Pics soon!
By Mike Smith
Things got off to a fast start and kept cranking up as the goal on everyone’s mind was to throw far, jump high and run fast in an effort to beat the rain predicted for the afternoon. Likely one of the state’s most efficient championship meets,with eighteen teams were hand at the 46th showing there were some outstanding performances including one championship record and more than a few top Division 3 marks.
As announcer for the event I have an interesting view of the meet, both in seeing the actual competition on the track, and being the first person to review the results before I announce them. So considering that, I’m going to take a different take on the recap, as you all can go through the results to see who won. I’m going to highligh
t what I saw and impressed me. If I leave you out, I apologize in advance but am only going to report on what I saw and in the order I saw it.
In the season preview, I stated to keep an eye on the distance boys from Mascenic. I anticipated it would be in the longer events but the boys threw down a very respectable 4×800 time of 8:33.08; more than 11 seconds up on second place. It will be interesting to see what they choose to do at D3s.
Hunter Dupuis (Belmont) is a BEAST! Winning the 100 and 400 (and is returning D3 champ in the 200) along with legs on both the 4×100 and 4×400 teams, he’s got a shot of scoring 40 points at the D3 meet next week.
Fiston Kapongo of Portsmouth Christian is a true competitor. Not the prettiest hurdler, Kapongo is very powerful and runs between the hurdles as good as anyone. His wins in the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles were impressive and scored PCA’s 20 of their 24 points.
Ian Daly can run. Daly, known as an 800 meter specialist, stepped up to the 1600 in a big way. Running from the front, he legged out a 4:28 mile to move to second on the seeding list. It will be interesting to see what he chooses in for next Saturday.
The girls 1600 at the D3 level is solid. Maya Dube of Kearsarge and Liza Corso of PCA waged a solid battle for first with Dube edging out Corzo 5:11.27 to 5:11.99, and 18 seconds better than the rest of the field.
The Belmont boys relay teams can fly. They won the 4×100 by almost a second and the 4×400 by almost ten! These boys should stand a chance against the big boys of the state at MOCs in two weeks.
D3 is ripe with 800 meter talent on the boys side again. Hunter Burns of Kearsarge won this one going out in 57 high and finishing in 63 high for a 2:01 final as the wind began to kick up. Behind him there were fiv
e other guys to go sub 2:10 after a bump and grind first 60 meters or so spitting a number of athletes out the back to fight their way around. Given an elbow free start next week, we could see a number of times below the 2-minute mark.
Girls long jump should be interesting next week at D3s. Wilderness saw the top six jump 14-10 or better (all D3) with Gabby Isabelle of Winnisquam winning with 15′-10″. With a couple more 15 ft jumpers in D3, the long jump should be hotly contested next Saturday.
Emma Wheeler of InterLakes has game. She won the triple jump with a 32-10.5 best, but also finished second in the long jump, 100 hurdles and the 300 hurdles. The only athlete with a better day might be Hunter Dupuis. I’ll refrain from calling her a beast but look out for her next week.
Boys shot was won by one inch. Ethan Pruett of Newfound out threw Joey Fodor of Berlin 41-5.5 to 41-4.5. Pruett also won the Disc with a throw of 123-10 while Fodor sent an event record in the javelin with a monster toss of 189-7.
Kennett girls would win the team competition with 74.5 points, followed by Gilford and InterLakes with 66 and 58 respectively. Belmont boys repeated as champs, winning only their second title in the history of the meet with 71 points. They were followed by InterLakes with 59, and a tie between Kingswood and Kearsarge with 56.
Good luck to all the teams and athletes competing next Saturday at the Divisional meets. The D2 meet is being held at Kennett High School in North Conway, and the D3 meet is being held at Winnisquam High School in Tilton.
