Girls Results – Courtesy of Lancer Timing
Boys Results– Courtesy of Lancer Timing
By Ryan Moyer
With the conclusion of a fantastic NHIAA Division II state championship, Division I was up and did not fail to amaze. Hosted at Plymouth State University’s Bank of New Hampshire Field House at ALLWell North for the first time ever, multiple athletes made history with a combined six New Hampshire records; three Division I and three State records!
The groundbreaking event started off in the field events in the boys long jump where Winnacunnet’s Oliver Duffy shattered the previous Division I record by a foot with a leap of 23’ 5 ½” to win the event. The first set of field events finished with the girls’ shot put and high jump. The top girls high jumper in the state all season long, Ella Goulas from Concord did not disappoint taking the state title in high jump after she cleared a height of 5’4” while Bedford’s Maggie Fox hurled the shot 34’ 11¼” to take him that title and a valuable 10 points for the Lady Bulldogs.
The boys high jump was the event to watch in the field as five athletes were all tied after clearing 6’0”. Duffy inevitably came out on top as the lone jumper who cleared 6’2” for his second title of the day. The girls’ long jump saw another incredible feat with Anika Scott from Bedford broke both the Division I and State record by almost two feet, becoming the first female jumper to break the 20 foot barrier ever! Matter of fact, the old record sat at 18’6.25″, so Scott didn’t even spend time in the 19s! Congrats! Darius Smith capped off the field events in boys shot with an impressive heave of 53’ 3¼” which beat the rest of the field by about five feet.
Following the field events, the first event on the track was the girls 4×800-meter relay where Bedford crossed the line in a combined time of 9:43.76, setting a new Division I record. The boys 4×800 relay was a head-to-head battle between Bedford and Nashua South but Bedford came out with the win in 8:32.11.
The sprints were an intense fight at the line with multiple wins coming down to the lean. Matthew Morrison of Pinkerton won the 55-meter Hurdle finals in 7.61 seconds but was just edged out in the 55-meter dash by Windham’s Kevin Brooks when both leaned through the line. The Hurdles and Dash were 2 of the more exciting and competitive events on the day!
Scott, coming off her record-breaking performance, set another record for Division I in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.07 seconds (old record set by BG’s Betsy Garnick in 2012), which was also only five hundredths of a second away from the state record (Garnick -2013). Then minutes later, another Division record went down in the girls Dash by Alexis Best from Merrimack and Nyah Musa of Nashua South with 7.23 seconds, but Best narrowly took the state title coming down to thousandths of a second! This record was set by Londonderry’s Yorgelis Ortiz in 2015.
One of the best races of the day was in the girls’ 3,000-meter run with a dual between Pinkerton’s Contessa Silva and Exeter’s Eli Cross when Silva was pacing the race the entire way while Cross put pressure from behind going all the way into the final lap. From there, Cross showed off an impressive kick to fly past Silva and win the event by three seconds in a time of 10:23.45. For the boys 3,000-meters, there was no contest as Bishop Guertin’s Matthew Giardina paced his way to a state championship in a time of 8:47.40 to win by roughly nine seconds.
The Bedford boys duo of Jacob Redman and Jared Bekkering made a statement in the middle-distance events. With both returning from winning the 4×800-meter relay at the start of the meet, Redman cruised through the 1,000-meters for his second win in 2:34.14 while Bekkering was smooth in the 600-meters to claim the top spot in 1:22.89.
For the girls, it was once again neck-and-neck in the 600-meters coming down to the line between Exeter’s Clara Knab and Samantha Ducharme from Bedford, but Knab had the better finish taking the victory in 1:38.97. Mikita Barry snagged another win for Bedford in the 1,000-meters with a time of 3:02.98.
The sprints finished off with a bang after Harriet Barber broke the 40 second barrier in the girls’ 300-meters and rewrote the Division I and State records in 39.59 seconds. With this one performance, Barber eclipsed marks held by legendary names of Grace Devanny and Anna Ciofredi. On the boys’ side, 55 Dash Champ, Brooks nabbed his second state title in the 300-meters in 35.27 seconds.
Redman won his second individual state title on the day when he crushed the 1500-meters in 4:03.04. Winnacunnet’s Charlotte Koutalidis fought with Laura White in the girls 1500-meters, but it was Koutalidis to break the proverbial finishing tape in 4:49.34.
The day was completed after the 4×400 and 4×200-meter relays. Redman and Bekkering ended on a high note leading Bedford’s 4×400 to the title in a combined time of 3:34.25. The boys 4×200-meter ended in dramatic fashion when Winnacunnet was far ahead with the lead after an opponent’s dropped baton, setting them up to breeze to the finish in 1:32.58.
After a back-and-forth fight between Portsmouth and Nashua North in the girls 4×400 relay, the Nashua North girls won in 4:07.73 before Pinkerton capitalized in the 4×200-meters with a time of 1:48.40.
Another record which was broken as the Pinkerton boys laid claim as the most dominant team in NH Indoor Track and Field history as their team scored the most points in Division I State Championship history by accumulating an incredible 111 points. This is insane considering there are only 13 events indoors. Bedford claimed the runner up plaque also with a total which usually wins a state title, 72 points.
It was a tighter race for the girls, but Bedford was the eventual victor as a team with 74 points while Exeter put together an impressive and surprising second place finish with 54 points, just two points ahead of Pinkerton.
Congrats to all!!!
