Pics
The first Team Pentathlon was an incredibly fun event for the almost 300 athletes who participated. Here’s how it works: five events 
are contested and each performance earns points for their school based on international competition scoring tables. The catch? Each athlete can only do one event. So, if your best shot putter is also your best high jumper you need to choose! Check out more of the details about this meet below the recap.
With any new concept, there are issues to work out and we will address that later in this piece. For now, lets take a look back on what happened in two very tight meets. Both came down to an inch here, a tenth of a second there.
Girls
Team Results -Courtesy of LancerTiming
As the meet started, the shot put and the high jump were underway as were the hurdles. Normally these athletes are checking in and out of events, but at the Team Pentathlon, everyone only does one event!
In the shot put, six girls had 30+ foot throws and the event certainly set the tone for the eventual medal contenders with the Pinkerton tandem of Briana Danis (30’0.75”) and Adrianna Buccieri (30’1”), Portsmouth’s Holly Galvin (31’3.75”) Nashua South’s Anai Dominguez (31’5.75”), Keene’s Emily Boswell (33’6.25”) and, overcoming some early foul 
trouble, Milford’s Robyn Krafft. Krafft went on to win the event with a big toss of 34’5”.
The high jump started with 19 athletes (that’s a lot for that event!) and eventually whittled down to just one. Again, this event was a microcosm of the girl’s meet at large. Portsmouth’s Olivia Cray (4’11”), Merrimack Valley’s Theresa Irving (4’11”), Pinkerton’s Emily Lesburt (5’1”) all jumped very well, but it was Leslie MacGrath of Milford who won the event with a monster jump of 5’3”.
The 55m Hurdles is always an exciting race and Sunday’s event was no different. Merrimack Valley’s Madisyn Garrity (10.19), Portsmouth’s Zosia Kobylinski (10.10) Hanover’s Olivia Trummel (10.03), Timberlane’s Shawna Ruth (9.84), and Manchester Memorial’s Lela Connors (9.82) all scored big points for their schools, but it was Portsmouth’s Sarah Morin who took top honors in her first hurdle race of the season.
The 1000 meters Sunday might have been the best collection of 1000m talent the state will see this season! Manchester Memorial’s Asia Mercier (3:15.43), Hanover’s Christine Aman (3:14.99), Merrimack’s Adele Alexander (3:14.40), and Dover’s Ashlyn Smith (3:14.16) all ran great races and scored big points, but two athletes really separated themselves from the pack. Pinkerton’s Macy Graves (3:09.06) was the runner up and Keene’s Mikayla Randall (3:06.06) finished strong for the win.
The last event of the day on the girl’s side of things was the long jump. The meet was still very close and the horizontal jumpers would have the last say in team scoring. 
Keene’s Ali Hebert (14’8.25”), Pinkerton’s Marisa Douglas (15’0.5”), Londonderry’s Erica Waters (15’0.75”) and Portsmouth’s Dani Vigueras (15’5.5”) all jumped well and helped their school cement their team scores but two jumpers separated themselves by about a foot or more from the rest of the top competitors. Hanover’s Zoe Onyango (16’4.75”) was the runner up and Milford’s Renee Wilson (16’5.75”) was the long jump champion.
After all events were recorded and scores were calculated, the top six teams were:
Portsmouth (A) 3380
Pinkerton (A) 3298
Milford (A) 3207
Hanover (A) 3132
Keene (A) 3128
Manchester Memorial (A) 3043
(shoutout to Pinkerton (B) with 3011 points to come in 7th out of 37 teams!)
Boys
Team Results -Courtesy of LancerTiming
The boy’s meet started with long jump, and it seemed like many schools made the choice to put their top long jumper in another event. This opened the door for different athletes to contribute to scoring for their team! Pinkerton’s Patrick Cotnoir (17’6.25), Dover’s Ethan Wallace (17’11”), Hanover’s Quincy McBride (18’1”), Kingswood’s Devan Wade (19’1.5”), and Merrimack Valley’s Seth Baylus (19’2”) jumped well and took the 2-6 spots ,but it was Spaulding’s Ryan Dane with a great jump of 20’3.5” to win the event by over a foot!
In the 55 hurdles it was a real battle at the top with Pembroke’s James Dupuis (8.83), Keene’s Evan Holland (8.73), Portsmouth’s Chris Mood (8.72), and Pinkerton’s Jayson Choy (8.70) all extremely close to one another in the 3-6 spots. However, two hurdlers were way ahead of the pack in a showdown of the #1 and #3 ranked boys in Division 1. Spaulding’s Adrian Sutton (7.86) and winner Pinkerton’s Conor Seleny (7.75) blasted some very fast times to score mega points for their schools.
The 1000m was also tightly contested and had big scoring implications. The 4-6 spots were taken by Merrimack’s Josh Felo (2:45.55), and the Dover duo of Tyler Sheedy (2:44.50) and Jeremiah Payeur (2:42.06). In a very tight race, the top three runners were separated by just over one second with a Pinkerton punch of Zach Plaza (2:40.62) and Stephen Connelly (2:40.56) taking third and second place. Pulling away for the win was Keene’s Nico Ramirez in a great time of 2:39.39.
The shot put was a snapshot of the overall team race as the eventual top 3 teams all had throwers place in the top six. Dover’s Preston Quimby, (38’1.5”), Pinkerton’s 
George Nigro III (39’1.5”), and Spaulding’s Chandler Sutton (40’7.25”) threw well and took the 3-6 spots but the top three throwers really separated themselves from the pack. Nashua South’s Paul Marchand (43’7.75”) and Portsmouth’s Thor Griffith (45’9.25) certainly had big throws, but the “wow” moment of the shot put came from Manchester Central’s Jassiah Francis with a monster throw of 50’11” that may have elicited the loudest crowd reaction of any event on the day!
The last event of the day on the boy’s side was the high jump. Keene’s Lucas Sipler and Peter Shield, along with Coe-Brown’s Anders Larson and Winnacunnet’s Christian Fortin all jumped 5’6” for the 3-6 spots, and Timberlane’s Timothy Trasatti powered over 5’9” for second overall. Stealing the show however was Portsmouth’s Andrew Kelly, who elected to start his jumping day with a 5’11” opening height. After clearing that easily, Kelly went on to jump a PR of 6’3” and score big points for Portsmouth.
After all events were recorded and scores were calculated, the top six teams were:
Pinkerton (A) 3377
Portsmouth (A) 3353
Spaulding (A) 3331
Keene (A) 3196
Pinkerton (B) 3010
Winnacunnet (A) 2913
Great job by all competitors, coaches and officials! Next year we are looking at potentially adding more running events such as (but not limited to) relays. We do want the meet to flow a little better and we will be soliciting feedback from coaches about what you liked and what we could work on and improve. We thought for a first effort it went pretty well, and a big thanks to all the coaches who wanted to be a part of it by bringing teams and individuals! Below is some info on the meet so everyone can see how it was set up this year.
See you next year!
The Pentathlon Committee
The Five Events
Long Jump
- Athletes get 3 jumps, longest legal jump will be used for scoring purposes.
High Jump
- Ties will not be broken. A no-height performance will result in zero points.
Shot Put
- Athletes get 3 throws, longest legal throw will be used for scoring purposes, all throws will be measured.
55m Hurdles
- One race per athlete, no finals.
1000m
- One race per athlete, no finals.
Here’s the 2020 format (subject to change next year!):
- Each school enters up to 2 athletes per gender per event.
- Each athlete can only do a total of one
- Scoring tables similar to Decathlon/Heptathlon will be used.
- Timed by Lancer Timing, officiated by State officials, FAT.
- Performances from this competition can be used to qualify for the State Meet / Open Meets if they meet or exceed the minimum Open Meet standard.
- Each team’s total points will determine the overall team scoring results.
- Top 3 teams overall per gender get medals.
Each school can enter up to 2 athletes per gender for any of the events. (Each athlete can only do one event) It’s possible for a school to have a full 5 person “A Team” and a full 5 person “B Team” but you do not need to have a full team in either category to be a part of this meet!
No need to declare what athletes are “A Team” or “B Team”, your school’s best performance in each event is your “A Team” score, your school’s second-best performance in each event is your “B Team” score. If you only have one athlete in an event, your school will score a zero in that event for your B Team. If you don’t have anyone in an event you will score a zero in that event for your A Team and for your B Team.
All performances count towards State Meet and Open Meet qualifications so if you want to treat this meet simply as a mini-meet and not as a Team Pentathlon that’s completely fine.
