By Ryan Moyer
Qualifying Weeks have concluded with a bang and it’s time to cover the best that we saw from the week before we look ahead to the State Championships now officially less than a week away.
UNH
There was one meet with two sessions which drew my attention with a couple of improvements to the standings and notable performances. Starting with the girl’s, the sprints saw some good action with Ava Lacasse of Belmont shooting to the top of DII in the 55-meter dash when she won in 7.54 seconds to beat Gilford’s Macy Sawyer in the finals and in the standings. However, Sawyer responded in the 300-meters when she took the #1 spot in DII in 43.22 seconds and beat Lacasse. Just after a mention last week, Hannah Pawlowski of Bow returns with another best DII time in the 600-meters in 1:41.66 to cut down her previous best. Oyster River’s Haley Kavanagh added to her resume another sub-3-minute 1K time in 2:57.85. She also won by roughly 15 seconds.
Mikita Barry of Bedford threw in another best time in DI, this time in the 1500-meters in 4:45.83 and now stands as second in the state for the event. Barry’s teammate Anika Scott nabbed two wins in the afternoon session with the 55-meter hurdles (7.94) and the 300-meters (43.30). Scott still remains the only girl to run under 8 seconds in the hurdles. Closing out, the Bedford girls’ 4×800-meter relay of Barry, Lydia Denon, Beonca Barry, and Anna Ray hopped to the second spot in DI with a combined time of 10:01.91.
Pivoting to the boys, Pinkerton’s Matthew Morrison slashed into his own previous best to reset the standard for DI in the 55 hurdles with a time of 7.61 seconds. He tacked on another win in the 55-meter dash in 6.58 seconds for two victories on the day. Right behind him was Monadnock’s Gavin Lombara, who recorded the #2 time in DII for the hurdles in 7.83 seconds. In the afternoon session of hurdles, Nick Daigle of Salem ran the second-best time in DI, crossing the line in 7.84 seconds. Andrew Valentino from Hanover won the 1500-meters in 4:10.23 to slightly edge out the previous top seed in DII. In jumps, Sam Kinsey-Turner of John Stark and Eli Benjamin of Spaulding each cleared 6’2” to boost themselves to second in DII and DI, respectively.
The State Championships will be held at Plymouth State University in the Bank of New Hampshire Fieldhouse at ALLWell North. Division I will be on Saturday (Feb. 8) and Division II on Sunday (Feb. 9). Both meets are set to start at 10am. Tune into our livestreams on our YouTube channel and look to our website for all the coverage of the talent to come from the epic showcase of NH Track and Field.
Editor’s Shout-Outs!
The Granite State also showed out at the Terrier Classic at Boston University. Prior to the above wins, Bedford’s Anika Scott WON the Long Jump with a leap of 19’6.25″. Her teammate Mikita Barry ran an eye-popping 2:11.09 for the 800. Finally, Oyster River’s Mackenzie Cook broke 10 minutes in the 3k to run 9:57.69, while Hopkinton’s Madeleine Lane was right behind her in 10:02.07.
On the boys side, Con-Val’s Ross Stephens and OR’s Talon Ouellette dipped under 50 seconds in the 400 meters posting 49.35 and 49.92 respectively. BG’s Matthew Giardina posted his best 3k time of the season crossing in 8:31.20, while Con-Val’s Will Simard also blazed the 3k in 8:33.55. We are certainly hoping for a show down come New Englands!!! Congrats to all!
