Divisional Meet Hub
Meet Information – Thanks LancerTiming
By Mike Smith
Last year saw the Huskies of Monadnock pulled off the boys and girls team championships by dominant performances from their regular season stalwarts and some very specialized individual performances from some lesser known individuals. This year it seems unlikely they will repeat, as many of those point scorers from last year have graduated. But don’t count them out, as they always seem to pull it together right at the right time to make that push for the team title. Let’s take a look at the expected performances, races to watch, and highlight some wild card possibilities.
Returning Champions
Girls Boys
200 Madison Parrott, Fall Mt 200 Hunter Dupuis, Belmont
400 Lauren Dean, Gilford 800 Ian Daly, InterLakes
800 Rebeca Velie, Moultonborough 1600 Jeffrey Allen, Campbell
1600 Mya Dube, Kearsarge HJ Kevin McGrath, Hopkinton
3200 Alice Riley, Belmont LJ Trevor Gomes, Campbell
TJ Emma Wheeler, IL JAV Joey Fodor, Berlin
Tough Events to Repeat:
In the 800 and 1600, Raymond’s Anna Harmon’s first season sees her in the driver’s seat in these events while Kearsarge’s Mya Dube is a 12 second seed over Belmont’s Alice Riley in the 3200.
On the guys side, Moultonborough’s Tyler McLaughlin looks potentially poised to unseat Campbell’s Jeffrey Allen in the 1600 as he’s been dominant all spring long. 
Allen is the top seed but McLaughlin ran his seed time a month ago. Is Allen coming on, is McLaughlin beyond his peak? We’ll find out on Saturday.
Events to Watch:
Girls 100, LJ and shot put – Why? The top seed in all three is Winnisquam’s Gabby Isabelle. Not the usual event combination but considering they all need explosive power, it’s not really a surprise.
Any event with Belmont’s Hunter Dupuis. Top seed in the 100, 200 and 400. He’s learned how to win and will be tough to beat.
Boys 110 Hurdles – There should be a tight contest between Newport’s Mason Martell and PCA’s Fiston Kapongo with just over a tenth of a second separating them
Boy’s Triple – With half the field jumping beyond the auto qualifier, D3 has some of the best jumpers in the state. Owen Billins of InterLakes leads the event.
Boys javelin – Can Fodor top the 190 foot mark? The D3 record stands at 168-8 and looks poised to go down. Fodor is the MOC champ from last year so he’s used to taking on the big boys.
Sprints
Names that are repeated in the various sprint events are Winnisquam’s Isabelle (100, 200), Conant’s Drew sisters (Abby 100, Haylie 200), Gilford’s Lauren Dean (200, 400) and Fall Mountains Madison Parrott (100, 200.) I would expect the winners of those events to come from those names.
On the boys’ side, as mentioned before, bet on someone other than Belmont’s Hunter Dupuis at your own peril. Top seed in the 100, 200 and 400, Dupuis had to pull from the 400 as he already had a full plate. With InterLakes Ian Daly pulling out of the 400 as well, Prospect Mountains Thomas Howlett is the top seed there. Expect Dupuis to be dogged by Kearsarge’s Gavyn Magistro in the 100 and InterLakes Eli Dupigny in the 200.
Mid-Distance
Raymond’s Harmon decided to venture onto the outdoor oval this spring and quickly established herself as the athlete to beat in whichever event she would decide to focus on. Qualified in everything from the 100 to the 1600, Harmon has decided to focus on the 800, looking to break the Division 3 record of 2:20.94 set in 2000 by Marissa Peterson of Alton. While two time 800 champion Moultonborough’s Rebeca Velie will be looking to make it three, but it’s definitively an uphill road.
Regarding the boys, if you watched Ian Daly’s interview from the Wilderness championships, there was no doubt what event Daly wanted to focus on. But ever the team player, he left the door open for the 1600/800 double, also stating he would have a full schedule indicating he would likely be in the 4×800 and 4×400 races as well. Daly pulled from the 1600 to focus on the 800 and would have to be tapped for the win. But the boys 800 is absolutely stacked, with seven guys under 2:05. Expect to see some bumping and grinding in this one.
Distance
There appeared to be a battle of two cross country greats to be’s building in the distance events with Kearsarge’s Dube and PCA’s Liza Corso. Corso is part of a 4×800 team looking to break the D3 record. Not looking to split Corso’s focus, PCA has elected to not triple her in the 4×800, 1600 and 3200. She will just be doubling back for the 3200. That leaves Dube in the driver’s seat in the 1600, but we will still see Dube and Corso set for an awesome battle in the 3200. Don’t leave out Alice Riley of Belmont and Cassie Hemming of Campbell out of those contests either.
With the departure of Mascenic’s Jake Movsessian last year, Campbell’s Jeffrey Allen and Moultonborough’s Tyler McLaughlin have had the 1600 and 3200 distances to be their domain, standing above the pack. Both clash in the 1600, with Allen electing to throw his hat in the 800 meter ring leaving McLaughlin with the 3200. Good luck predicting the 1600 where there is only 3 seconds separating the top two and McLaughlin’s time coming from the Black Bear invite a month ago. McLaughlin is a 30 second seed over Monadnock’s Lucas Beteau in the 3200.
Hurdles
Girls hurdles is always a strong event in D3s and this year is no exception. The same names sit atop the 100 and 300 hurdle fields. The winner in these events 
might come down to whomever is either on fire that day or is the most fresh. The following names top the list in both races. Taima Ronish of White Mountains, Evelyn Carleton of Epping, Emma Wheeler Inter-Lakes, Tori Allen of Campbell, Sierra Holden of Newmarket and Sana Syed of Belmont.
Mason Martell of Newport and Steven Walker of Fall Mountain are both in the top three in the 110 and 300 hurdles and could win. Watch out for Fiston Kapongo of PCA as the kid is a true competitor and seems to always rise to the challenge (and is the #1 seed in the 300IH.)
Jumps
In the pole vault Conant’s Taylor Banish is the top seed and favorite to win this year. Teammates Tori Allen and Merceidiz Diaz of Campbell are double trouble in high jump with InterLake’s Alison Haight looking to break up the party. And the long jump is made up of names familiar in this preview, Isabelle of Winnisquam, Abby Drew of Conant, Wheeler of InterLakes and Ronish of White Mountain. Expect one of them to be your winner.
On the boys’ side Kevin McGrath of Hopkinton leads all high jumpers with 7 guys over the 6 foot barrier. McGrath’s back in the long jump behind Hillsboro Deering’s Ben Ketterer with another field of fine jumpers looking to spoil the pecking order. In pole vault, Kearsarge’s John Cunningham is the solid lead with InterLakes Drew Schriewer in the two slot.
Throws
In girls shot put, Gabby Isabelle of Winnisquam is the leader by more than a foot over this year’s best name in track and field, Oceanne Skoog of Newfound. Discus has two athletes with a fourteen foot cushion and throws over 100 feet in Grace Gensamer of White Mountains and Emma Roussell of Epping. In javelin we have five throwing 100 feet or better with Jasmine Peterson of Newfound and Taylor Banish of Conant looking to battle at the top.
D3 has 6 boys throwing the shot over 40 feet, led by Wilton’s Sam Bailey and Newport’s Peter Thibault. Bailey has a two foot advantage over Thibault, who has a two foot advantage over the rest of the field. Thibault and Bailey will clash again in the discus where Thibault enjoys an 11 foot advantage over Bailey. Joey Fodor enjoys a 39+ foot advantage in the javelin, with a monster bomb last weekend at the Wilderness Championships.
Relays
Relays are too hard to predict as the team makeup changes from the one that ran the qualifying mark. Gilford girls are the top seed in both the 4×100 and 4×400, and if desired should pull off those wins. PCA has a 47-second seed advantage and are right on the edge of breaking the D3 mark, so expect them to invest in the 4×800.
On the boys’ side, Belmont is the top seed in the 4×100 and 4×400 and with Hunter Dupuis on those teams, I won’t bet against them. Mascenic is a ten second seed on the field and look to be all in on the 4×800 but keep a wary eye on InterLakes as they want to snag points towards a team title.
Team Title Races
Predicting the girls team title is really difficult this year. White Mountains, Campbell and InterLakes have solid athletes sprinkled throughout the meet while Gilford and Winnisquam have bunches of points in certain events. Not to mention Portsmouth Christian Academy which has a very specific set of entries that have the possibility of scoring big points. Maybe a tip of the hat to Gilford winning it on relay points.
On the boys’ side, look for there to be a battle between Belmont, InterLakes and Kearsarge. InterLakes looks to be spread a little thinner than Belmont but some big performances could shift the balance of power enough to change the outcome of the meet. Also don’t sleep on Campbell as they have pretty good coverage of the events.
