Are you ready? Even with the Nor’easter hitting NH just 6 days prior to the start of the season, are you ready for SPRING??? We at NHTF certainly are gearing up! Over the next week, we will be posting previews from all three divisions. The previews will also include the top returnees for each event, excluding relays. Enjoy!
Girls
Team Competition
Last year, Monadnock won by almost double, 136 points to White Mountains with 73 points. Both teams have lost many of their prime contributors to graduation, so will they be able to bring in enough young talent to replace what they’ve lost? Both teams get the team concept of track and field and one of the two should be in the driver’s seat come end of the season. If t
hey are to be challenged, it will likely come from last year’s #3 and #4 finishers, in either Bow or Campbell. Both these teams have strong histories in track and field and seem to be building back what they’ve had in the past.
Sprints/Hurdles/Jumps
Last season the sprints were ripe with young sprinters. The 100 and 200 were dominated by Dominque Biron of Bow. With Alex Curtis of White Mountains and Jaila Remilard of Winnisquam graduated, Biron’s toughest competition will likely be Claire Russell of Monadnock. Biron also tied the Division record last spring in the high jump and will be a force again this spring.
Distance
In the distance events we should see a nice battle between Alice Riley of Belmont and Joelle Lafreniere of Monadnock as both have shown they are competitors at the longer distances. Toss in Leah Dutkewych of White Mountains and Sadie Lorenz of Monadnock and we could see
some strong performances coming out of D3. Do not to forget Rebecca Velie of Moultonborough in the 800 meters or potentially Anna Harmon of Raymond, who this past indoor season qualified in every event minus the 3000.
Throws
Can Monadnock’s Lydia Randall sweep the Shot and the Discus? She is the top returner for the Shot and 2ndfor the Discus. Marina Baer of Gilford returns in the javelin throw with a 20 ft advantage from last year’s next returnee.
Boys
Team Competition
Last year Kearsarge won the men’s title mostly on the backs of senior athletes Troy Davis (jumps, 28 points), Zack Astle (throws, 24 pts), and Ian Bready (hurdles/relays, 16 pts.) With wins in the 4×100 and 4×800, 2016 was Kearsarge’s year. 2017 is poised for another team to come in and wrestle the title away from the previously senior laden Cougars. Hopkinton would seem the likely contender as last year’s runnerup, but graduation took its toll on the Hawks as well. If another team is going to sneak in there and take it, it will probably be the Red Raiders of Belmont.
Sprints/Hurdles
Tyler Sands of Conant comes in as the top returner in both the 100 and 200 meters as well as a threat in the high jump. Sands is a tremendous competitor and we’ll see if his focus can net him a state championships in one of the events as a senior.
In the hurdles, Belmont has a pair of hurdlers looking to stamp their names in the record books. Ian Remenar and Eli Allman are two of the top returners along with Hudson Ingoldsby of Prospect Mountain and Mark Marasca of Epping.
Distance
It seems the distance events will be dominated by mid-distance studs in Jeffrey Allen, James Elmour and Tyler McLaughlin with support from the true distance hounds Jake Movsessian and Simon Doneski. We’ll have to see what the spring brings as indoors had 4 D3 guys in the 1500 and 5 D3 guys in the 3000.
Here at NHTF, we love stats, and we can’t wait for the season to start to get
some more data. So we took a look at last year’s divisional meets and thought we would score them without the seniors. Now the numbers are a great baseline, but do not account for everything; they don’t even include any relays. On top of that, you still need to account for injuries, DQ’s, transfers, people trying new events, improvements, freshmen, events that aren’t filled up, and so much more. Some events that could have the biggest impact on scoring from seniors leaving are the girls 400, High Jump, Pole Vault, Long Jump, and Triple Jump. Boys also saw a large exit in the 100 (only 3 returning from the state meet).
D3 Girls Top 6 Returnees Per Event
D3 Boys Top 6 Returnees Per Event
