Track star heads to Stonehill
Mount senior will compete in pentathlon, heptathlon
MSC’s Fitzpatrick is standout hurdler, jumper
WOONSOCKET — Paige Fitzpatrick’s first love growing up was competitive dance.
And she was good at it, as she helped Express Dance and Acrobatics of Milford win national titles thanks to her ability in acrobatic dance.
But the Mount St. Charles senior found a new love sophomore year when she was persuaded to join the school’s indoor track team. Thanks to her acrobatic background, Fitzpatrick quickly became one of the state’s best hurdlers and long jumpers.
After qualifying for the 2016 state meet as a hurdling neophyte, Fitzpatrick qualified for New Englands last season. The three-sport standout will continue her track career in college after to enroll at Northeast-10 powerhouse Stonehill College in the fall.
“It’s a really high level, so I’m hoping to hold my own and compete at my very best,” Fitzpatrick said Tuesday afternoon at Mount.
“Paige is a great kid,” Mount indoor track coach Paul Jacques said. “She’s down to earth and a very knowledgeable individual who is always looking to please the coaches, but she’s a very strong individual. All of the kids love her. She was a captain this year and she did very well in her leadership role.”
Fitzpatrick, who grew up playing soccer and basketball, but “I was never very serious about it,” started doing acrobatic, jazz, ballet and contemporary dance at Express when she was six. When she enrolled at Mount in the fall of 2014, Fitzpatrick joined Josh D’Abate’s very successful volleyball team and went on to lead the Mounties to back-to-back Division I semifinals in her sophomore and junior campaigns as a middle hitter.
Jacques, who taught Fitzpatrick at Stacy Middle School in Milford, persuaded her to join the indoor track team because of the success Fitzpatrick’s older sister, Jenna, had five years ago. Fitzpatrick brilliantly balanced her time on the team with her time in the dance studio while also focusing on her studies.
“I kind of fell into track a little bit my sophomore year,” Fitzpatrick said. “I didn’t even do outdoor until my junior year. Freshman year dance was my whole life and playing volleyball was also spreading me too thin. I joined and it was even more than what I expected – I loved it immediately.”
Last year, Fitzpatrick finished sixth in the 55-meter hurdles at the state meet in a time of 9.18 seconds to reach New Englands. She also competed in the long jump, but struggled to a 17thplace finish.
Stonehill is banking on Fitzpatrick’s versatility. The Mountie indicated the Skyhawks want her to compete in the pentathlon indoors and the heptathlon outdoors.
The long jump and the 60-meter hurdles are events Fitzpatrick will excel at next season, but she’s excited to improve in the high jump, shot put and the 800-meter run. The heptathlon features four of the same events, but the hurdles go from 60 meters to 100, along with the addition of the javelin and 200-meter dash.
“They are new events to me, but I’m looking forward to doing them,” said Fitzpatrick, who also considered Quinnipiac, Merrimack and Emmanuel. “I’ve never run the 800 before but I’m on the 4x400 relay team indoors and I’ve run it once outside. I’m around 65 [seconds] on the relay team.”
Stonehill is the premier women’s indoor track team in the NE-10 after winning its fifth straight title on Feb. 18 in Northampton, Mass. The Skyhawks defeated second-place Southern Connecticut State, 165-118.
Fitzpatrick said she was drawn to the Easton, Mass. school because of its strong communications program. The senior is also interested in Stonehill’s internship and study-abroad programs.
“She’s a very athletic individual and a very hard worker,” Jacques said. “From volleyball and from dance and coaching her older sister, Jenna, the whole family is sports related. Her two older brothers played basketball at Milford High School. She’s developed so much since sophomore year working with [hurdles and jumps] coach Evan Dihop. Her growth to now has been phenomenal.”
Fitzpatrick’s focus on track means her dance career is coming to an end. A day after competing at the state meet, she competed with Express in Concord, N.H. Next weekend she will be in Methuen, Mass. and her final event will be in Wildwood, N.J. in July.
“I was always serious about dance growing up, but this is the end of my career,” Fitzpatrick said.
The senior has one more season of track as a Mountie before she begins the next phase of her life as a Skyhawk.