With the Division III track and field state meet just two weeks away, some local teams are proving themselves to be contenders. The Bow girls displayed both depth and skill, scoring 240 points to handily defeat Conant (96 points), Hopkinton (58), Raymond (47), Hinsdale (35) and Bishop Brady (eight) in a meet at Bow on Saturday.
The Bow boys also showed depth, narrowly defeating Hopkinton, 159-152, despite the Hawks winning 10 events. Bishop Brady (91), Conant (61.5), Hinsdale (40) and Raymond (19.5) rounded out the team scores.
Sophomore Dominique Biron won four events to lead the Falcon girls, winning the 200 (27.5), 100 hurdles (16.21), 300 hurdles (46.7) and high jump (5-0). Junior Gianna Celenza won the 100 (13.62) and 400 (1:03.7) and finished third in the 200. Sophomore Laura Hoeker won the long jump (12-8), tied for first in the pole vault (6-6) and finished third in the triple jump and classmate Jennifer Ess won the triple jump (29-10), finished second in the long jump and third in the 100.
Bow wound up just one point out of second place at the D-III meet last year, with freshmen and sophomores scoring a large bulk of the points and those two classes have continued to grow.
“The sophomores and juniors have really taken hold of that leadership and stepped up, especially in the last few meets. The freshmen are really starting to follow in their footsteps. They’re getting excited about their times and competing. The nervousness is gone and the excitement to compete is there,” said Bow Coach Jon Uhouse, adding that, “it’s amazing. We have 18 girls on the team. Most of them are in four events. They show up and produce every meet. They get better every meet. They are definitely a force to be reckoned with at the state meet.”
Saara Bliss (second 100, second 200), Cheri Young (second high jump, third 300 hurdles, third javelin) and Jersey Young (second triple jump, tied third long jump) finished in the top three in multiple events. Eve Anderson (400), Kylie Murphy (800), Sarah Ciotti (1,600) and Meredith Osburn (discus) added third-place finishes.
Bow also showed its depth by scoring in all 18 events, taking the top four spots in both the 100 and 200 and swept the 4×100 (Hoeker, Crista Alfano, Bliss, Celenza), 4×400 (Alfano, Anderson, Bliss, Celenza) and 4×800 (Alfano, Ciotti, Sohani Demian and Murphy) relays.
Sarah Nadeau won the 800 (2:36) and 1,600 (5:34) to lead Hopkinton. Claire Reidy won the discus (72-7) and finished fourth in the shot put. Lila Bradley (second 300 hurdles) scored Bishop Brady’s points.
On the boys’ side, Brian Bushnell won the 200 (24.2) and finished third in the 400 and sixth in the long jump to lead the Falcons. Grady Beaulieu (tied second 200, fourth 100, fifth long jump), Chandler Evans (tied second 200) and Dylan Wheeler (fourth 400, tied fifth 200) did well in the sprints and the quartet formed the winning 4×100 relay.
John Rolla (second 110 hurdles, second 300 hurdles, third triple jump), Mike Perry (second triple jump, third high jump) and Alex Berube (second shot put, fifth 110 hurdles, fifth 300 hurdles) scored in multiple events. Robby Ciotti (second 1,600), Sam Berube (second 3,200), Matt Murdoch (third 300 hurdles), Sam Neff (third 1,600) and Henry Tanner (third 1,600) had top three finishes.
Hopkinton, however, had more D-III qualifying performances, with Dom Repucci winning the 800 (2:01), 1,600 (4:33), Nick Fleury winning the 100 (10.84) and long jump (19-8) and Kevin McGrath (second triple jump) winning the high jump (6-0) and triple jump (37-11).
Aaron Dobe won the 400 (52.8), Simon Doneski won the 3,200 (10:56), the 4×400 (Aidan Molanr, Dobe, Doneski, Repucci) and 4×800 relay teams (Molnar, Dobe, Doneski and Max Rossignol) also won.
Molnar (second 800), Brandon Ehrmanntraut (third 110 hurdles, fourth 300 hurdles), Zach Drotos (second javelin, fourth discus) and Duncan Calder (fourth 800, fourth 1,600) scored in multiple events for the Hawks.
“They all have a goal in mind and that goal is the (Division III) meet. Things are coming together on paper. But we have to do it at the meet,” Hopkinton Coach Matthew Christie said. “There’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle … There’s a bunch of guys who are jelling and it’s coming together at the right time.”
Cameron Pigeon won the 110 hurdles (18.89) and the 300 hurdles (45.7) for Bishop Brady, but the Giants scored the majority of their points in the throws with Joe Bell (won the shot put at 37-8, fourth long jump), Sean Sullivan (won the discus with a toss of 122-8, fifth shot put), Matthew Morey (second discus, sixth javelin) and Peter Dubois (third discus, third shot put) among the top throwers. Michael Feltham (third 800, fifth 400) also placed well.