By Nate Leveille
For the first time since I can remember the D1 Championship meet will NOT be on Superbowl Sunday. Events will kick off on 9:00 AM Saturday morning at Plymouth State University. This year’s meet will also be timed by Speed Sport Timing, which has done an excellent job timing all the regular season meets. Thanks again to Amy Sanborn and Mike Lyford (our Winter League directors) for doing whatever they can to offer our athletes the most opportunities to perform in New Hampshire. And as always, NHTF will be livestreaming, snapping pics and interviewing! Also new this year, the all-state presentation will be at the end of the meet with all state champs making the team with the remainder of the team being voted on by coaches by the culmination of the meet. Best of luck to all those competing this weekend.
Girls Preview
Team Competition
Defending Champ Bedford returned major point scorers coming into the season in distance star Mikita Barry and All-American hurdler and jumper Anika Scott. Those two are going to score major points in this meet. If the Bulldogs can repeat though it will be because they were able to put together enough scorers around them. Nashua North is built differently than the other schools in contention. The Titans are loaded in the sprints but also have good balance across the middle distance/ distance. They are led by the 1-2 punch of Jhanelle Thomas and Tiana Brown. Last year’s runner-up finisher Exeter will go as far as their distance and middle-distance runners take them. They have a massive 10 entries in the 600 and 1000 and solid relays. Pinkerton Academy is projected to score in 10 of the 13 events. Their ability to score in many events means their projected total can go up quickly. Rounding out the top 5 teams appears to be Concord. Concord looks to score major points in the jumps, has the top-ranked shot putter, and solid sprinter and distance runner.
Sprints/Hurdles
Jhanelle Thomas of Nashua North is the top seed in the Dash. She will have company at the finish line as Leanny Ortiz Blanco of Salem and Grace Saysaw of Concord are tough opponents. In the 55 Hurdles, it’s not really a question of who will win, but how much she will shatter the current state record by. Anika Scott of Bedford has dominated the event becoming the first New Hampshire girl ever to run under 8 seconds in the event. After her in the seedings is Tiana Brown of Nashua North and Rylee Robinson of Pinkerton. In the 300 meter run we will get to see the matchup we have been waiting for as Thomas and Scott go head to head as the top two seeds. Angela Cenesca of Manchester Central and Allison Frye of Nashua North Round out the fast heat.
Middle Distance
The 600 meter run is one of the more wide open races of the day. Sarah Rzsas of Pinkerton is the top seed followed by Danica Caron of Exeter and Rosalie Neveu of Nashua North. Most of the girls in this race may be doubling back from the 4×800. In the 1000 meter run Mikita Barry of Bedford is the defending champ. She is undefeated in New Hampshire across many events, in fact I dont believe she has lost a high school race this winter. Behind her is the defending 3000 meter champ from a year ago Eli Cross of Exeter. Those two should gap the field. Twin’s Alexis and Bri Paterna of Exeter are the 3-4 seeds in this event.
Distance
Alexis Paterna of Exeter enters the 3k as the top seed. Behind her is Shelly Smith of Concord and Laura White of Nashua North. White and Paterna went 2-3 in XC earlier this fall and have beaten each other the past two weekends. Look for Smith to push the pace as those three separate from the pack. Usually, there is someone relatively fresh in the 1500 meter run. That won’t be the case this year. Barry of Bedford is the overwhelming favorite. She is followed by Paterna of Exeter who is tripling and White of North who will also be coming back from the 3k. This should be a wild race to follow.
Field Events
Danielle Bates of Timberlane has been the top high jumper all season long. She enters as the top seed. Following her is Ella Goulas of Concord who is always on the podium in this event and Eres Delorey of Londonderry. All three of these ladies have gone well over 5’. Newcomer to the shot put Consuelo Borico of Concord enters as the 1 seed. Lucille Beem of Exeter as the two seed and Nora Gautieri of Nashua South the three seed in a tightly contested event.
Relays
The 4×800 is always the most unpredictable event being the first event on the track most coaches don’t send out their “A” team. Exeter, Pinkerton, and Bedford enter as the top three teams and based on depth of distance should finish in the top three spots in some order. Nashua North has owned the 4×400 in recent years and enters the meet with the top time followed by Bedford and Exeter. In the 4×200 Concord enters with the top time in the state followed by Pinkerton, Nashua North, and Bedford.
Boys Preview
Team Competition
Last year Pinkerton Academy put up a massive 111 points to run away with the team title. Although on paper they are not suppose to put up quite that many points, they are positioned to have a fairly comfortable repeat performance. Similar to the Bedford girls, Pinkerton has the dominant male athlete in the state in Matthew Morrison. After the Astros is gets quite interesting Between Portsmouth, Nashua North, Nashua South, and Bishop Guertin. Portsmouth sprinkles in some points all over and has very solid relays. Nashua North will do most of their scoring in the field events. Nashua South will score the majority of their points in the relays and sprints. If Pinkerton were to struggle it could open the door for Portsmouth of Nashua North and if North or Portsmouth were to not meet expectations somewhere it could open the door for South or Bishop Guertin for the runner up spot.
Sprints/ Hurdles
Matthew Morrison of Pinkerton enters as the favorite in both the hurdles and the dash, which is not an easy double. He’s a returning New England finalist in both events and has only looked better as the season has gone on. In the dash he should get a challenge from two seed Cesar Flahn of Manchester Central and three seed Marcell Perry. In the Hurdles, 2 seed Nick Daigle of Salem, hasn’t raced Morrison all season, but has been dominant against the rest of the state. Three seed Josh Kelly of Portsmouth has been great all season. In the 300, Morrison is the two see behind Owen Janetos of Winnacunnet who ran a blazing 36 point at UNH. Catino Briggs of Portsmouth and Phineas Reardon of Exeter round out the heater heat. Pinkerton could get a massive 30 points from Morrison which is more than most teams will score in this meet.
Middle Distance
Ryan Zumbach of Winnacunnet has dominated the middle distances all season. Teams looking to cash in extra points had to guess which event he would run. He will be the top seed in the 1000 ahead of Ryan Pulsifer of Bedford and Evan Spence of Salem. With Zumbach in the 1000, the 600 opened up for top seed Theo Beattie of Portsmouth, Josh Twomey of Londonderry and three seed Will Hart of Portsmouth. A 1-2 Portsmouth finish would go a long way for their team title hopes.
Distance
Matthew Giardina of Bishop Guertin is the top seed in the 1500 and 3000. We haven’t seen much of Matt this winter as he has been racing against very fast competition in Boston. He’s coming off an All American cross country season. I’m going to predict a new D1 record and look for the state record 8:28.61 to go down as well. Trainer Mailloux of Pinkerton is the two seed and Nolan Peters of Portsmouth is the three seed. Giardina enters with a seed time 35 seconds ahead of the next best seed. In the 1500 Giardina is followed by teammate Carson Fischer of BG and Jason Robie of Pinkerton.
Field Events
New school, same result as Chase Burris of Londonderry enters as the top seed in the long jump and only boy over 22’ this winter. Kelly of Portsmouth has been consistently good this winter and enters as the two seed. Oliver Gould of Pinkerton enters the meet as the three seed. I will predict it will take 20’0” to make the finals in this event. In the high jump Eli Benjamin of Spaulding and Gavin Suchecki of Nashua North come into the meet with match seeds of 6’3”. Gabe Texeira of Bedford is the only other boy seeded over 6’. In the Shot Put Darius Smith of Nashua North looks to continue his winning ways as the top seed in the Shot over 55’. His teammate, Noah Pasterczyk is the two seed and Kellen Bateman of Exeter is the three seed.
Relays
The 4×800 relay opened up as top seed Salem opted to scratch. Pinkerton enters with the top seed followed by Nashua North and Nashua South. It will be interesting to see what individuals teams use on these relays. In the 4×400 Winnacunnet enters with the top time in the state at 3:32. Following them are two seed Portsmouth and 3 seed Nashua North. In the 4×200, top seed Pinkerton, two seed Manchester Central and three seed Nashua South re all separated by 35 hundredths of a second.
Good Luck to all competitors!
