Pics – Thanks Dave!
By Nate Leveille Exeter
It was a hot and windy day at Exeter High School on Friday for the 10th Annual Seacoast Championships. Those conditions turned out to be ideal for the sprinters with blistering times in the 100 and 200 meter dashes. The nice thing about the Seacoast meet is the level of competition among the teams. Each team wants to win the meet and the coaches generally enter athletes in multiple events and try to take home the team title.
On the girls’ side, Exeter High School (103 points) used a balance attack between the jumps, sprints, throws, and distance to outpace runner-up and defending champion Oyster River (88 points).
The meets outstanding runner on the track was Exeter’s Ellie Johnston, who swept the hurdle races winning the 100 hurdles in 15.86 and 300 hurdles in 48.76. The outstanding field performer of the meet went to Coe-Brown thrower Kathleen Collins, who won the Discus (125’8”), placed 4th in the shot put (33’0”), and 4th in the javelin (93’0”). The Oyster River sprinting crew put on a show in the 100, 200 and 400 meter races. Led by double winner Xiana Twombly in the 100 and the 200, they amassed 57 of their 88 points in those three events, peaking with a 1-2-3-4 in the 200 meter dash.
The boys team race figured to be tight between host school Exeter High School, Coe-Brown, Portsmouth, and Winnacunnet. It lived
up to the hype with Coe-Brown taking home their first ever Seacoast team title with 120.5 points comfortably ahead of runner-up Exeter (105.5). Coe-Brown, similar to the Exeter girls, relied on its balance to win the meet scoring in every event except the 100, 200, and long jump.
The outstanding performer of the meet was none other than Billy Powers of Winnacunnet. Powers completed one of the more difficult and rarely seen quads of the meet. He rolled to victory in the 110 meter hurdles in 14.10, used a late charge to take victory in the 400 meter in 50.66, came back after a short break for victory in the 300 meter hurdle in 40.93, and anchored the 4×400 meter relay to a runner- up finish.
In a tight race for field performer of the meet, Zachary Adams of Exeter just outscored Isaiah Allen of Coe-Brown. Allen won the javelin and finished 3rd in the Shot put. Adams, a well polished decathlete had to decide which four events he would even compete in. He finished second in the long jump 20’11”, triple jump 40’5”, and the surprising pole vault 11;1″, while tying for 6th in the high jump at 5’9”. That’s a lot of jumps! On the track Phillip Antonio of Winnacunnet set the tone for the meet with a blistering 10.79 in the 100 meters. Yes it was windy, but he put D1 on notice. Antonio also won the long jump with a leap of 21’8”. Patrick O’Brien of Oyster River had one of the more impressive performances of the day, winning the 1600 in a time of 4:22.
As the meet director, I want to thank all the teams that attended and competed. We are looking forward to an even bigger and better meet next year.
