Division Championships Meet Hub
Results Courtesy of Lancer Timing
What a great weekend-ish of championship racing. As a track official I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday under the clerking tent handing out hip numbers and hearing all kinds of various meet records and state records going down. As I sat down to write this recap, I realized that everyone that’s waiting on it to read, probably would be better prepared to write it than I am, as all I saw was bits and pieces. As the hipping clerk, I spend four hours looking up names, checking uniforms and assigning lanes, seeing little of the action. At D3s I was able to step out of the tent during the 3200 where most of my team was competing (five of my eight individual entries were in those two races), meaning I saw 2 of the 22 races on the track that night. The only other track tidbit I saw was Brady’s Josh Gentchos speed to victory as there was a bit of the parting of the seas for reasons unknown.
But I do like to pour through the results so I’m going to recap “what I saw” by scouring the results. What I am not going to do is an event for event breakdown, partially for the reasons I’ve already stated, I did not see those races, and part because it’s so boring to do. The results reflect the finishing order so no reason to simply rehash that.
So from this lens, this is what I saw. It would be easy (as well as correct) to say Gentchos had a good day. Winner of both the 100 and 200, Josh also ran under the state record in the 100, running 10.65. Unfortunately the wind was blowing at +3.0 meters/second, too fast for it to be considered the record. The legs still had to run it, so I’ll stay duly impressed. Another impression I have is D3 has some of the top sprinters in the state, making next weekend look pretty interesting. PCA’s Tim Kelm and Trinity’s Nehemiah Oyaronbi make the 100 one of those must watch races.
What a difference a week makes as the winner of the 100, Newfound’s Elle MacDonald was visibly frustrated at the Wilderness championships as she wasn’t putting up the performances she had been accustomed to as of late. But she stormed back to beat a strong field of Gilford’s Macy Sawyer, Newport’s Maddox Lovely and Sunapee’s Clare Touhy. Sawyer would dispense all challengers in the 200.
Another storm abrewing I saw at Wilderness was White Mountains freshman phenom Olivia Lorenz. Lorenz took it to Newmarket’s Alanna Hagen and the rest of the field in the 400, running 58.92, more than 1.5 seconds up on Hagen and almost two seconds faster than the winning time last year. Lorenz would complete a tough double, back in the 800 a scant 20 minutes later, finishing third.
Winner of that 800 would be none other than Newmarket’s Hagen. Running a strong negative split, Hagen had to hold off a fast closing Shaylee Murdough of Hopkinton to do so. I did catch a brief glimpse of this race with Murdough giving chase down the back straight, and though she would have the juice to go by but Hagen hung on enough to win by three tenths of a second.
Coming out of the seeding meeting, there was no doubt what Concord Christian’s Rolen Sanderson, Profile Wyatt Lawton and Winnisquam’s Brenden Goodwin had in mind and that was fast times in the 400. Pretty much clearing their plates for this race they did not dissappoint all going under 52 with Sanderson the victor.
Doing the opposite of clearing his plate, PCA’s Jonas Teeter was looking to continue the magic of Gandini by running the table in the 800 through 3200, one of the interesting scenario’s I mentioned in the preview of athletes taking on a lot of events as a challenge. Teeter met the challenge, holding off Monadnock’s Peyton Joslyn in both the 1600 and 800. He also withstood a strong front running challenge from Mascoma’s Gunner Currier who went to the front immediately, looking to capitalize on Teeter’s double by throwing down 9:40 pace laps. Unfortunately for Currier, Teeter was able to hold on and with two laps to go simply stepped around, changed gears and was gone. Crossing the line in 9:43 he was able to celebrate before Currier crossed three seconds later.
Similarly, Hopkinton’s Maddy Lane has the same triple, however her 800 came as part of the 4×800. In the 1600 she gapped the field pretty easily, able to roll in while others crashed the line behind her. When the dust settled, Sanborn’s Lily Tedford would end up runner up with Kearsarge’s Maelle Jacques third. I would find out later my girl, Erin O’Shea would finish fourth in a huge PR of 5:21. Now that’s some good miling!
Lane and O’Shea would be back in the 3200, and O’Shea swung big by simply attaching herself to Lane’s shoulder and not letting go. They would go through the first lap well under 12 minute pace, with seven meter gap back to a trailing Mascenic pack. O’Shea would stay parked there for six laps before Lane’s unrelenting push created separation. Lane would win in 11:39, with O’Shea holding on and finishing 20 seconds down. A methodical Emerald Briggs of Newfound would grind out all other finishers for third.
One of the other athletes I mentioned to watch was Newport’s Lovely. Entered in four individual events, Lovely would win three (and finish third in the other) in the 100 hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the long jump. She was the class of the field in both hurdle events, with her greatest challenge in long jump where she jumped 16-7 to beat the field by 11 inches.
In the boys hurdles, Pelham’s Colby Crear showed he is the best over the barriers, winning both handily. Even though the gap was significant, I’d like to shout out second placer in both Monadnock’s Gavin Lombara, as he also bested the rest of the field by similar margins to Crear. These two should be fun to watch at MOCs.
There was a great battle I could hear in boys long jump behind me which saw five jumpers over 20 feet and three over 21 feet. When the sand settled, the winner was InterLakes David Walker. Walker, who’s best event might be the triple jump, was absent, saving up his tired body for MOCs and leaving the door open for Trinity’s Alex Garland in the top position with a jump of 42-7.25. Please don’t take this as a slight to Garland, as competition was good at the top of the triple with four athletes over the 40 foot mark. Walker would have had his hands full.
In the vertical jumps, in high jump ReRe Edokpolo would be the only jumper over 6 feet, with three others back at 5-10. Pole vault saw some late competition, as it was getting dark as the event was finishing up. Sanborn’s Ben Cardoso would win in a jumpoff with White Mountain’s Elijah Beaulieu at 12-6.
In the ladies jumping events, Belmont’s Adeline Takantjas would outlast Hopkinton’s stalwart triple jumper Grace Hall by just half an inch, 32-1.25 to 32-0.75. That’s tight like a tiger. In high jump, Kearsarge’s Jacques would win on clearances over Somersworth’s Sya McKay, both clearing 5-0. And like predicted Conant’s Bella Nero would “see” her way through the field in pole vault, winning over teammate Sophia Battisti by 6 inches, clearing 8-6.
In my what to watch for, I listed Mascoma’s Georgia Kondi in the throws. I had mentioned that her seed marks weren’t much better than everyone else’s but she just seems to command an event when she’s in it, and that’s exactly what happened. Kondi won shot by three feet exactly and disc by ten feet (OK so 9-11!) to win both. In javelin, Winnisquam’s Victoria Kelly did as expected and won by almost 22 feet throwing 123-6.
Another thrower to have a big day was Newport’s Kyle Ashley. He threw a bomb in shot, 47-4.25 before unleashing a 190+foot dart in javelin. I had hoped that with the clerking table looking right out onto the discus field I’d get to see this however with so many in the tent all night long I missed this. Ashley finished up his throwing with a fourth place in discs, won by Fall Mountain’s Tyler Patch, heaving the disc over 154 feet.
Which leaves the relays. In the girls 4×800, Hopkinton does what it usually does and jumped out to an early lead they would not give up, running 10:11 over Sanborn and Gilford. In the 4×100, Newfound would surpass Sunapee with both teams going under 53 seconds. And in the 4×400 a very strong Gilford team would hold off a charging Newmarket team for that title in the last race of the day.
For the boys, Monadnock looked to maintain the top ranking in an effort to get early points and momentum for a challenge of the team win. However they got knocked around by Hopkinton, Profile and Winnisquam with Hopkinton taking the win. In the 4×100, Gentchos would power Brady to the win over a hard charging Trinity, both under 44 seconds. And in the final race of the night, under the cover of darkness, Pelham would outlast InterLakes, 3:28 to 3:29, six seconds up on the other challengers.
In the end, Hopkinton girls would go up eleven points over a sneaky Pelham, with Newport only one point back in third, 55 to 44 to 43. On the boys side, needing the 4×400 to seal the deal, Trinity on the strength of their sprinters and jumpers would win by two over Monadnock on the strength of their hurdlers and distance crew, 59 to 57. PCA, with 30 points from Teeter himself, would finish third with 52 points.
