Track: Concord girls win 46-team Black Bear Invitational, Goulas and Twite sets meet records in triple jump
Published: 04-28-2024 11:07 AM
Modified: 04-28-2024 10:46 PM |
NORTHWOOD – It’s only halfway through the season, but if Saturday is any indication, expect the Concord High girls’ track and field team to be a force in late May.
Junior Ella Goulas set a meet record in the triple jump with a leap of 36 feet, 9 inches, fellow junior Maddie Muller won the pole vault, clearing 9 feet, 6 inches, and both girls ran on the runner-up 4x400-meter relay with junior Nabah Yahya and senior Morgan Doherty to lead the Crimson Tide to the team title at Saturday’s Black Bear Invitational at Coe-Brown Northwood Academy.
Concord’s 71 points bested a field of 46 teams, including programs from all three NHIAA divisions, plus prep schools Phillips Exeter (67) and Phillips Andover (54), which took second and third place, respectively.
The Tide compete in several competitive invitationals in a season, but most of them do not keep team scores, and none of them reach the scope of the Black Bear until the state championships, making it the only regular season meet of its kind.
“It’s become such a popular event,” Concord head coach Hayden Daly said. “It’s always such a high class meet, they do a great job at Coe-Brown.
“We had some great performances for sure. I think (Concord is) a great team and has incredible leadership, but I think now they’re starting to believe in themselves. Their mentality is amping up.”
Among those leaders is senior captain Doherty, who finished third in both the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles.
“She scores points everywhere. Almost any event we put her in, she scores,” Daly said. “She’s rock-solid.”
Article continues after...
Yesterday's Most Read Articles
Gudas, also a senior, made a big milestone in the 800, breaking the 2:20 mark with a 2:19.78, good for second place, and senior Kelley Mikelson came in fifth in the triple jump.
Junior Shelly Smith finished third in the 3,200, posting a time of 11:44, 30 seconds faster than her seed and her best time since returning from an injury that kept her out of races for more than a year.
Concord also displayed its depth with a pair of strong relays, the second-place 4x400 that finished in 4 minutes, 11 seconds (breaking its previous season-best mark of 4:24) and the third-place 4x100 (50.28 seconds) that is nearing the Concord school record.
The 4x100 has no seniors — Chelsea Toenah and Grace Saysaw are sophomores, Goulas and Bally Conteh are juniors — and the quartet is extremely motivated and “buying into the process,” according to Daly.
Saysaw also finished third in the triple jump and eighth in the 100-meter dash, just missing out on the finals by .09 seconds.
Bedford (53) and Nashua North (42) rounded out the top five, and host Coe-Brown was the top D-II school on the girls’ side, finishing sixth with 36 points.
Junior Emma Zeblisky won the javelin in 113-9, ahead of teammates Annika Gunderson (second) and Jacqueline Heilshorn (fourth). Isabella Grenier (third discus, third shot put) and the fifth-place 4x800 of Meredith Kerivan, Madison Taylor, Paige Murdough and Annabelle Lovett scored the other points for Coe-Brown.
Hopkinton (eight points) tied for 18th and was led by Shaylee Murdough (fourth 800), Maddy Lane (fifth 1,600 in school-record time of 5:13.54) and the fifth-place 4x400 (Murdough, Lane, Reese Bove and Sofia Upton).
Kearsarge and Winnisquam tied for 22nd with four points each. Maelle Jacques (tied fourth high jump) and Amelia Lefebvre (sixth shot put) scored for Kearsarge, and Lauren MacDonald (fourth shot put) placed for Winnisquam.
Bow (26th) was led by Hannah Pawlowski (fifth 800) and Mackenzie Szczepanik (sixth pole vault), and John Stark (tied 27th) was led by the sixth-place 4x800 of Rylee Barnard, Kayla Barriere, Anna Chasse and Rachel Berube.
Just like Goulas did in the girls’ meet, Concord senior Alain Twite set the meet record in the triple jump on the boys’ side with a mark of 44-1.
Bedford (69.33), Phillips Exeter (64), Winnacunnet (56) and Nashua South (39.33) were the top three boys’ teams, with host Coe-Brown (36), Concord (35) and John Stark (26) claiming fifth, sixth and seventh places, respectively.
Twite also finished fourth in both the long jump and triple jump and anchored the sixth-place 4x100 with teammates Deagan Hines, Tim Fahnbulleh and Jackson Borkush.
Nick Reynolds (third triple jump, fourth javelin) and Colby Nyhan (third pole vault) also placed in the top six for Concord.
Bow (20 points) was 11th, Winnisquam (five points) was 21st, and Merrimack Valley and Hopkinton tied for 27th with one point each.
Coe-Brown was led by the winning 4x800 (8:22.62) of seniors Sanjith Nomula, Max Lemay and Jamie Lanie (third 3,200) and junior Luc Kerouac (second 800).
Elias Warner (second discus, fifth shot put) capped the scoring for the host Bears.
Logan Montgomery (second 400), Joel Douzanis (third shot put), Sam Kinsey-Turner (third high jump) and Rio Calle (third long jump) led John Stark.
Senior Kody McCranie’s victory in the 200 in 22.75 seconds was the highlight for Bow, which also had points in the pole vault from Ben McDowell (second) and Joe McDowell (fifth).
Winnisquam was led by Brendan Goodwin, who finished fourth in the 400 and anchored the sixth-place 4x800 with David Swain, Philipp Rompf, and Henry Osmer.
Nicolas Oglesby (sixth long jump) led Merrimack Valley, and the sixth-place 4x400 (Ben Daniels, Roman Finlayson, Vincent Louca, Joe O’Rourke) led Hopkinton, which tied for 27th.