Hopkinton News : track and field

Hopkinton girls, pushed a bit, still take state title

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:46:00 GMT

BY MATT SCHOOLEY

The Hopkinton and Fall Mountain girls track teams weren’t in much of a mood for sharing during the Class M & S state championship meet. In the end, it was the Hawks who shared least and gained most, earning 148.5 points and a third consecutive title on Saturday, May 30.

The two teams ran away from the competition, but Fall Mountain’s 108 points weren’t enough to topple the Hawks. Third-place Somersworth managed 49 points.

Hopkinton entered the meet without its team captain, Quin Nichols, lost a week prior to the event with mononucleosis.

Carolyn Maynard helped make up for Nichols’ absence, winning three events, and the Hawks swept the three relay events to pull away after the two-team race was in a near dead heat midway through the meet.

“We have good depth for a school of our size,” said Hopkinton head coach Rick Welch. “Last year we had it won halfway through. This year when you have two teams who score over 100 points, there isn’t much left for everyone else.”

Amelia Paquette won the shot put, Jacqui Foti did the same in pole vault, Elise Ewing was second in the triple jump, and Libby Wetterer was third in the 100- and 300- meter hurdles, all qualifying for the Meet of Champions on Saturday, June 6, at the University of New Hampshire.

Emily Cousens joins her teammates after earning second place in the 800-meter run, third place in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200. Ali Grise was fourth in the 100- and 200-meter dashes to qualify for the MOC.

“We’re back practicing (immediately),” said Welch. “It seems like almost the entire team still has some season left.”

The boys team scored 20 points to place 13th among 27 teams.

Garlow Oakley represents the Hawks in an individual event at UNH after he came in third in the pole vault. Sam Helrich and Mike Klinker placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the same event. Hopkinton’s 4x800 relay team earned first place, while the 4x400 team took sixth.

Hopkinton girls take crown again; boys move up to fourth

Bow Editor — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:11:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

While other squads competed against fellow Class M-S programs, Hopkinton track and field traveled the state – often with head coach Rick Welch driving one of the buses – and faced some of the top competition from Class I and L schools with student bodies sometimes two or three times larger.

“And they held their own,” said Welch. “It’s not a whole lot of strategy. If you get invited to a big meet, why not go?”

Calculated or not, when the Class M-S championship finally arrived, even the fog enveloping Gilford High School couldn’t mask the clear result of Hopkinton’s arduous schedule.

Hopkinton teaches larger-school foes a lesson at meet

Bow Editor — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:11:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

If you didn’t look closely enough, you may not have noticed that a recent track and field meet in Pelham featured a Class M team in the midst of several Class I powers.

And if you did miss the oddity, then you probably also didn’t notice that the Class M team was best of all.

Hopkinton, facing seven schools with larger student bodies on Saturday, April 12, finished tops among girls teams and second among boys.

What’s more impressive, said coach Rick Welch, is that up until a couple days prior to the event, the team was relegated to practicing in the hallways of Hopkinton High School, while squads farther south, like Class I Bedford and Pelham, prepared outdoors.

Scorers for the girls, who finished with 135.66 points, included: Junior Quinn Nichols took first in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 29 seconds.

Sophomore Emily Cousens was tops in the 1,600 at 5:42, and senior Alison Bartlett came in fifth in the 1,600 at 5:58.

Sophomore Cass Mellen earned first place in the 3,200, finishing the run in 12:58. She was followed by teammate Shannon Mackenzie, a junior, who took second at 13:05.

Junior Amelia Paquette finished third in shot put at 30 feet, 2.5 inches, and freshman Kaylee Foote was second in discus with a toss of 73-6.5.

Senior Maureen McAulliffe placed third in long jump at 13- 10 and was seventh in the 400 with a time of 1:09.6.

In the 300-meter hurdles, senior Gretchen Loft placed second in 52.2 seconds, followed by sophomore Carolyn Maynard at 52.9. Freshman Hallie Loft placed sixth in 57.7 seconds.

Mackenzie took first in the high jump, and junior Katie Jackson finished third. Alexandra Trahnstrom and Chiara Herlihy tied for seventh.

Jackson came in third in the triple jump at 27-5.

The girls also won the 4x400- meter relay in 4:28.

The boys, who compiled 118 points, had several strong efforts as well.

The 3,200-meter run proved most fruitful for the Hawks, who placed six in the top eight.

Senior Sam Schlepphorst won the event in 11:25. He was followed by sophomore Ben Helm in 11:43. Sophomore Jesse Bostic was fourth with a time of 12:07; Ben Dalzell took fifth in 12:17; sophomore Ian head placed sixth in 12:19; and Doug Fuller finished eighth with a time of 13:41.

Schlepphorst also won the 1,600 in 4:59, and Helm was third in 5:18.

Joey Harrington, a senior, won the 400-meter dash at 54.8 seconds, and Sam Grady took sixth at 58.3.

Harrington also placed second in the javelin with a throw of 127-4, and Troy Namini finished fourth with a toss of 114-6. Senior Steve Claggett took second in the 110-meter hurdles in 18.4 seconds. Zach Cousens was fifth with a time of 19.5 seconds, and freshman Sam Helrich earned sixth in 19.7 seconds.

In the 800, senior Rohan Nobis finished fifth at 2:14, immediately followed by junior Tim Denoncour at 2:16.

Claggett earned fourth in the long jump with a distance of 17- 3, and Namini was seventh at 15-8.75.

Cousens placed fifth in the triple jump at 37-3.5, and Alexander Hubbard came in eighth in the 300-meter hurdles. The boys finished second in the 4x400 and sixth in the 4x100.

Head of state – Hopkinton senior vaults to win at M of C

Bow Editor — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:31:00 GMT

BY SAPNA PATHAK

Ask Christine Head about her past three appearances at the Class M-S track and field championships and she says, “Bad karma.”

Turn to her father and he simply laughs, rolls his eyes and won’t say much about each experience.

Indeed, it’s not exactly the response you’d expect from the three-time female pole-vault Class M-S state champion. But then again, it’s the events leading up to her championship-winning leaps that first come to her mind.

“In 2005, I was in the 4 X 800 (relay) and got heat stroke,” said Head. “Then last year, in the 4 X 100, I tripped and fell hard and scratched up my entire body really bad. I’ve just got bad luck at state meets.
It’s so weird.”

The trend continued this year when Head caught her right hand on the spikes of her track shoes, causing a deep cut. Informed she would need stitches, Head chose to risk covering the gash with a makeshift-bandage before taking her first jump.

The risk paid off.

Head’s state title earned her a third straight trip to the Meet of Champions, where she placed first in the female pole vault with a jump of 10 feet. The first-place finish was good enough to send her to the New England Track and Field Regional meet on June 9.

“That’s no surprise,” said Dan Meserve, Hopkinton athletics director. “If she can run, she’ll do it. She’s not the type to let something like that stop her from competing. She’s certainly a part of the strongest (track) team we’ve ever had, especially in pole vault.”

The 5-foot-8 senior came in sixth at New Englands with a jump of 10-06.

Earlier this season, she made her first appearance at the National Indoor Track finals, coming in 13th among 30 of the country’s top female vaulters.

While competing in big meets doesn’t faze her, the pressure of performing in front of big crowds was an issue the Bowdoin College-bound vaulter looked to fix in her final year as a Hawk.

“I really wanted to work on that,” said Head of her pre-meet anxiety. “I usually get nervous when I have to perform in general, so I purposely did things that forced me to be in front of lots of people. I went to more college meets, I gave a National Honor Society speech and even performed a dance with my friend for a charity event.

“I tended to choke a little at meets,” she continued. “I lost a little confidence there, but now I’m more comfortable because I made a conscious decision to get over that. I want to do well in college, so I’ve got to start working on those things before I get there.”

Hopkinton girls overwhelm field, take first crown

Bow Editor — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:57:00 GMT

BY MATT STOUT

If the first one is the best one, then this certainly qualifies.

The Hopkinton girls track and field team cruised to its first title in school history on Saturday, May 26, at the Class M-S championships in Gilford, compiling 124 points – 51 better than the next closest team.

Senior Christine Head, in the pole vault; sophomore Quinn Nicols, in the 800-meter run; freshman Emily Cousens, in the 1,600; and the 4 X 100-meter relay team of Ali Grise, Head, Amber Travers and Caroline Maynard all earned first-place finishes among several sterling efforts from the Hawks.

Grise, a freshman, added a third-place finish in the 100 and took fourth in the 200; Maynard, another rookie, placed in the top six in both those events and the 400; and Cousens took second in the 3,200, Travers was second in the 110-meter hurdles, and senior Kate Scheffey placed third in the shot put and discus, one spot behind sophomore teammate Amelia Paquette.

It was an outright dominant performance by Hopkinton, which features eight seniors and a strong contingent of 17 freshmen and sophomores. Winnisquam finished second as a team with 73 and Inter-Lakes third with 70.

Among the upperclassmen, Suzie Jackson also placed sixth in the javelin with a throw of 102-feet, 3 inches, and Jewell placed sixth in the pole vault after she cleared 7 feet. In the same event, Quinn Nichols cleared 7-0, and Head, the state’s most dominating vaulter, hit 10 feet, though she conquered 10-6 earlier this year.

Besides the first-place 4 X 100 team, Hopkinton’s other relay squads also placed, including the 4 X 400 team of Head, Gretchen Loft, Grise and Nichols that finished in second and the 4 X 800 team of senior Jackie Bonifant, junior Allison Bartlett, freshman Emma hunt and Loft, which placed third.

The Hopkinton boys didn’t hoist a plaque, but the 23.5 points earned the team ninth place, its highest finish in the last nine years.
Andrew Meyer finished third in the 800 with a time of 2 minutes, 5.42 seconds and third in the pole vault with an effort of 10-6 to lead the Hawks.

Steve Claggett, third in the 300 hurdles and fourth in the 110 hurdles; Sam Schlepphorst, sixth in the 3,200; and David Kurtz, fifth in the pole vault, rounded out the scoring.