This story is taken mostly from my reading of Derry News articles, so props to Dan Ryan and the staff that was there in 1980 and 1981. I shared this with Kathy O’Connell and incorporated added tidbits.
The 1981 Pinkerton Girls Indoor Track team was full of frontrunners, a necessary characteristic for championship teams. They had front of the pack distance talent in junior Beth Latham, senior Karyn Tomaini, sophomore Mary Sheridan, and senior Lynn Wentworth. They had two straight-up burners in senior Cheryl Chadwick and freshman Sherri Hughes. Their field points came from junior shot putter Jen Hanlon and their top-end depth was provided by Heather Langton (300/600/relay).
The prior edition of this team was Coach Kathy O’Connell’s first with the team. They blitzed the regular season to a 19-1 record. Cindy Collins was dominating the distances with Latham, Tomaini, and Sheridan. Chadwick was killing it along with Debbie Wade. Unfortunately, the flu struck down Tomaini and Hanlon and neither competed at the 1980 State Meet. Collins took the 2 mile, Latham took 2nd in the 600y out of the slow heat, and freshman Sheridan took 4th in the 2 mile, but the team had to settle for 4th place behind Portsmouth, Oyster River, and Exeter.
A few months later, the 1980 outdoor track team had solid individuals but didn’t particularly distinguish itself as a team at Class L. The 1980 XC team were two-time defending New England Champions, but after graduating Collins finished 2nd in Class L, 2nd at MOC, and 2nd at New England, all to a Dover team that was powered by 8th grade phenom Cathy Schiero (soon to be O’Brien and kinda famous). The Pinkerton Trailblazers showed that distance could very well be a strength for the 1981 indoor team, and that would prove true.
1981 was the first year that New Hampshire used metric race distances. The 300y became the 300m, throwing Cheryl Chadwick off in her first race when she turned off the jets 26m too soon. The 2-mile became the 3000m, taking 1/8 mile off that race. Distances in the jumps and shot put were sometimes reported in metric and sometimes in feet-inches, adding to a feeling of confusion in the first few weeks of the season.
There was no confusion in the results, though. In December 1980, the team was crushing it. They won all three meets, a collective 9-0. Chadwick was dominating in the 300m and the 55m HH. Tomaini and Sheridan were ruling the distance races along with Latham who could drop as low as 600m and still take victories. Jen Hanlon was taking the shot put and high jump. And then this freshman, Sherri Hughes, just kept taking the 55m.
However, the top two teams in the state were ahead on the schedule in January. In the first meet of the new year, the team got their first defeat courtesy of Portsmouth when Latham, Hanlon, and Tomaini were out sick. In the next meet, with Tomaini still out, Nashua hung another loss on the team. Sherri Hughes met her match, Mary Worthley, a bolt of lightning from Spaulding. They both ran 7.3s, a freshman record that still stands for the Astros, but the Spaulding runner got the nod and handed Hughes her first defeat. Mary Sheridan, who O’Connell called “the glue of the team,” picked up all the slack she could, setting new PRs and winning her events.
Pinkerton won their final two meets, pushing their regular season record to 18-2. They got healthy. And they rolled into the State Championship Meet with 12 competitors ready to go at UNH:
- Karyn Tomaini, taking on the tough triple of 3K/1500/1K
- Cheryl Chadwick: 300m/55m HH/4x400m
- Sherri Hughes: 55m/300m/4x400m
- Patti Salter: 300m/4x400m
- Heather Langton: 600m/4x400m
- Beth Latham and Mary Sheridan: 3K and 1500m
- Lynn Wentworth: 1K/1500m
- Jen Hanlon: Shot Put
- Allison Rackley: 55m HH
- Dianne Cameron: 3K
- Karen Flynn: 1500m
The first event on the track was the 3000m. Already I wish I could have been there for this meet. Showcasing their strength carrying over from that XC team, the Astros blew it out taking the top three places. Beth Latham won in 10:45, Karyn Tomaini second in 10:50.3, and Mary Sheridan third in 10:52.8, all personal bests. That is throwing down the gauntlet. The team had 24 points coming out of the very first event with the best start they could have envisioned.
The 55m showdown that the state was eagerly awaiting came next: Mary Worthley of Spaulding and Sherri Hughes. Worthley took that first regular season matchup, but she would not take this one. Again they had the same time on the watch, but Sherri Hughes took home a state title in the 55m roaring home in 7.4s. Ten more points to the team. Meanwhile in the center of the oval, Jen Hanlon had secured a 5th place finish in the shot put at 31’-2.5”.
Pinkerton did not score any points in the hurdles but leaned on its distance depth again in the 1000m. Karyn Tomaini on short rest finished up in 4th with a 3:14.7. Lynn Wentworth, seeded 9th coming into the race, ran her best time of the season (3:17.4) and pulled into a 6th place finish with another point to the team total. In the 600m Heather Langton also out-performed. Seeded 10th, she blasted a season best time of 1:47 and rolled into 6th place.
By now Nashua was up on the Astros, but our girls had solid competitors coming up in the last three events on the track.
In the 300m, Chadwick and Hughes would join forces. Coming out of separate heats they ran identical times of 43.3, forcing a tie for second place and 14 points to the Astros. That nearly leveled the scores at Nashua 61, Pinkerton 60. Portsmouth was further back.
The 1500m must have been a race to experience as a fan. Astros down to the Panthers by 1. There are 5 runners toeing the line for Pinkerton, so odds HAVE to go in their favor, right? RIGHT? As with most indoor state meets, the 1500m is just about who has how much left in the tank. Karyn Tomiani had already run the 3000m and the 1000m. Beth Latham and Mary Sheridan had already run the 3000m where both had PR’d. Lynn Wentworth had already run the 1000m. Only Dianne Cameron was fresh. The next 9 laps around the Paul Sweet Oval must have been lung-busting for teammates, coaches, and parents. I would pay so much to see a video but I’m left just trying to imagine this pack of girls, a mass of red and white uniforms knotted in the middle. Beth Latham digs deep with a personal best 5:10.6 and comes home in 3rd place. Mary Sheridan tucks in right behind Beth in 4th. Karyn Tomaini, who has no business running an improbable personal best closing out her triple does just that in 5:12.1 and nails down 5th place. And get this, Lynn Wentworth, ranked 19th—ranked 19th!—just refuses to let her teammates pull away and finishes this flurry of 13 points with a 6th place finish, 5:16.4 and a straight-up monster of a 14s PR .
Nashua has no response. They are suddenly down 73-61 with one event to go. In the six and a half seconds it took Latham, Sheridan, Tomaini, and Wentworth to cross that line the Panthers are finished. Second place. Eliminated. The margin of 12 points is a margin they cannot overcome in the single event remaining, the 4x400m. Pinkerton could put the baton down and Nashua could win the 4x400m and it wouldn’t matter.
Pinkerton did not put the baton down. Tim Ryan wrote in the Derry News, “But run they did.” The Astros brought all the speed off the bench: Sherri Hughes, Cheryl Chadwick, Patti Salter, Heather Langton. They were not here to mess around. This was not a “just get the baton around” quartet. Pinkerton redlined that thing for ten laps and hit the tape at 4:19.6, a new school record, a new STATE record.
The team victory was complete. Pinkerton scored 83 points to Nashua at 65 and Portsmouth at 57. They had their State Championship plaque, a first for any indoor track squad at Pinkerton. The Derry News archive has some great photos with all the emotion coming through despite the terrible scan quality. I appreciate that the entire article is written in the order of the events, building the sense of gripping tension as the races rolled from the 300m into the 1500m.
I wish I could have been there.