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Despite a cool rainy night the 81st Clipper Relays still produced blistering times and meet record performances. The two things most athletes look forward to in this meet. The historical T-shirts that are awarded to the participants of the winning teams and the hype around the “field event” relay at the end of the meet, which produced the same energy as the state championships will be later this month.
On the Track!
The girls 4×800 kicked this off in meet record fashion as Bedford (Ducharme, Mooney, O’Neil, Lee) dropped a time of 9:36.25 benefitting from Lee’s 2:15 and change anchor leg. Not to be overlooked, Oyster River (N. Roy, M. Cook, M. Cook, T. Banafato) dropped a 9:43.97 for 2nd. The boys of Bedford made it a sweep as Jung, Pulsifer, Bekkering, and Redman combined for an impressive 8:02.70. Souhegan (Anderson, Gaudet, Stine and Irvine) were second with a 8:24.53. Continuing with the distance events, Winnacunnet (Mariotti, Lantaidne, Clifford, Koutalidis) won the Distance Medley Relay with a 13:03. Newmarket (McKenna, Burke, Redmond, Hagen) was second crossing in 13:11.22. The boys side saw Pinkerton (Binda, Rzasa, Christensen-Kraft, Dowd) slowly extend their lead to win with a 10:42.10 to Milford’s (Korthals, Sixon, Whitley, Sora) 10:49.24.
The new High Hurdle Relay replaced the traditional Shuttle Hurdles as an event. This comprised 2 teams, occupying 4 lanes each per heat creating an entertaining head to head match up every heat. The winning team was based on total time. The team with the fastest cumulative time for the girls was Nashua North (Thomas, Brown, Frye Juris) with Portsmouth (Nada, Bancroft, Flynn, Schlosser) placing second. Portsmouth’s Mariam Nada had the fastest time on the day with a 15.31 to North’s Jhanelle Thomas’s 15.39. Bedford (Chong, Powers, Cote, Westcott) took the win on the boys side with Winnacunnet (Duffy, Marelli, Jamison, Duff) placing second. Bedford teammates Christopher Chong (15.04) and JJ Powers (15.40) went 1-2 respectively.
In the 4×100, Nashua South (Chavarin, Ross, Ortiz, Musa) repeated as champions crossing in 49.07 to Pinkerton’s (Brayall, Roberts, McNulty, Sippel) 49.40. On the boys side, Pinkerton (Cavallo, Isaac, Smith, Michaud) also repeated winning with an impressive 43.33. Souhegan ( C. Behn, C. Henderson, B. Smith, J. Katsel) was second with a 44.67.
The Steeple Relay was next. Newmarket (E. McKenna, M. Redmond, M. Boulden, A. Beckles) won the girls side of things with a 10:06.69 to Bedford’s (R. Caridade, E. Sands, K. O’Neil, G. Boll) 10:11.16. Winning the boys side and setting a new meet record was Milford (L. Korthals, D. Sixon, W. Whitley, A. Wilson) who crossed in 7:51.45. Host school Portsmouth (N. Peters, W. Carrigan, O. Fitzpatrick, J. Kelly) was second with an 8:15.50.
Coming off a state record 4×100 in 2023, Nashua South decided it was the 4x200m relay’s turn to have a meet record broken as they (S. Witta, S. Ross, M. Ortiz, N. Musa) crossed in 1:45.90. Pinkerton ( H. Sippel, C. McNulty, C. Russell, E. Roberts) ran an impressive 1:47.06 for second. It was a South sweep as the boys (M. Menezes, R. Jansen, T. Staveley, E. Schnyer) won the 4×200 with a 1:32.73. Souhegan (C. Behn, J. Katsel, B. Smith, C. Henderson) was a strong 2nd in 1:34.15.
The 4×400 concluded the track portion of the meet as the girls from Nashua North (A. Frye, C. Juris, L. White, J. Thomas) won in 4:06.72. Exeter (M. McBride, C. Knab, D. Caron, R. Thompson) placed second by only .04 with a 4:09.61, as Bedford ran 4:09.65 and Winnacunnet crossed in 4:09.71. Winnacunnet (O. Duffy, S. Duffy, R. Jamison, W. Koutalidis) won the boys side with a blistering 3:28.91 considering the weather at the time. Bedford (C. Chong, Z. Petrie, J. Colangelo, J. Bekkering) was 2nd with a 3:31.05.
In the Field!
Field event relays are comprised of 3 athletes from each team with their combined total distance or height determining order of finish. Girls High Jump was won by Pinkerton (Provencher, Russell, Checket) totaling 13’9″ with Portsmouth 2nd at 13’2″. The pole vault was won by Bedford as Kaupp (8’7″), Forrester (8’7″) and Dinndorf totaled 24’3″ while Pelham totaled 22’9″. On the boys side, John Stark took the title as Montgomery (6’2″) Kinsey-Turner and Calle combined to a height of 17’5″. Bedford placed 2nd with 16’4″. The pole vault saw Portsmouth win as Moriarty, Vinciguerra and Guarracino totaled 28’9″.
Nashua North with Thomas, S. Frye and A. Frye accumulating 43’10.5″ won the girls long jump by only .25″ in a tight battle with Exeter which combined for 43’10.25″ from McBride, Ahern, and MacVicar. Winnacunnet won the boys side of things as Duffy, Corcoran and Janetos totaled 59’6.25″. Pinkerton’s Michaud, Isaac, Freytag were second totaling 57’5.5″.
The girls triple jump saw Merrimack with Best, Farrell, and Dodds totaling 92’4.75″ as the winners. South was second with 91’4″. Boys Triple saw Pinkerton accumulate 114’8.5″ courtesy of Wolthers, James and Yager. Merrimack Valley which totaled 113’3″ was 2nd.
Over to the throws, Merrimack’s Metaxotos, Getchell, and Fong won the girls shot put combining for 83’9.25″. Pinkerton was second with 82’6″. Courtesy of Smith, Pasterczyk and Briggs, North won the boys shot accumulating 133’7″ to Bedford’s 131’6.5″. Girls discus saw Nashua South’s Cruz, Ortiz-Cueves, Gautieri win combining for 255’10”. Exeter placed 2nd with a total of 236’4″. Coe-Brown’s Warner, Small and Conner combined to win the boys discus with 364’8″. Dover was second with 353′. Coe-Brown also won the girls javelin as Ziblisky, Gunderson and Heilshorn totaled 290’11”. Portsmouth was second with 269’4″. Pinkerton’s Packowski, Franks, James won the boys side by less than a foot over Bedford. Pinkerton totaled 420′ to Bedford’s 399’1″!
Congrats to all and kudos once again to the Lyfords and the Portsmouth TF Community for putting on a first class event!!!
