Hanover
The Lebanon High standout set a personal record in the Big Apple then came home in time to win three individual state championships while leading the Raider girls team to a third-place finish at the NHIAA state championship meet at Leverone Field House.
Kennedy, who will run for Cornell University next season, won the 55 hurdles (8.62 seconds), the 600 run (1:38.21) and the 300 dash (41.68 seconds). She also took second in the high jump (five feet, two inches).
The Lebanon girls took third place in Division II for the second consecutive year. On Sunday, they finished with 49 points behind Portsmouth (56 points) and state champion Souhegan (84 points).
Kennedy said her participation in Saturday’s Armory Invitational, hampered her some at the state meet, but she was glad she seized the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“It definitely slowed me down, but that’s OK,” Kennedy said. “I was just looking to get points for my team and not overdue it. Since I raced yesterday, taking care of my body was first.”
The senior standout said she had competed in back-to-back races before, but not with the same level of intensity she displayed over the weekend.
“Honestly, I’m not just saying this because she’s one of my girls,” said Lebanon coach Kevin Lozeau. “But I think this is, if not the greatest, one of the greatest indoor track performances ever. … No one (at the NH state meet) has ever won the 600 and 300 back-to back.”
Kath Merchant also aided the Raider cause by winning the shot put competition with a throw of 39 feet, 5.75 inches.
“I increased my personal record by a foot and a half,” Merchant said. “We hadn’t had a meet in awhile, so I didn’t know how I would be throwing.”
Merchant will join Kennedy at the upcoming New England championships later this month. Lebanon boys Ryan Sullivan (long jump winner) and Marcus Roper (third in shot put) also qualified for the prestigious event.
Sullivan, a sophomore, won the long jump with a distance of 20 feet, 5.5 inches.
“It came down to teamwork and pushing each other to the next step,” Sullivan said in reference to teammate Zach Petrin, who took sixth place in long jump to contribute a point to his squad’s total of 23, good for eighth place. “There’s not a lot of selfishness here. It’s not, ‘I hope he doesn’t jump as far as me,’ it’s ‘I hope he can out-jump me because that will push me farther next time.’”
Sullivan, who plays on Lebanon’s football team in the fall, said there is a friendly competitiveness that tends to abound at high school track meets.
“I feel like everyone in here wants everyone else to do better,” he said.
Trinity won the boys championship with 66 points, followed by Windham (58) and Merrimack Valley (40).
The Hanover boys finished at number 12, while their female counterparts finished in 16th place.
Morgan Baughman was the Marauders’ top individual finisher, claiming fourth place in the 1,500-meter run. Hanover’s 4×200 relay team — comprised of Owen Brooks, Benjamin Sobel, Sam Ives and Samuel Pych — also took fourth.
Hanover coach Steve McConnell said it was a successful day for his team because several personal records were achieved.
“We train them to peak at this meet,” McConnell said. “We haven’t had a meet here in a few weeks, we’ve been running in the halls and on the roads. It’s been tough.”
As for Lebanon, Lozeau is already looking forward to the spring.
“In outdoor, we were second behind a Milford team that was really strong last year and they’re not so strong this year,” Lozeau said. I would say Souhegan is still the team to beat outdoors, but I really like our chances. … For our girls to be in the top three, bodes really well for outdoor.”