Conway, n.h.
Marauder athletes swept the 100-meter dash and had six top-10 finishes in distances of 800 meters or fewer at Saturday’s NHIAA Division II state meet, helping the boys place fifth and the girls seventh in rainy conditions at Kennett High.
Portsmouth won both the boys and girls meets, dominating second-place Windham on the boys side, 89-68.5, while the girls edged Milford, 70.5-68.
Lebanon’s girls placed ninth and its boys tied for 11th while mourning the loss of 15-year assistant coach Chris Stone, who died on Thursday (see sidebar).
Hanover sophomore Kyle Doucette won the boys 100 dash in 11.18 seconds, outlasting Windham’s Matthew Garafano by .11 seconds. Doucette later was neck-and-neck with Trinity speedster Stephen Duckett in the 200, edging him on the corners and fending him off until the final stretch run, when he settled for second. Both runners eclipsed the 20-year-old previous meet record of 22.24, Duckett finishing in 22.06 and Doucette 22.22.
“We tell our runners to make (competitors) pass them on the corners, because it requires them to cover more distance and use more energy to do so,” Hanover coach Steve McConnell said. “Kyle made (Duckett) work so hard, he was never able to pass him on the corner. He ran really smart and hard.”
Marauder freshman Ella Maclean was third after the preliminaries of the girls 100 but emerged to defeat Oyster River junior Devan McClain by .09 seconds in 12.88.
“I’d say good starts and staying low were key for both of us (in the 100),” Doucette said.
Colm Seigne, meanwhile, placed second in the 800 in 1:58.98. Seigne and Doucette also showed bursts to help the Marauders place second in the 4×400 relay (3:33.39), and Maclean was the first leg on the Marauders’ runner-up girls 4×100 team (50.92).
Hanover also placed in the girls 4×400 (fifth, 4:18.72) and 4×800 (sixth, 9:56.99) while the boys were fifth in the 4×100 (46.69).
“I think sprinting is becoming a strength for us,” said Seigne, a junior. “We’ve always had a strong cross country team at Hanover, and maybe we’ve been known more for distance runners, but we’re starting to get some really strong short-distance athletes.”
Hanover still had four top-10s in distance events, led by Leila Trummel’s fourth place in the girls 1,600 in a season-best time of 5:12.37. Sophomore Christine Aman ran a personal-best 2:22.58 for sixth place in the 800.
Hanover sophomore Anna Stafford placed second in the pole vault (9 feet, 0 inches) and sixth in the 300 hurdles (50.67) to help pace the Marauders, and Caleb Putnam contributed with a sixth-place heave of 40-5 in the boys shot put.
Lebanon senior thrower Kath Merchant had another strong day, breaking her own meet record in the javelin with a throw of 136 feet, 4 inches. Merchant also defended her title in the shot put with a toss of 38-11, 6 inches farther than last year’s winner, and placed third in the discus.
Merchant’s best throw in the latter event traveled 128-3, nearly 7 feet farther than her winning throw from a year ago, but not enough on Saturday to surpass Coe-Brown’s Kathleen Collins throw of 137-1, a meet record, nor that of runner-up Megan Sheehan, of Sanborn (128-9).
“(Collins and Sheehan) both had really good days,” said Merchant, who will throw at St. Lawrence University next year. “If I’m going to get beat, I’m glad it’s because they were on top of their game.”
Twin sister Kim Merchant was fifth in the shot put (34-1.75) and tied for sixth in the high jump (4-10).
It was a difficult day for Lebanon senior boys thrower Marcus Roper, who placed second in the shot put despite suffering from a groin injury that kept him out of the discus and forced him to throw the shot from a standing position rather than the customary gliding approach.
Roper’s runner-up throw in the shot was 46-6.5, nearly 5 feet shorter than last year’s winning heave.
“I got hurt during practice on Wednesday, so it was just bad timing,” said Roper, who will throw at Plymouth State next year. “It’s kind of disappointing, being a senior and (at) the last state meet.”
Lebanon’s Will Tanski was second in the pole vault at 11-6, and Cody Davis placed fifth in the 1,600 for the Raiders (4:34.52).
It was the second overall outdoor title for Portsmouth’s girls program — its first since 1977 — and the second boys crown in four years under 11th-year coach Mike Lyford, a former Clipper runner who also coaches their cross country and indoor track teams.
“A lot of things came together for us today,” Lyford said. “It’s probably more accurate to say a lot of things didn’t go wrong.”
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.