Results! – courtesy of Speed Sport Timing
Replay below!
By Ryan Moyer
The State Championships being hosted at Plymouth State University for the second time held all the excitement we’ve looked forward to. Competitive performances, division records, and state records all in one meet! A special thanks once again to Chris Benson and Brian Johnson of Speed Sport Timing for timing the meet, alongside our officials to keep all events running smoothly with both DI and DII on the same day. It was also great to see the field events featured for the first hour and a half with separate livestreams. So a special thanks to executive producer Greg Hall for organizing all the technical details to give the spotlight to all the athletes. With all that said, here is how the incredible Division I State Championships went down.
Girls Recap
Field Events
Timberlane’s Danielle Bates maintained her spot as the top high jumper after she cleared a height of 5’4”. The first surprise of the day came in the women’s shot put with Brynn Johnson of Windham jumped from the six-seed and tossed 34’ 10.25” to claim the state title and the Concord duo of Ella Goulas and Ballay Conteh took first and second in the long jump with jumps of 17’ 8.75” and 17’ 7.25”.
Sprints/Hurdles
While she was not the favorite to win, Leanny Ortiz-Blanco of Salem blew the pack out of the water with a time of 7.29 seconds. Her finish was not unprecedented as she did hold the top spot in Division I at one point. Anika Scott of Bedford was out for a vengeance after a no mark in long jump and crushed her own DI record in the 55-meter hurdles she set last year and the State record set back in 2013 by Betsey Garnick of Bishop Guertin. She broke the state record by almost two tenths of a second in 7.84 seconds. Scott returned in the 300-meters for another state title, but she did find a challenge with Central’s Angela Cenesca who finished in 41.75 seconds behind Scott’s 41.64 seconds.
Middle Distance/Distance
Exeter’s Alexis Paterna came out on top in the 3,000-meters in 10:19.39 although Shelly Smith of Concord did lead most of the way, finishing 4 seconds behind Paterna. Pinkerton’s Sarah Rzasa came in as the lone sub-1:40 seed for the 600-meters but she had Charlotte Beaudoin from Timberlane hot on her heels as both broke the barrier with Rzasa winning in 1:39.62 ahead of Beaudoin’s 1:39.62. Mikita Barry from Bedford dominated the 1K and 1500-meters, winning both by seconds with times of 3:01.99 and 4:51.11, respectively.
Relays
North’s Jhanelle Thomas finally had her efforts pay off as a state champion in the 4×400-meters after a brutal day fighting sickness, when she teamed up with Charlotte Wilson, Allison Frye, and Rosalie Neveu when they topped Bedford in 4:07.43. Beford did win the 4×800-meter relay spearheaded by Barry with Anna Ray, Grace Boll and Lydia Denon. Goulas and Conteh returned for the 4×200-meter relay alongside Chelsea Toenah and Grace Saysaw for a winning time of 1:47.90.
Team Scores
Bedford was the eventual team to defend their state title as they won the previous year. They were on top with 74 points with Concord and Exeter in second and third with 62 and 57 points, respectively.
Boys Recap
Field Events
The Long jump found itself to be one of the most competitive events of the day with seven jumpers seeded at or above 20 feet! Chase Burris of Londonderry came out as the top jumper when he leaped 21’ 9.75” There was also another good battle in the high jump between North’s Gavin Suchecki and Bedford’s Gabe Texeira. After Texeira missed 6’ 2”, Suchecki had the pressure to clear it as he would have lost to a tiebreaker. On his final attempt, he cleared the height to take the victory, clearing 6’ 2”. North claimed the top two spots in the shot put with Darius Smith and Noah Pasterczyk with Smith winning with a mark of 53’ 6.25”.
Sprints/Hurdles
Josh Kelly of Portsmouth pulled off an upset as the three-seed when he won the 55-meter hurdles in 7.86 seconds and the spread from him, Nick Daigle of Salem and Matthew Morrison of Pinkerton was two hundredths of a second between the three of them. In the 55-meter dash Cesar Flahn of Central was the top seed for most of the season and showed off his speed going into the finals with a time of 6.40 seconds and won the finals with the exact same time. Owen Janetos closed out the sprints in the 300-meters when he held off Morrison in a time of 35.29 seconds.
Middle Distance/Distance
The biggest shock came out of the 600-meters with the top seeds at 1:24, and typically we have at least one scorer from the first heat. This time, from the first heat and the six-seed, Shane Plumley of Alvirne, stunned with a winning time of 1:25.28 in the first heat. In the 1K Ryan Zumbach held down the no. 1 spot, winning in 2:33.92 but was challenged by Dover’s Melo Berdecia who ran a five second personal best to stay with Zumbach most of the way. Matthew Giardina of Bishop Guertin did what he does best as he took off and went line-to-line in the 3,000-meters running 8:49.45 on his own and won again in the 1500-meters but had his teammate Carson Fischer on his shoulder all the way to the line before Giardina crossed in 4:04.55 to Fischer’s 4:04.99.
Relays
The Pinkerton boys’ team of Noah Daigle, Joseph Gustavson, Austin Cipriano, and Jason Robie took the victory in the 4×800-meter relay in 8:21.17. In the 4×400-meter Nashua South’s Matthew Motherway, Sergio Lopez, Camdon Brien, and Revin Olsen combined for a 3:35.42 to beat Winnacunnet’s 3:36.73. In the 4×200-meters Central pulled across the finish line in a new Division I record in 1:32.07 with Flahn, Kaedin Gagne, Wyatt Fougere, and Sean Venator.
Team Scores
Pinkerton came in as the favorites and came out with another team state championship, however not as big of a win as last year with 71 points but North was in second with 48 points and Bishop Guertin in third (37).
Congratulations to all our winners and All-State honorees!
