By Nate Leveille
Indoor track and field in the state of New Hampshire can be challenging, with limited venues and inclement weather—as we saw this past weekend. This winter has certainly tested everyone involved, with frigid temperatures and now a couple of feet of snow everywhere. Still, I’ve always said that our state does more with less than anywhere else. I wanted to open by acknowledging that and thanking Mike Lyford, Amy Sanborn, and everyone else who “thinks outside the box” to make indoor track happen in New Hampshire.
That being said, part one of the state championships is scheduled to kick off this Sunday at UNH (weather permitting), featuring the 4×800 and the high jump. There are significant team scoring implications attached to both events on the boys’ and girls’ sides.
GIRLS
On the girls’ side, this is shaping up to be a two-team race between Pinkerton Academy and Exeter High School. Both schools enter with depth and strength in the middle-distance events. There are no secrets this year about who will run the 4×800, as it is the only running event of the day—expect to see the four fastest athletes each school can put on the track.
The Exeter girls enter as the overwhelming favorites in the 4×800. They return a team that was All-American a year ago and just missed the state record earlier this season with a time of 9:30.99. Bishop Guertin enters as the second seed with a time of 9:58.65 run in Boston last month. Pinkerton Academy is the three seed at 10:03.31, followed by Bedford as the four seed after running 10:04.37 at Plymouth State University.
Expect Exeter to break away early, with a pack of three teams giving chase. BG and Pinkerton will want to create separation from Bedford, as Mikita Barry will be waiting on the anchor leg. These four teams will make up the fast heat and, barring a major surprise, should finish 1–4 in some order. In the next heat, Portsmouth, Winnacunnet, Dover, and Concord will be shooting for the final two scoring positions.
High jump is usually one of the more unpredictable events—until Danielle Bates of Timberlane showed up and kept raising the bar, literally and figuratively. Bates is a returning indoor All-American and has cleared 5’8” earlier this season. Following her is Abigail Azevedo of Nashua North, who has consistently cleared 5’4” and enters as the second seed.
After that, there is a logjam of potential place-winners and point scorers. Isabelle Schreiner of Windham, Eres Delorey of Londonderry, and Abigail Stienicker of Pinkerton all enter with seeds of 5’3”. Kendal Tibbs of Bedford is the only other seeded jumper over 5’0”, followed by a group of five girls who have cleared 4’11”. This is Bates’ event to win, but after her, many athletes are capable of mixing it up in the scoring.
BOYS
On the boys’ side, the team race is really for second place. All the scoring models I’ve put together have Pinkerton Academy scoring well over 100 points, with no one else within 30–40 points of them. However, there should be an excellent battle for the runner-up spot, and one of the most important events will be the 4×800.
Bishop Guertin, Winnacunnet, Alvirne, and Nashua North should all be aiming for that second-place position. BG and Pinkerton both ran very fast in Boston last month, with BG holding off Pinkerton 8:15.92 to 8:16.72—times that now stand as the top two seeds in this meet. Nashua North is the three seed at 8:20.59, and Londonderry is the final team in the fast heat with a seed time of 8:28.36.
Londonderry is the only one of these four teams with a seed time from UNH. Using the NCAA track conversion tables, their performance would place them just behind BG and Pinkerton. On paper, Pinkerton has to be the favorite with the 1–2 punch of Robie and Gustavson, and I wouldn’t rule out a run at the state record even on the small UNH oval.
Londonderry could make things interesting if they can keep the baton close enough for Twomey and Fitzgerald. BG is intriguing because, with the 4×800 held a week earlier than the rest of the meet, they are able to use distance star Ethan Fischer. Nashua North faces one of the more interesting decisions, as they have a top high jumper in Gavin Suchecki who may also run the 4×800—he is their fastest 600m runner as well. In a dream spectator scenario, we can only hope that Fischer, Twomey, and Robie all receive the baton at the same time and battle it out down the stretch.
The second heat of the 4×800 includes Nashua South, Portsmouth, Windham, and Winnacunnet, all of whom will be looking to sneak into scoring position.
As previously mentioned, Gavin Suchecki of Nashua North enters the high jump as the top seed at 6’4”. Kaiden Okowuga of Merrimack is seeded at 6’3”, Gabe Texeira of Bedford at 6’2”, Wayne Crowell of Keene at 6’1”, and Oliver Gould (Pinkerton), Ryan Robinson (Pinkerton), and Michael Georges of Memorial have all cleared 6’0”. This is one of the more wide-open events on the boys’ side, although both Suchecki and Texeira are experienced jumpers who have been in this situation before.
This new wrinkle to the state meet is exciting because without an indoor MOC meet, New Hampshire 4×800 teams often find themselves in slower heats at New Englands. Despite the small oval at UNH, the availability of top runners and spikes should help level the playing field allowing qualifying teams to enter New Englands with faster seed times.
