It takes one heck of an effort to wear out Maddy Lane and that’s exactly what she put forth on Sunday.
Lane, a junior, won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters, setting division records in the latter two, to lead Hopkinton High to its third consecutive Division III girls’ track and field title at Pelham High School.
“It went better than planned,” Hopkinton head coach George Sabol said. “We planned it out to score about 78 points and we scored 86. We got more points out of sprinting than we planned. Zoe Bishop exceeded her seeds. And of course, Maddy set two records.”
While Lane was the overwhelming favorite in all three of her events and was the two-time returning champion in the 1,600 and 3,200, last year’s championship meet was held concurrently with D-II, meaning that there was more recovery time in between her events.
But despite having less recovery time and more individual races than she did last year, Lane pulled off the triple crown.
She easily won the 1,600 in 4 minutes, 54.0 seconds, breaking the previous record of 4:57.34, and leading runner-up Hailey Watts of Moultonborough by 19 seconds, but she faced a greater challenge in the 800.
Lane still won in 2:18.89, a five-second margin over runner-up Kaitlin O’Shea of Mascenic, but she didn’t have much time before toeing the line to start the 3,200. She accomplished her goal, running a 10:39.40, breaking the previous record of 10:44.46 that had stood since 2004.
“The plan going in was to get the win in all three of those events to get the points needed for the team,” Lane said. “I was really happy to get that done. I knew it would be difficult to get it done, the meet moved so quickly. By the 3,200 I was hurting. I don’t have a ton of experience in the 800; I don’t run it often. But the 3,200 was the hardest on my legs with the quick turnaround.”
“It’s the first time in three years I’ve heard her say, ‘Mr. Sabol, I’m tired,” Sabol added.
Lane’s fellow distance runners also made big contributions to the Hawks’ championship. The 4×800 relay won the first track event of the day, with freshmen Hannah Clarner and Elli Gregory, sophomore Gemma Guadagno and senior Sofia Upton clocking a 10:03.55.
Sophomore Maisie Emerson finished runner-up to Lane in the 3,200 and came in third in the 1,600.
Senior Aisling Madden was top-three in all three sprinting events, placing second in the 200, and third in both the 100 and 400.
Zoe Bishop, a senior, was second in the discus and fourth in the javelin.
All told, the Hawks’ 86 points were enough to hold off a strong Gilford team, which finished second with 70.
“The team is really happy,” Lane said. “We graduated a lot of people last year. We weren’t sure how it would go today, so we’re really happy with how it went. Everyone ran amazing today, and as a team we’re really happy to get the win.”
Mascoma (45), Pelham (34) and Sanborn (33.5) rounded out the top five, with local teams Kearsarge (31) and Belmont (28) finishing sixth and seventh.
Belmont was led by senior Ava Lacasse, who defended her title in the 100-meter dash (12.56 seconds) and won a second title in the 400 (58.43). Cora Takantjas (fourth 300 hurdles, fourth triple jump) also scored for the Raiders.
Ainsley Frenkiewich had three runner-up finishes (pole vault, long jump, triple jump) to lead Kearsarge. Juliet Faria (fourth 200), Riley Raynes (sixth 400), Jersey Vedova (sixth pole vault) and the sixth-place 4×100 of Jenna Burkett, Javiera Eliessetch, Josefina Eliessetch and Faria scored for the Cougars.
Winnisquam (four points) tied for 23rd with a pair of fifth-place finishes from Kyra Russell (pole vault) and the 4×100 team (Emily Tripple, Denessa Williams, Alexandria Myers, Kaiden Robb).
On the boys’ side of the standings, Winnisquam was the top area team, taking home third with 58 points, trailing host Pelham (77) and Mascoma (72.5).
Sophomore Nolan Abbott won two events, taking home the title in the 300 hurdles (42.53 seconds) and the pole vault (11-0). Fellow sophomore and teammate Dayton Brigante also cleared 11-0, but Abbott cleared it on his first attempt (Brigante cleared it on his second) to give him the win.
Abbott also anchored the runner-up 4×400 with Kane St. Hilaire, Kyle Douglas (second 200, fourth 100) and Taber Haggett (third 300 hurdles, fourth 110 hurdles) to complete the Bears’ scoring.
St. Thomas (34) and Sanborn (33) were fourth and fifth, with Hopkinton (32) taking sixth.
Senior Kristof Cauley won the high jump (6-0) and also finished fourth in the javelin to lead the Hawks, who also had scoring from Hunter Eckner-Naylor (second javelin), Nick Goddard (fourth shot put), Liam Tripod (fifth 1,600), Max Goupil (fifth 3,200) and the fifth-place 4×800 of Michael Crosby, Finnegan Kovar, Miles Van Hoff and Jax Marshall.
Brady Filteau (second discus, third shot put) scored all of 14 points for Belmont (tied 13th).
Jacob Dunn (fourth high jump), Tanner Stafford (sixth 800) and the sixth-place 4×400 (Mason Christensen, Caleb Moyer, Stafford, Kelby Frenkiewich) scored for Kearsarge (tied 20th, six points).