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KEVIN GUTTING

Northampton senior Harrison Hunter, center, warms up before running the 1200-meter first leg of the Blue Devils "B" team entry in the 4000m distance medley relay at the Steele Relays held in Northampton on Saturday. Combined with efforts from senior Tim Callahan (400m), junior Sam Coates-Finke (800m) and sophomore Charles Hale (1600m), the "B" team came in second - only to the Northampton "A" team.

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KEVIN GUTTING

South Hadley senior John Horstman runs the 800-meter anchor leg of the 1600m sprint medley relay, which the Tigers won, at the Steele Relays held in Northampton on Saturday.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Holyoke Catholic senior Jenn Cardinal competes in the long jump relay at the Steele Relays held in Northampton on Saturday. Cardinal's longest mark was combined with those of two teammates to give the Gaels first place in the event.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Northampton sophomore Adrienne Pascucci clears 4 feet, 6 inches en route to helping a trio of Blue Devils win the high jump relay at the Steele Relays held in Northampton on Saturday.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Northampton sophomore Charles Hale, left, takes the handoff from junior Sam Coates-Finke to run the 1600-meter anchor leg of the Blue Devils "B" team entry in the 4000m distance medley relay at the Steele Relays held in Northampton on Saturday. The Northampton "A" team easily won the event, but newcomer Hale fended off a late challenge by Agawam to hold onto second place for the "B" team.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Northampton senior Emily Hannigan-Page, second from right, trails a Minnechaug runner on the 200-meter second leg of the 1600m sprint medley relay at the Steele Relays held in Northampton on Saturday. The Blue Devils went on to win the medley with a combined effort from lead-off Casey Keedy (200m), Phoebe Hopkins (400m) and anchor Emma Larson (800m), all seniors.

Northampton High School hosted the Steele Relays for the first time Saturday, and the host Blue Devils fielded five separate winning teams.

The meet is usually held at Holyoke High School, but for a number of reasons it had to be moved this year.

"I thought it went really well," said Northampton coach Nate Kraft. "The weather held up, so it worked out there. There are always things you want to change after you run it, but I was really pleased overall, and it's great to have the meet back."

For the Blue Devils girls, the 4x1600 team of Nora Letendre, Charlotte Lellman, Emma Jenkins-Sullivan and Viviane Ford set a school-record time of 23 minutes, 18.10 seconds.

The high jump relay squad, comprised of Casey Keedy, Leah Tompkins and Adrienne Pascucci also established a new school mark of 14-3.5 feet.

Northampton also took first in the sprint medley relay with Keedy, Emily Hannigan-Page, Phoebe Hopkins and Emma Larson finishing at 4:27.9.

The Hamp boys won a pair of events. The javelin throw relay team of Jared Murphy, Jon Scott and Nate Ogulewicz set a school record at 406-2.

Also coming in first was the distance medley team of Sam Shanky, Alex Cahillane, Alex Sullivan and Ian Lutz at at 10:55.3.

"We didn't really run our A teams that we'll likely run at championship meets, and it's great to get some other kids in there," Kraft said. "I think having it at Northampton gave our kids a sense of pride to do well, but we look at it as a meet to have a lot of fun."

Kraft was impressed with the way his athletes handled a bit of a unique situation.

"I think the biggest challenge is that the coaches aren't as accessible, because we're running the event," he said. "But the kids handled it well. We can't help them with everything, but they pretty much took care of everything on their own."

South Hadley performed well Saturday with four winning teams between the boys and girls.

The Tigers boys won the 1600-meter sprint medley in a time of 3:46.8. Ty Hersom, Wes Calhoun, Louis Agrait and Jon Horstman made up the team. Calhoun, Horstman and Agrait then teamed to take first in the long jump relay at 53-11.75.

Finishing in 54.2 seconds was the South Hadley girls 3x100 shuttle hurdle squad of Melanie DeMakis, Hope Werenski and Julia LaMontagne. Also coming in first was the 4x200 team of Kim Ashwood, Anna Sullivan, Hannah Spring and Brianna Tabin at 1:50.8.

The Holyoke Catholic girls long jump relay team of Jenn Cardinal, Alisha Ciolek and Katy O'Hara combined to jump 43-4.25 to finish first.

Frontier Regional's Tilly Taylor, Cara D'Antonio and Jill Haas won the javelin throw relay at a total of 302-9.

The Amherst Regional boys 4x200 relay squad ran a winning time of 1:35.5.