Girls Results – Courtesy of Lancer Timing
Boys Results– Courtesy of Lancer Timing
By Ryan Moyer
It’s that time of year for the best of the best in New Hampshire to compete at the NHIAA Indoor Track and Field State Championships. With a beautiful venue in the Plymouth State University Bank of New Hampshire Field House at ALLWell North where the state championships are held for the first time, some exhilarating action was bound to take place. Shout out to the NHIAA Indoor Track and Field Committee, Lancer Timing, as well as Bob Mullen and company for pulling off such a fantastic state championship event. First on the docket was the Division II meet where another change took place for field events to begin and end before the track events commenced.
Starting off the day was the girl’s shot put and and high jump alongside boy’s long jump. Mascoma Valley’s Georgia Kondi entered the girl’s shot put as the top seed and came out on top with a heave of 35’ 10 ¾” while Rere Edokpolo of Trinity showed what the state championships are all about and smashed the Division II record in the boy’s long jump with a leap of 22’ 1 ½”. Maelle Jacques put Kearsarge up on the board early with her clearance of 5’2” in the high jump to win.
To round out the field events for the boys, John Stark scored massive points with two wins in high jump and shot put when Rio Calle edged out the rest of the field in high jump after clearing 6’0” and Joel Douzanis threw almost a foot more than the next best mark with a toss of 47’ 2 ½”. Big improvement of points for John Stark in the field. This boded well for things to come for the Generals. In an exciting Long Jump competition not decided until the final 2 rounds, Eshaya Lauder from Manchester West had a great jump of 17’ 2 ¾” to win.
The track events kicked off with the 4×800-meter relay with the Oyster River girls taking an impressive lead to win 10:07.56 while the Milford boys crossed the line in a combined time of 8:25.64.
With a quick transition to the sprints, Monadnock’s Gavin Lombara cruised to the finals in the 55-meter hurdles as the top seed before taking the state title in 7.86 seconds. Tim Kelm of Portsmouth Christian won the ultra-competitive 55-meter dash in 6.50 seconds.
On the girl’s side, Oyster River continued their dominant performance with Erin Carty taking first in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 8.49 seconds while Aida Wheat of Kennett proved herself once again to be the top seed in the 55-meters when she breezed to 7.33 seconds in the finals.
Oyster River was on fire the rest of the way for the girls with Mackenzie Cook pacing the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:23.65 and Coe-Brown boys snagged their first individual win when Jamie Lano won the 3,000-meters in 8:48.38 to begin his long day.
Alanna Hagen of Newmarket did not let go of the lead in the 1,000-meters for a time of 3:03.36 before the boy’s 1,000-meters where Hanover’s Lucian Gleiser and Lano battled in what was arguably the race of the day. After a tremendous performance in the 3,000-meters, Lano held on behind Gleiser as both runners dropped under 2:30 but Gleiser came out on top with a time of 2:27.62, which broke the Division II record by roughly 5 seconds, to Lano’s diving at the line 2:27.71. These 2 times are 2nd and 3rd on the NH All-Time List.
The girls finalized the individual events when Hannah Pawlowski from Bow won the 600-meters in 1:40.60, Macy Sawyer of Gilford breezed to a time of 42.01 seconds to win the 300-meters and Oyster River’s Haley Kavanagh ran 4:37.14 in the 1500-meters to break another Division II record for first with her teammates Mackenzie and Madelyn Cook sweeping second and third in the event.
For the boys, Mychal Reynolds from Merrimack Valley won the 600-meters in 1:27.35, Joshua Gentchos slipped past the fast heat to win the 300-meters in an impressive 36.03 seconds and Lano incredibly returned to the podium with his second state title of the day in the 1500-meters in a time of 4:09.79. Lano scored a massive 28 points individually on the day.
The day ended for both sides in the relays with Oyster River winning the 4×400-meter relay in 4:22.53 and Kennett taking the 4×200-meter relay in 1:49.69.
The Souhegan 4×200-meter relay ended on a high note by breaking the final DII record of the day with a time of 1:34.46 as the 4×400-meter relay was won by Milford in 3:37.07.
For the boys’ team scores, it was neck and neck between Coe-Brown and John Stark all the way Heading into the relays, Coe-Brown needed to score 2 points to win the title outright. If they scored less, the Generals could have tied or overtaken them for the title. However, Coe-Brown scored exactly 2 points by placing 5th in the 4×400 to pull out the team win with 54 points to John Stark’s 52. John Stark was the wild card of the meet as they entered outside the conversation of a team title, but proved that they were overlooked. While with 43 points Souhegan was a clear cut third-place finisher, there were 5 teams separated by only 5 points with Portsmouth Christian nabbing 4th with 28 points.
The Oyster River girls were the favorites going into the state champs. They darted out to a great lead early with points coming from every where with a concentration in the distance events. They never looked back as they set a D2 girls record by reaching the 100-point threshold to secure the team title. Kearsarge snagged the runner-up plaque scoring 36 points. Kennett and Newmarket tied for third each with 28 points.
Congrats to all!
New this year! We livestreamed ALL FIELD EVENTS as well as the track. Please enjoy our playlist of all the action below!
