Sheehan and Eric Pham paced Norwood. All three had at least a first and second place individually, with Canniff placing in the three different events.

Sheehan took second in the 1,000 meters with a personal best time and came back to lead a 1-3 performance with freshman Fernando Morales in the 300, winning in 39.41. Forrest believes Sheehan’s best event is probably the 600, where freshman Ryan Igoe and junior Richard Farah grabbed second and third, but the versatile senior captain has been filling different events because of need and still producing valuable points.