Results Courtesy of Lancer Timing
Girls
Boys
Field Event Pics
The 2022 Division 1 Championship meet was intense, electrifying, and incredibly fun to watch on both the Girl’s and Boy’s side of things. Incredible performances were on display all afternoon and into the night, and after yet another sorely missed Indoor Track season you could really see that all the athletes that qualified for this meet were ready to showcase their talent and put their teams in the best position stack up points. Big props to Salem High School for doing a great job hosting the meet, and for providing a very fast track! Here’s a recap of the meet.
For the first hour of the meet, it was all field events and the energy was palpable right from the start.
In the Girl’s Long Jump, big jumps were on the menu as Molly O’Donnell from Alvirne leapt almost exactly a foot longer than her seed performance for a monster 17’8.25”. She was closely shadowed by Portsmouth’s Mariam Nada with a similar PR improvement jump of 17’7” and Rachel Poulin of Exeter rounded out the top three with a jump of 17’2.75”. This particular performance was huge as Poulin’s teammate Sydney Lavelle failed to make the final as the pre-meet favorite with a seed performance of 18’8”. Exeter, along with Concord, Nashua North and Pinkerton was a potential title contender heading into this meet, and the loss of an almost certain 10 points was a tough hit to take. Close behind in 4th was Ayva Mullen of Concord (17’2.25), 5th was Merrimack’s Kailey Dillon (16’10.25”) and in 6th Madison Connors of Pinkerton (16’7.5”). This early event had potential major ramifications and there was still so much meet left!
In the Girl’s Discus, Briana Danis from Pinkerton displayed the same dominance over the field as she had all season with a big throw of
134’10” for the win in that event. No one was surprised the real chase was for 2nd place, but Nashua North’s Madelyn Novak threw a stunning 124’10” that had the crowd oohing and ahhing to lock up that 2 spot. Portsmouth’s Maria Akalonu also threw a 7 foot PR 99’4” for 3rd place. Londonderry’s Phoebe Bartlett (98’1”) was 4th, North’s Natalie Burgess (97’7”) was 5th and Troia Milotte (96’11”) of Keene came in 6th.
The Girl’s High Jump had some high drama as well, as 6th seed Olivia Mazerolle from Nashua North jumped a season best 5’2” to win that event. Pinkerton’s Jordan Wheaton also jumped 5’2” but was second due to the number of misses at that final height. Molly O’Donnell from Alvirne was a 5’2 jumper on the day as well, but again a higher number of misses at 5 feet led to a 3rd place finish. Concord’s Kelley Mikelson (5’0”) and Zoe Arakelian (5’0”) from Portsmouth tied for 4th and split those points. Merrimack’s Kailey Dillon (5’0”) was the 6th place finisher. This was a big event for teams in the title hunt, and without a scorer in the event Exeter must have been feeling the heat.
Switching over to the boy’s side for a bit, during this first hour of the meet the boy’s team title chase was on as well!
In the Boy’s Triple Jump, Nashua North was looking for big points to join Portsmouth, Pinkerton and Londonderry as the favorites to claim a title. They got points all right, with Jack Sullivan winning the first of his three jumping events with a jump of 41’6” to beat out the field easily. Concord’s Luke Champney was 2nd with a 40’6.25” jump, and Donovan Gannon from Londonderry claimed 3rd place with a 40’6” performance. Helping North rack up early points were Sullivan’s teammates Preston Thompson (4th, 40’1”) and Ethan Preston-Teixeira (5th 39’3.5”). Keene’s Nicholas Dumond’s jump of 38’10.25” was good enough for 6th.
The Boy’s Pole Vault had Merrimack’s Samuel Epstein as the clear favorite as the top D1 vaulter all season, and he did not disappoint with a 1st place vault of 12’0”. Hometown hero Nicholas Ruston of Salem earned 2nd place with 11’0”, and Winnacunnet’s Wyatt Paterson was 3rd with a 10’6” performance. Nashua North’s Aedan Pickett cleared 10’0” for 4th place. Michael Lee of Spaulding and Portsmouth’s Cole McLaughlin tied for 5th place with 9’6” and split those points.
The Boy’s Javelin looked more wide open than expected with a top thrower electing to do other events at the meet. Always a tough
event to predict, the javelin Gods cared not for seeds as Nashua South’s Eden Damis tossed a season best 149’8” to win the event on his second to last throw in Finals. Also with a seasonal best was surprise 2nd place finisher Ben McFarland with a 147’11”. Aiden Kelley of Central earned 3rd place with a 146’5” performance. Portsmouth’s Jason Yeaton (143’7”) was 4th, Bedford’s Alexander Grudinskas (141’3”) was 5th, and Michael Sampson (138’4”) of Londonderry was 6th. Portsmouth picked up some surprise points in this event especially since they removed their 158’ seeded thrower at the seeding meeting. What were they thinking?
How exciting can the shot put be, right? Extremely exciting!!! The Boy’s Shot was getting the crowd going early with great performances. Top seed Toby Brown for Nashua North threw an incredible 52’0.25” on his first throw of the day to take the win. In a massive upset, Portsmouth’s Dylan Palermo bombed a 2.5 foot PR 47’0.75” to take 2nd place and help bank points for his team. Jack Washam of North added big points to his team’s chances by placing 3rd with a throw of 45’1”. Right behind in 4th with a monster PR was Alvirne’s Alvin Thumi (45.0.25”). Exeter’s Matthew Cronin (43’11”) was 5th and Pinkerton’s George Nigro III (42’11.5”) earned 6th.
All this happened in the first hour or so of the meet! Let’s turn to the track as those events started to share the stage with field events.
The Girl’s 4×800 finish was one of the closest races of the day as Concord edged out Bishop Guertin 9:49.72 to 9:48.74 in a battle fought every step of the way. Winnacunnet was very close behind in 3rd with 9:51.13 and Alvirne (9:58.10), Bedford (9:59.77) and Pinkerton (10:02.11) took the 4-5-6 spots.
The Boy’s 4×800 was also a great race with several lead changes throughout but Londonderry (8:11.71) had just too much for Exeter (8:14.01) and added big points in the team title hunt by taking 1st to Exeter’s 2nd place. Bishop Guertin (8:23.39), Bedford (8:29.30), Nashua South (8:31.55) and Pinkerton (8:36.17) took 3-4-5-6 in that order.
In the Boy’s 110 Hurdle Prelims the usual suspects of Bryce Foster (Memorial), Ian Ripperger (Portsmouth), Christopher Chong
(Bedford), David Jaques (Salem), Calvin Duffy (Winnacunnet), Samuel Epstein (Merrimack), JJ Powers (Bedford), and Londonderry’s Colby Ramshaw all made the Finals. More on that later!
In the Girl’s 100 Hurdles, the Prelims set the stage for the Jordan Wheaton (Pinkerton) and Sydney Lavelle (Exeter) matchup everyone was waiting for. Joining those top 2 seeds were Emily Plante (Salem), Petrina Ofori (Alvirne), Morgan Doherty (Concord), Anika Scott (Bedford), Grace O’Dell, Bedford, and Caroline Weeks (Portsmouth). A lot of team title implications in these Finals!
The Boy’s 100 Prelims set the stage for team title intrigue as well. After a very tough false start DQ from Sam Street of Londonderry, the following boys made it to finals with the top 5 of them under 11.2; that’s fast! Jacob Spezzaferri (Pinkerton), Chris Stevens (Keene), Ahmed Nada (Portsmouth), Aiden McDonald (Salem), AJ Sebastian (Memorial), Quinn Marino and his Concord teammate Jacque Tunguru and Russell Ledger (Bedford)
The Girl’s 100 Prelims showcased some very fast times with Alexis Best (Merrimack), Soraya Ross (Nashua South), Grace Kunysz (Exeter), Jhanelle Thomas (Nashua North), Iyana Braswell (Nashua South), Eva Roberts (Pinkerton), Anna Kunysz (Exeter) and Rosalinda Tavarez (Nashua North). It took a sub 12.85 to make the Finals; that is a fast field!
After a short break in the meet, the Finals competitors returned to the track to try to score points for their team. Unlike the field events, only each athlete’s performances in the Finals counts when determining scoring.
As promised, the girl’s 100 Hurdle Final was an epic showdown as Pinkerton’s Wheaton (14.84) just edged out Exeter’s Lavallee (14.93) for 1st place in a blistering race that came down to the last few steps. Emily Plante (Salem, 15.70) finished comfortably in 3rd followed by Scott (Bedford, 16.18), Ofori (Alvirne, 16.29) and Doherty (Concord, 16.31) in the 4-5-6 spots.
In the Boy’s 110 Hurdle Final, Memorial’s Foster established a comfortable lead (for the high hurdles anyway) and continued his string
of excellent races this season by winning in a time of 15.41. Ripperger of Portsmouth (15.52) capitalized on a late race hurdle hit from Bedford’s Chong (15.54) to lean to a very tight 2nd place to Chong’s 3rd. Bunched together in the 4-5-6 scoring positions were Duffy (Winnacunnet, 15.94), Londonderry’s Ramshaw (16.03) and Jaques (Salem,16.03).
The Girl’s 100 Finals got the crowd on its feet as Nashua South’s Ross overcame a tough block start to lay down a stunning new Division 1 record 12.19 for the “easy” win. Fellow sophomore Best (2nd, Merrimack, 12.37) and Kunysz (3rd, Exeter 12.42) had a close contest for the next two spots. Thomas (Nashua North, 12.50), Braswell (Nashua South, 12.57) and Roberts (Pinkerton, 12.63) kept their order from the Prelims finishing 4-5-6.
At the completion of the Boy’s 100 Final, the top four competitors were separated by only nine hundredths of a second and the outcome was uncertain until the last few steps of the race! Portsmouth’s Ahmed Nada cruised to a PR 11.01 just a half-step ahead of Jacob Spezzaferri of Pinkerton in 11.06 who earned 2nd place. Hometown crowd favorite Aiden McDonald of Salem was just behind in 3rd with 11.08. Chris Stevens (4th, Keene, 11.10), AJ Sebastian (5th , Memorial 11.22) and Quinn Marino of Concord (6th, 11.27) all turned in excellent performances as well.
These Girls and Boys 100 Finals may well have started a chain reaction in the team title race that had repercussions through the rest of the meet.
In the Girl’s 1600, Bishop Guertin’s Fiona Doherty powered her way to a strong victory with a 5:08.92. Comfortably in 2nd was Dantia Braccio of Nashua North with a time of 5:14.76. Tightly bunched for the next 4 spots were Hannah Shepard (Keene, 5:23.75), Isabel McIntyre (Dover, 5:23.75), Alison McFarland (Exeter, 5:24.09) and Reagan Hoy of Keene with 5:27.17.
The Boy’s 1600 shaped up to be a two-man race early on but with a very nice sub 60 second last lap Keene’s Torin Kindopp took home the title with a 4:16.74 to 2nd place’s Sam Hilts of Concord (4:18.67). Concord teammate John Murphy finished in 3rd with 4:24.53 and Luke Brennan (Pinkerton, 4:34.59), Nicholas Marcotte (Alvirne, 4:35.53) and Tyler LaVallee (Memorial,4:36.83) captured the 4-5-6 spots.
The Girl’s 4×100 had it’s share of turmoil with 2 teams DNF and another with a DQ but in terms of scoring, the top 2 teams were
fairly evenly matched until Nashua South’s open 100m champion Ross got moving to help her team to victory with a new Division 1 record of 49.29! Close behind in 2nd was Merrimack with a very fast 49.65, followed by two pairs of evenly matched teams: Exeter (3rd, 50.23), Central (4th 50.66), Portsmouth (5th, 51.50) and Concord (6th, 51.54)
In the Boy’s 4×100, handoffs and lead changes were all over the map, but pulling away in the last 20 meters was Portsmouth’s 100m champion Ahmed Nada to seal his team’s victory in the event with a time of 43.83. Close behind in 2nd was Londonderry with a 43.98. Concord (3rd, 44.06), Pinkerton (4th, 44.37), Keene (5th, 44.96) and Bedford (6th 45.10) filled out the rest of the scoring teams.
This year’s Girl’s 400 saw only one competitor dip under the 60 second barrier but in this meet, place is more important than time. Harriet Barber of Central finished with a comfortable lead over the field to capture the title in 59.32. The remaining scorers were tightly bunched as Clara Knab (2nd, Exeter, 1:00.97), Samantha Ducharme (3rd, Bedford, 1:01.09), Jhanelle Thomas (4th, Nashua North, 1:01.20), Meadow Gregory (5th, Exeter, 1:01.39) and Chloe Gudas (6th, Concord, 1:02.04) rounded out the scoring. Nashua North, Exeter, and Concord seemed to be separating themselves as title favorites at this point and all three teams continue to have opportunities to affect outcomes by being in many events directly matched up against each other
The Boy’s 400 saw the top three seeds place exactly as seeded with Londonderry’s Sean Clegg leaving no room for doubt who was in charge of this event even after coming off a tough 4×800 earlier. Clegg’s 50.24 was good for a strong win over the field. The last 50m saw significant placing changes as Portsmouth’s Jake Haley finished strong to claim 2nd in 51.48, followed by Keene’s Eric Nolan in 3rd with a 51.78 and Portsmouth’s Michael Schoff nosing under the 52 barrier for 4th place in 51.95. Peyton Saltmarsh (5th, Winnacunnet, 52.21) and Tyler Kraft (6th, Londonderry, 53.07) completed the scoring field.
Moving back to the field events for a moment, significant results and performances continued as races were ongoing.
In the Boy’s Discus, Alvirne’s Alvin Thumi stunned the field and the crowd with a 138’10” throw to take 1st in the event. This was almost 30 feet further than his seed performance! Nashua
North’s Jack Washam was a close 2nd with a distance of 138’6”, and Concord’s Sam Foulds continued his late season excellence with a 132’9” throw good for 3rd. Toby Brown of Nashua North was 4th with a toss of 131’8”, and Portsmouth’s Noah Donovan threw a 16 foot PR 127’1” to grab 5th. Nashua North was all over this event with the only freshman in the event Daruis Smith earning 6th with a throw of 126’10”.
In the Boy’s Long Jump, Nashua North continued to dominate the field events with Jack Sullivan jumping 21’5.5” for the win. Dover’s Brady McInnes popped a big 21’2.5” leap to earn 2nd place. Londonderry’s Colby Ramshaw (3rd) and Nashua South’s Sami Witta (4th) both had a best jump of 20’9.25” but in horizontal jumps (and throwing events as well) ties are broken by comparing athletes’ second-best performance on the day. Concord’s Luke Champney (20’0.75”) earned a 5th place and Dover’s Dylan Jabre (19’9.5”) was the 6th place finisher.
T
he High Jump is a tough event to do and to predict, and both concepts were on display on the Boy’s side Friday night. Andrew Kullman of Londonderry jumped 6’2” cleanly on his first attempt at that height and that was the difference between his 1st place finish and Nashua South’s Witta (2nd, also 6’2”) and Spaulding’s Paul Butler (3rd, also also 6’2”). Adam Lacroix of Bedford was 4th with 6’0”, and Winnacunnet’s Duffy and Memorial’s Foster tied (same number and sequence of attempts) for 5th place with jumps of 5’8”.
In the Girl’s Triple Jump, Concord put on an absolute clinic with Mullen taking 1st with a jump of 36’0.5”. Best of Merrimack was 2nd with a 33’11.75” performance, and Concord’s Goulas (33’9.75”) and Kelley Mikelson (33’8.75”) took 3rd and 4th respectively to add to Concord’s big point total in that event. Pinkerton’s Madison Connors was 5th with 33’7.5”, and in 6th Lilly Farrell jumped 33’0”.
The Girl’s Pole Vault saw Exeter’s Erin Eastwood clear every attempt cleanly up through 10’0” to wrap up 1st place. Kendall Barton of
Concord cleared 9’6” for an uncontested 2nd place, and both Londonderry’s Marline Fitzgerald (3rd) and Pinkerton’s Jillian Severance (4th) made 8’6”. Londonderry teammates Ava Ruppel (8’0”) and Aliviyah Awad (7’6”) took 5th and 6th respectively.
In the Girl’s Javelin, Nashua North’s Novak continued her big field event day with a 1st place throw of 119’8”, over 11 feet further than the next best competitor. In 2nd was Portsmouth’s Margaret Montplaisir throwing 108’6”. Jezzelle Josef of Bedford threw 107’11” for 3rd, and Exeter’s Rachel Poulin was 4th with a 106’8” toss. Marissa Parshley of Bishop Guertin (5th, 102’10”) and Kayla Franks of Pinkerton (6th, 102’9”) rounded out the scoring.
In the Girl’s Shot put Nashua North’s Novak had no trouble navigating and performing beautifully in all three throws on the day. Her shot put throw of 36’3.75” was good for 1st, and locked in an incredible 28 points for her team. Hometown thrower Bella Colizzi of Salem threw an incredible 36’0.25” 3+ foot PR to take 2nd. Pinkerton’s Briana Danis was 3rd with a throw of 35’6”, and right behind he was Nashua North’s Natalie Burgess in 4th with a 34’10.25” throw. Another Salem thrower got in on the scoring with Abigail Ahlers (5th, 32’0.5”) and Exeter’s Runa Kersten-Guiler was 6th with a throw of 31’0”.
Switching back to the track, in the Girl’s 300 Hurdles Exeter’s Lavelle scored some much-needed team points by taking 1st in 44.96. Kailey Dillon of Merrimack took 2nd in 46.43 and Wheaton of Pinkerton was 3rd in 47.45. Nashua North’s Isabella Di Vernieri (4th, 48.43), Morgan Doherty of Concord (5th, 48.48) and Nashua North’s Mazerolle (6th, 48.5) all were tightly bunched at the finish.
In the Boy’s 300 hurdles, the outcome looked in doubt late in the race as prohibitive favorite Nate Fletcher from Portsmouth was a few spots back with 100m to go. But Fletcher quickly turned on the jets and convincingly took 1st with a very fast 38.74. Alvirne’s Jack Ashworth ran a very nice PR 40.23 to take 2nd, and Rory Olson ran a 40.40 to earn 3rd. Ripperger helped add to Portsmouth’s growing team lead with a 4th place in 41.12. Liam Glodgett (5th, Keene, 41.66) and Memorial’s Foster (6th, 41.98) rounded out the scoring.
The Girl’s 800 winner never looked to be in doubt as Bedford’s Fiona Lee ran away from the field with a powerful 2:18.24
performance. Kylee Quinlan of Winnacunnet came in 2nd with a 2:21.30, and Nashua North’s Braccio was 3rd with a time of 2:23.96. Very closely bunched in the 4-5-6 spots were Alvirne’s Paige Boudreau (2:25.29), Isabel McIntyre of Dover (2:26.69) and Hannah Shepard of Keene (2:26.88).
Perhaps the closest race of the night was not one of the sprinting events, but the Boy’s 800! Keene’s Kindopp and Dover’s Jeremiah Payeur separated themselves from the pack after lap one, both laying down final laps of 56-57 seconds! 0.01 seconds separated these two in the end with Kindopp taking the victory 1:55.68 to Payeur’s 1:55.69. Concord’s Murphy took 3rd with a 1:57.46, and Jacob Redman of Bedford was 4th in 1:58.81. Alvirne’s John Crawford (2:00.87) and Londonderry’s Clegg (2:01.82) took 5th and 6th respectfully.
In the Girl’s 200, the field didn’t make it easy for her but Nashua South’s Ross took the event with a 25.79 1st place finish to add to her other winning performances on the day. Central’s Barber was 2nd in a very fast 25.92, and Best was right behind her in 3rd running 25.95. Portsmouth’s Jenkins took 4th with a time of 26.07, and Nashua North’s Thomas (26.12) and Grace Kunysz (26.20) took 5th and 6th .
Earlier in this piece we asked the question; why would anyone remove a #2 seed in the Javelin from competition? So he could win the 200 of course! Fletcher (fresh off his 300 hurdle win) took the 200 as well with a dominating 21.99 performance and helping Portsmouth literally and figuratively run away with the meet. Hometown star McDonald of Salem took 2nd with a 22.32 and Pinkerton’s Spezzaferri was close behind him in 3rd with a time of 22.35. Chris Stevens of Keene (22.71), Alvirne’s Jack Ashworth (22.94), and Anthony Amaro (23.01) from Londonderry took the 4-5-6 spots.
In the Girl’s 3200, Concord got 18 much needed points by finishing 1-2 with Shelly Smith (11:36.91) and Katherine Kennedy (11:45.96) leading the way. There was a close battle for the next spot between Contessa Silva of Pinkerton (3rd, 11:51.61) and Mary-Kate Finn of Bishop Guertin (4th, 11:52.04). Pinkerton’s Isabella Groulx was 5th with a time of 11:57.86, and Exeter’s Alison McFarland (6th, 12:00.05) provided a potentially important point for her squad.
The Boy’s 3200 had Tyler Sheedy of Dover winning pretty much wire to wire in an impressive time of 9:24.36. Concord’s Hilts put the
pressure on late however with a good kick to earn 2nd in 9:27.14. Keene’s Jonathan Hills was 3rd in 9:32.89, Nathaneal Fondakowski of Bishop Guertin was 4th with a 9:39.14, Zachary Hooper from Concord ran 9:39.90 to secure 5th, and Londonderry’s Ryan Fortin was 6th in a time of 9:42.56.
In the final event of the day, Exeter girls needed a big win and some help from other teams and they got both. Running a season best 4:07.08 the Exeter girls battled very good Pinkerton (2nd, 4:08.23) and Concord (3rd, 4:08.80) and edged out Concord for the team title by half of a point. Incredible. Bedford (4th, 4:13.18), Portsmouth (5th, 4:15.63), and Nashua North (4:15.90) took the remaining places.
By the time the meet got to the Boy’s 4×400, the meet was already decided, Portsmouth was way out in front in the team title chase and mathematically could not be caught. Good time to relax and coast to a team victory, right? Not in the cards as Portsmouth loaded up and won the event with a seasonal best 3:27.95. Fletcher yet again stepped up and outkicked Keene’s very talented Kindopp for the 
victory. Keene ran a season best 3:28.46 for a 2nd place finish, followed by another great relay team in Alvirne (3rd, 3:33.62) that pushed the pace all race. Nashua South finished 4th with 3:35.86, Bedford was 5th with 3:36.73, and Manchester Central took 6th with a 3:39.47 performance.
After a tough, tight meet the Girl’s team title was won by Exeter with 75 points. Concord was the runner up with 74.5 points and Nashua North was 3rd overall with 70 points.
On the Boy’s side Portsmouth won by a huge margin, scoring 97.5 points. Nashua North was 2nd overall with 59 points, and Londonderry was 3rd with 57 points.
Great weather, great facility, great performances; this meet had it all. It felt really good to have a “normal” season again, and we think the incredible performances across the board show that the athletes agree. Congrats to everyone!
