By Pat Scott
Results! Courtesy of Upstart Timing
The 68th New Hampshire Boys Decathlon Championship and the 48th Girls Heptathlon Championship got off to a historic start with ….the weather. For the first Saturday in nearly 4 months (by some accounts) it did not rain. The sun was out, the track was hot and the competition sizzled.
With the defending champion, Maddox Lovely, out with injury, the girls heptathlon competition was wide open. Pelham teammates Samantha Tetreault and Ava Milley immediately gave their notice to the field by dominating the field in the hurdles. Only a hundredth of a second separated the two Pythons but the next competitor was over half a second – and 65 points – behind.
A pair of Falcons took flight in the second event, the high jump. Bow’s Camden Wilson (1.57m) and Madison Pfister (1.52m) went one-two in the event to raise their standing in the overall contest. Not surprising considering both were high in the field in the D2 championships.
As predicted, Kelly Wright of Windham held form and won the shot put event by over a meter – and 65 points. This effort vaulted her near the top of the leaderboard. This writer thanks Kelly for validating his prediction.
The final event of the day one is the heptathlon is the 200 meter dash. By this time the track had soaked up enough sun to melt your spikes. Not a problem for uber athletic Angela Cenesca of Central who blasted the half-lap in a sizzling 26.26. Good enough for 775 points. In fact, the whole day Cenesca had been quietly pushing and scissor-kicking 4th and 5th place finishes in the other events to amass a good lead by the end of the day.
The leaderboard after Day 1 falls this way:
Can Cenesca continue her run? Without an obvious jump specialist in the field, the top three could all certainly make up points in Day 2’s long jump, especially Milley who is a division qualifier. The Javelin is also a day 2 event. We’ll definitely see Kelly Wright use her excellent technique to make a run to the top. And speaking of run: let’s keep an eye for our mid-distance crew like Bow’s Hannah Pawlowski or South’s Sarah Witta to make a late run to the top of the standings.
The decathlon competition got off to a quick start in the 100 meter dash. It should not have been a surprise that Merrimack Luca Kabel took an early lead with an event best 11.14 (830 points). But we could not have foreseen the Tomahawk senior’s win in the long jump and runner up in the 400 meters.
Dear writer was excited to have Conant’s Ben Sawyer back in the mix after a year hiatus. Sawyer did not disappoint with top 5 finishes in 4 of 5 events and leading the field by 40 points over Kabel. Pelham’s Colby Crear and North Gavin Suchecki both have four top 10 finishes out of 5 events to bring them to the top of the field. Crear’s kryptonite was the long jump and Sucheki’s the shot put. Quietly lurking in the shadows has been pre-event fav Dana Musselman of Phillips-Exeter, currently 5th and looking to pounce.
The day 1 leaderboard looks like this:
Day 2 opens with the high hurdles. We expect Colby Crear to blast the field and gain the overall lead to start the day. But don’t overlook that there are two throws – discus and javelin – on day two and that is where Ben Sawyer (Conant) can shine. The senior Oriole is the D3 javelin champion and has discus experience. Musselman (as the name suggests) can launch the throws too AND the kid can vault. Suchecki and Kabel are those athletic dark horses alluded to in the preview but the throws will challenge their standing. Let’s see how this plays out. The 1500 meters might be the forge for this year’s champ.
