By Mike Smith
Girls
Returning Champions
100 Emma Winslow Belmont
400 Brady Ash * D2
800 Brianna Malone PCA Patrick Gandini Gilford
1600 Patrick Gandini Gilford
3200 Brianna Malone PCA Patrick Gandini Gilford
100H Maddox Lovely Newport
300H Maddox Lovely Newport Jack Lorenz Monadnock
HJ Kaitlin Bussell Newmarket Ben Sawyer Conant
PV Taylor Mooney Newfound Dalton Dion Newfound
LJ Ava Houle Campbell Ben Sawyer Conant
TJ Grace Hall Hopkinton
JAV Malina Bohlmann Newfound Kyle Ashley Newport
Sprints
Emma Winslow of Belmont is the returning champion in the 100 and as the top D3 finisher in the 55 indoors it wouldn’t be wise to bet against her. Elle MacDonald of Newfound, Anya Fillipov of Sunapee and Isabella Bovell of Stevens all ran under 13.50 last year along with Newmarket’s Kaitlin Bussell who finished 7th in the 55 in February make up the crew to watch in the 100.
Winslow is your top returner in the 200 with Campbell’s Ava Houle, MacDonald, Bovell from Stevens all scoring last year. Toss in the top D3 finisher in the 300 in Newmarket’s Holly Fermon and Newport’s Maddox Lovely and you’ve got a strong field in the 200.
Mid Distance
Top returner in the 400 is Hopkinton’s Reese Bove followed by Newmarket teammates Fermon and Alanna Hagen, all under the 65 second barrier. But Hagen has been running up in distance which might leave room for some long sprinters or short distance runners.
Sanborn will be back in D3 bringing Lily Tedford with her 1:02.71 into contention as well. Mascenic’s Kaitlin O’Shea has shown some range during the indoor season and let’s not forget that PCA’s Brianna Malone likes to dabble in a bit of everything and was the top seed in everything from the 300 to the 3000 this past February.
Malone is the returning champ in the 800 with Kearsarge’s Molly Ellison the only other returner under 2:25. Newmarket’s Allison Burke was the top D3 athlete in the 600 with Ellie Wimer of Kearsarge under the 1:50 mark. Toss in O’Shea and Hagen and the competition in the 800 should be strong.
Distance
After reviewing the mid distance events it only makes sense to recognize that Malone can have her way in pretty much any distance event she wants. The top returner in the 1600 is Hagen with Conant’s Kylie Aho and Hopkinton’s Hannah Bennett also having scored 
in 2022. Looking at the 1500 this winter it would make sense to add Aho’s teammate Amelia Hill, and Mascenic teammates Emma Schaumloffel and Erin O’Shea as they were scorers two months ago.
In the 3200, Malone is the returning champion, with Monadnock’s Alyssa Hall and Moultonborough’s Adah Chapman all under 12:40. Ellison was the top D3 runner in the 3000 this February with Schaumloffel finishing fifth.
Hurdles
Newport’s Lovely is the returning champion in the 100 hurdles along with the top D3 runner in the 55 hurdles. Watch out for Newmarket’s Bussell who finished 5th last year but 2nd D3 runner in the 55 Hurdles. Newfound’s Molly Lu McKellar finished 2nd last year and was the only one besides Lovely below 17 seconds in the final.
Lovely is the top returner in the 300 hurdles, ahead of Newfound’s Stacia Paul and Winnisquam’s Victoria Kelly and PCA’s Sierra Lignos as the qualifiers from last year under 53 seconds.
Jumps
The top contenders in the high jump are names I’ve already mentioned, Newmarket’s Bussell and Newport’s Lovely, both clearing 4-10 last season with Bussell the returning champ. Newfound’s Gretchen Reynolds also achieved 4-10, with Kearsarge’s Amelia Lefevrbe clearing that height this February.
In pole vault, Newfound’s Taylor Mooney is the returning champion with teammate Mikayla Ulwick and Malina Bohlmann the next two returners. Gilford’s Brook Kimball is the only other returner over 6-6.
Campbell’s Houle is the top returner in the long jump, with five of the top six scorers returning. Inter-Lakes Sara Harris, Newfound’s Bohlmann and Hopkinton’s Grace Hall all topped 15 feet at last year’s championship. Belmont’s Winslow was second behind Houle this winter in indoor and will be a factor as well. Sanborn’s Lillian Gibby has also cleared the 15 foot distance.
Hopkinton’s Hall is the two time champion in triple jump, with Campbell’s Houle just behind her. Add in Belmont’s Winslow and Newfound’s McKellar as athletes that have cleared 30 feet and you’ve got some pretty solid triple jumpers.
Throws
Newfound’s multi eventer McKellar shows up again as the top returning shot putter, with Newmarket’s Lena Nicholson as the throwers over 30 feet last spring. Kearsarge’s Amelia Lefevrbe threw 30+ this winter as well.
Fall Mountain’s Sierra Proper is the top returner in discus, with Newfound’s Isabelle LaPlume as the two throwers topping 90 feet.
In javelin, Newfound’s Bohlmann is the returning champion, with Hopkinton’s Elise Miner as the lonely other thrower over 100 feet. Fall Mountian’s Makenna Knapp and Moultonborough’s Sadey Sherkanowski have broken the 90 mark.
Relays
Guessing the makeup of relay team’s is nearly impossible so all I’m going to do is identify stuff I can see from past results, mostly
regarding the top teams that could remain intact. In the 4×100, Newfound is the returning champions AND returns their entire squad from that race so I would anticipate they would be able to assemble a winning team.
In the 4×400, #2 Newfound and #3 Kearsarge return their entire teams from last year, with the top team, Newmarket, losing two. However Newmarket nearly won the D2 indoor crown in February and can likely build a team to potentially defend their title.
In the 4×800, Conant returns their entire team that finished third last year; however Mascenic was the top D3 team in this race this past February in indoor. Also last year’s #1 and #2 in Newmarket and Hopkinton should be able to build teams to contend as well.
Team
In writing the preview, the team name I repeated most was Newfound, so if I was pressed to make a guess now I guess I would go with them. On paper they should be scoring 24 points in the pole vault alone. The other team with the most repeats would be Newmarket, and they almost won indoor this winter against D2 powerhouse Oyster River. I guess we’ll find out when the dust finally settles in May.
Boys
Sprints
The top returning sprinter from the 100 last year is PCA’s runnerup Tim Kelm. However Bishop Brady’s Joshua Gentchos got the better of Kelm in the 55 indoors where they finished 1-2 ahead of D2’s best. Looking to take them down should be Trinity’s Nehemiah Oyaronbi, Colby Vetter of Belmont, Jordan Espo of Newmarket and Jack Beauchesne of Brady.
In the 200, we see many of the same players with Belmont’s Vetter the top returner. Beauchesne, Kelm, Oyaronbi, Espo and Newmarket teammate Aidan Barber should all be returning to determine who’s top dog.
Mid Distance
Runner-up in the 400 last year, DJ Chaudhry of Campbell leads all returners as the only one to run under 52 at the championships last year. Isaiah Reese of Gilford, Tristan Kamann of Inter-Lakes are both under 54 with and Raymond’s Joe Harper under 55 seconds. And we cannot forget about Sanborn coming back to D3s and the D2 SC from last year Brady Ash who ran under 50 last season. He is the man to beat on paper.
In the 800 the two time returning champion is the Great (Patrick) Gandini, as he also is in the 1600 and the 3200. In commentating with him this past February, we talked about how seeing as he’s done the triple twice he really doesn’t have many other options for this season. Trinity’s Aidan Palmeter is more than seven seconds behind based on last year so I would venture Gandini is in command here. Aiden Bondaz of Gilford and Jacob Pincince of Somersworth are the only other guys under 2:10.
Distance
Gandini rules both the 1600 and 3200 the past two years and there is no reason to think otherwise. Monadnock’s Jace Joslyn is the next best returner and he’s 15 seconds down on Gandini. PCA’s Luke O’Halloran is the only other returnee under 5 minutes, but Monadnock teammate and brother Peyton Joslyn has run under 5 minutes many times and generally is the faster brother.
O’Halloran’s teammate Jonas Teeter is the next best not named Gandini in the 3200 and has had a spectacular 2022-2023 campaign as well and I would expect he would be leading the charge to dethrone Gandini in the last individual event of the day. Toss in Belmont’s William Riley, Fall Mountain’s Ben’s (Tetu and Frithsen), the Joslyn’s and Mascenic’s Drew Traffie and you have a fairly star studded 3200.
Hurdles
Top returner in the 110 hurdles is Gilford’s Aiden Malek followed closely by Mount Royal’s Peter Hogan and Monadnock’s Jack Lorenz. Last year Lorenz was entirely new to hurdles and as I will mention in the next paragraph, the returning champion in the 300 hurdles. Give him another year and who knows?
The best bet to dethrone Lorenz would be Gilford’s Malek as the next best returner. Gilford’s Nicholas Haddocks and Mount Royal’s Hogan will be looking to contend as well.
Jumps
Conant’s Ben Sawyer is the returning D3 champ but Gilford’s Haddocks out jumped Sawyer in February. Aidan Donahue of Winnisquam will be another top contender having consistently cleared 6′ in indoor with a top height of 6-2. Mount Royal’s Hogan and
Kearsarge’s Hunter Stanchfield have cleared the 5-10 height.
In pole vault, Newfound’s Dalton Dion and White Mountian’s Elijah Beaulieu have cleared ten feet, with Gilford’s Haddocks, Kearsarge’s August Zock and Monadnock’s Joseph Lotito clearing 9-6.
In the long jump Conant’s Sawyer is the returning champ again, and this winter’s D2 champ as well. Gilford’s Haddocks finished second to Sawyer in February, with Campbell’s Austin McHugh and Sunapee’s Cameron Messenger the returnees over 19 feet. Brady’s Gentchos jumped more than 19 feet this February as well.
Gilford’s Haddocks is the top returner and only jumper over 40 feet coming back. Woodville’s Garrett Emery and Somerworth’s Tayshawn Sheppard are the best of the rest. Sanborn’s Ricky Caillouette will be looking to shake things up in D3.
Throws
With three of the six scoring throwers graduated, there will be some fresh names among the leaderboards this spring. Top returner is Monadnock’s Gabrriel Sanchez, with Newport’s Kyle Ashley and Newfound’s Brady MacLean having that real championship experience. Prospect Mountian’s Isaac Wood threw over 40 feet this winter as well and should be up there near the front. And finally Sanborn’s Spencer Foley who threw 44 feet at D2s will be looking to make inroads to that top spot.
Top returner in discus is Trinity’s Paul Thibault followed closely by Monadnock’s Luke Weston. Newfound’s Trevor Sanschagrin is the other person to throw the disc out over 100 feet.
In javelin, Newport’s Ashley is the returning champion but the top five throwers are back. Campbell’s Justin Edmonds, Hopkinton’s Max Bishop, Gilford’s Haddocks and Isaiah Reese are all 140 foot throwers and should top the results all spring.
Relays
Much like with the girls relay previews, it’s tough to know what we’ll see as the makeup of relay teams can change greatly but I’ll tell you what I see. In the 4×100 last year’s #2 team, Bishop Brady returns the entire team as does #6 Newport. In the 4×400, #2 Gilford and #4 Campbell also return their entire squads and have run under 3:40. Toss in Sanborn and there’s three under 3:40. In the 4×800 last year’s winner Mascenic has lost their top three and probably won’t even contest the event leaving Somersworth as the top team returning it’s entire squad after finishing fourth last year. I expect Mascoma Valley to likely put a strong team together this spring after a solid cross country season.
Team
Last year Gilford gave Conant a run for their money, losing out 78 to 81. Conant graduated a ton of points (Ethan Vitello, Garrett Somero) so I’d say that would put Gilford in the driver’s seat with the Great Gandini with his hand guiding the wheel. After that most of the schools have felt the effect of attrition and we’ll have to wait and see what younger athletes assert their presence throughout the spring.
