Wilderness Meet Hub – For meet information, records, pics, interviews, full broadcast
By Mike Smith, Mascenic
With spring finally fully upon us, the championship racing is heating up and one of those places the competition will be hot is in Gilford at the Wilderness Championships. Being one of the mainstays for the Lakes region for the past 44 years, the Wilderness meet sees some of the top action by Division 2 and 3 schools as they tune up for the Division championships.
On the girl’s side, look for Kennett to try to fend off assaults from White Mountains and Inter-Lakes as each team has events where they look to win some solid points. The Inter-Lakes crew is strong in the jumps, White Mountains in the distance events and discus and Kennett has points likely coming in from a myriad of events, giving them a slight advantage.
There are some strong individual performances to watch as well. In the sprints, Plymouth’s Jordan Meier has almost a one second lead on paper. In the 400, the Gilford trio of Lauren Dean, Natalie Fraser and Briana Fraser are all seeded in the top four. In the 800 and 1600, White Mountains has two in the top eight out of the crew of Payton Giles, Hallie Chancey and Leah Dutkewych. In the 3200, Alice Riley of Belmont is a 30 second seed time over the rest of the field.
In the field events, the highlight should be Gilford’s Marina Baer in the javelin throw with almost a 25 foot advantage over the rest of the field. Discus looks as if it could be a White Mountain affair, with Shanyce Wungkana, Grace Gensamer and Sadie Bushway in the top four. Pole vault could go that way for Kennett, with Eva Drummond, Danielle Solomon and Nadia Vandyne all tied for first seed. Inter-Lakes has three entries in the long jump, Emma Wheeler, Kaitlyn Gable and Makenna Edgar sitting in the 3-4-5 slots.
In relays, Gilford is the top seed in the 4×100, Kingswood in the 4×400, and Kennett in the 4×800, 22 seconds better than the rest of the field.
On the men’s side, it looks as if it could be a battle between D3 contenders Kearsarge and Belmont. Kearsarge is looking to pick up points all over the schedule, where Belmont has their points more concentrated in particular events, like the hurdles. Also looking to challenge the top spot would be Kennett, Plymouth and Kingswood.
In the individual events, Kingswood has three in the hundred, Tucker Gosselin, Denver Bourgault and Nick Baston. The 800 could be a wild one, with 9 seconds separating the top eighteen guys in the first heat and a bunch of guys looking at that elusive 2:00 time barrier. The 1600 should be similar, with many guys stepping down to work on their speed and the top six spread only being 5 seconds. In both hurdle events, Belmont has both the top seed and two in the top four in Eli Allman and Ian Remenar.
In field events, long jump looks to be the biggest question. The top four seeds, Giovanni Lemon of Franklin, Ben Zhuang of PCA, Chris Caputo of Kennett and Eli Dupigny of I-L have all eclipsed the 19-foot mark. The triple looks to be competitive as well, with five having eclipsed the 40 foot mark. Kearsarge looks to clean house in the pole vault with five of the eight entries in the event.
In the relays, Belmont has the top seed in the 4×100 and 4×400, with Inter-lakes tops in the 4×800, where the top five seeds are within 5 seconds of each other.
