Norwood Hurdles Relay Take First Place in Championships!

Participating in the Bay State Conference, the Norwood boys hurdlers are mediocre having no one real stud in the event. However, once a year, they are thrown together at the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association (MSTCA) and excel at their highest level.
The Mustang senior foursome, made up of Tiago Gomes, Dorian Isidore, Billy Thomasello and Ryan Motta, put forth their best effort participating in the 50-yard Shuttle Hurdles at the Division 4 MSTCA Championships, where they captured first place in the event!
Throughout the season individually, the Norwood hurdlers would post a combined time of 35.1 (Gomes averaged 8.6 in the hurdles, Isidore and Motta 8.8 and Thomasello 8.9), but in taking the championship, the quartette finished with a time of 28.4.
Throughout the season, Norwood Coach Matt Curran has three of the four running the hurdles, while the fourth takes part in another event.
“Gomes, Isidore and Thomasello all run the hurdles on a regular basis,” the Coach said. “Motta is a very versatile athlete and we had a hole in the 600, so we moved him to that for the benefit of the team. Later in the season, we moved him back to hurdling so that he could get ready for the MSTCA’s and hopefully have him qualify for the tournaments.”
Last season, Norwood captured second place at the relays with Gomes being the only repeating participant. Tomasello turned basketball away this winter to take part in track before he graduated, and according to the coach, was a key component to the squad.
“Running in his first year Tomasello was one of the big reasons we were able to win the 50-yard Shuttle Hurdles,” Curran said. “He picked things up really quickly and his progression through the year gave us that fourth good hurdler.”
According to Curran, most teams usually have one or two good hurdlers and after that things drop off drastically, but at Norwood, the Mustangs have talent 1-4.
“We take part in this event only once a year, and as individuals alone, each hurdler is ok, but put them together as a group, they excel,” Curran said. “Other schools have an A – B – C and a D, but we have four B’s, giving us a better probability to win.”
In having only run this race once a year, Curran needs to get his athletes ready for the event prior to the actual event.
“It’s not all that tough to get ready, the only thing the athletes have to worry about is the matter of timing and that’s only for three of them,” Curran said. “The first hurdler starts the race off like he would during the season, the other three have to time their starts perfectly. If they’re too slow it puts them behind, and if they’re too quick they could get disqualified.”
Needless to say Gomes, Isidore, Thomasello and Motta perfected their timing in the 50-yard Shuttle Hurdles and were able to run away with the win.