There’s a strong local flavor to the recruiting class that University of New Hampshire cross country and track and field coordinator Jim Boulanger announced on Tuesday. And it’s not by accident.
“It influenced me that Tyler McLaughlin, Colin Conery and Spenser Sawyer are all going there,” said recent Inter-Lakes’ grad Ian Daly. “We tried to get a group of guys together and we all stuck together. We’re like UNH 2022, we’re going.”
Daly, who finished first in the 800 meters at the Meet of Champions earlier this month, began talking about going to UNH with Moultonborogh Academy’s McLaughlin after Dylan McLaughlin, Tyler’s brother, became a Wildcat runner in the fall of 2017. Then Daly talked to Concord High’s Conery (who ran for Hayden Daly, Ian’s father, at Concord) and found out he was looking at UNH. Next up was Windham High’s Sawyer.
“I messaged Spenser because he went to nationals in the 800 and I asked him where he was looking at colleges and he told me UNH was one of his top choices,” Ian Daly said. “So I was like, ‘You should look into that more, there’s a couple good guys running there next year and we could start something.’ ”
Daly, Sawyer and Conery finished 1-2-3, respectively, in the 800 at the MOC on June 2. A week later, Daly took seventh, Sawyer was ninth and Conery finished 10th in the 800 at the New England Championship meet, which was held at … UNH’s Wildcat Stadium.
“They have an amazing stadium,” Daly said. “The stands are awesome, the jumbotron is huge. It’s beautiful.”
Soon they’ll be running in that stadium and joining what is already a strong group of middle distance ’Cats who also have some local ties. In late April, Concord’s Matt Adams and Contoocook’s Aaron Dobe were part of UNH’s distance medley relay team that took second place at the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
“I think the program is on the upswing,” Hayden Daly said. “I talked to Boulanger and he’s got great energy right now… he’s got some pretty good recruits coming in so I think he’s excited.”
Some of those other pretty good recruits come from other local schools – Hopkinton’s Kevin McGrath and Coe-Brown’s Orion Clachar.
McGrath won the high jump and long jump at the Division III championship meet this spring. Clachar finished first in the javelin, 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles at the D-II meet. He was also second in the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles at the MOC and third in the javelin, and he was recruited to UNH as multi-sport athlete and figures to compete in the heptathalon in the indoor season and the decathalon in the spring.
Pinkerton Academy’s John King, Jr. (first in the javelin at the New England Championships), Windham’s Brian Genet (state decathlon champ) and Moultonborough’s McLaughlin (seventh in the 1,600 at New Englands) are also part of this Granite State recruiting class.
“It’s a good, balanced group,” Boulanger said. “We had some focus on New Hampshire kids and they were the best kids available for us.”
Clachar, Conery and Daly have something else in common – they all have older siblings on D-I college track teams. Michaella Conery just finished her sophomore year at UNH and was seventh in the 3,000 Steeplechase at the America East Championships, where Ariel Clachar, a rising junior at Maine, took seventh in the long jump. And Cameron Daly, a rising junior at Brown, placed 73rd at the NCAA Northeast Cross Country Regional last fall.
“The biggest thing I’ve taken away from my sister’s experience is that you’ve got to realize that now it’s not just a hobby any more, it’s really almost a job,” Orion Clachar said. “Once you get a scholarship to compete for a school, that becomes like your job and you’ve got to treat it like that. So that means going to bed early, not going to a party, treating your body right, and doing all the little things right.”
Ian Daly said his brother has given him similar advice, and sharing in the track experience is pretty common for the Daly family.
Hayden met his wife (and Ian and Cameron’s mother), Demetra, while they were both running track at Springfield College. The family went on vacations centered around road races when Cameron and Ian were young. And before they reached high school, the Daly brothers would go to Concord High practices with their dad and travel with him to the New England meet.
“We tried to make running fun for them and keep it pretty low key, but we also wanted them to see some great competitions, like going to New Englands,” Hayden said.
The middle distances are Ian’s favorite, “I like to go fast. I like the race to be quick and exciting. I like the thrill,” but this summer he will be putting in 60-70 miles per week (almost twice the amount he’s ever run per week) to train for the cross country season. Daly was fourth at the D-III cross country championships this fall, and he’s also shown some impressive endurance on snow – he was first in the classic race at the Nordic Meet of Champions in March.
Daly said he considered skiing and running at UNH, but he’s going to focus on track for his freshman year. He could end up competing against his brother in one of his first collegiate meets – the Brown cross country team is traveling to New Hampshire early next season – and you can be sure Hayden and Demetra will be there.
“Track has been part of my family my whole entire life,” Ian said, “and I don’t think that will ever end.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341, tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)