Lincoln East athletics have soared the past two years, with multiple sports finishing first or second in their respective state championship. Because of this, East has won the NSAA cup all-class division in back to back years, and completely swept the board in the 2022-2023 school year, winning the all-class and girls and boys division with 850 points, leaving the runner up Westside with 742.5 points.
The NSAA cup system awards schools different points based on their teams’ finish at the state tournament in each sport and NSAA activity. There is an all-class award, which combines girls and boys team points, as well as girls team awards and boys. In the 2022-2023 school year, the Spartans won state baseball, girls cross country, boys tennis, and speech. The boys teams had a second place finish in wrestling, and a third place finish in track and swimming. The girls teams finished second in golf, third in soccer and track, and tied for third in tennis, all scoring points towards the NSAA cup victory.
Mallorie Meyer is a senior at East, but spent her first three years of high school at Norris. Meyer is committed to the University of Pittsburgh, which is Division I.
“I wanted a different experience for my senior year,” Meyer said. “I knew a couple of girls on the (volleyball) team, and I was excited to get to play with them my senior year.”
Meyer will play her senior year of volleyball at East under head coach Nicole Gingery, and for a Class A team.
“I knew Coach Ging (Gingery) beforehand,” Meyer said. “She was a super supportive coach at my club, VCN. I also knew that switching to Class A would be a higher level of competition and experience.”
Yakub Islamov, a senior on the boys tennis team, attested the Spartans’ success to the hard work put in across every sport.
“Sure, we won the NSAA cup because we’re good,” Islamov said. “But we also put in all of the time and effort consistently, across the board every single day and we don’t take breaks. All of our (tennis) team also practices outside of school, and that’s what separates us from everybody.”
Islamov spoke highly of all the coaches in the East athletics program, and what it means to him to represent East.
“Being a Spartan means being a part of a family, because we’re all treated like family,” Islamov said. “The coaches love and support you. Sure, you’re going to be pushed to your limits, and it might suck, but you’ll realize throughout the course of your season, it’s worth it in the end because it feels so good winning conference or districts, even winning state, and eventually the NSAA cup.”
