My usual routine and plan to keep things updated from meet to meet didn’t work out this year. Too much at work, too much running around CA, NV, and CO for volleyball, too much going on running timing for swim, and then tossed a vacation in there. What follows below is a summary of the changes made for the girls team. Over my time it has often been the distance portion of the squad that has driven point scoring for the girls. This season the sprints and field events were a force.
We were all looking for big things from Briana Davis this year, and even still I got surprised. Her discus, even if expected, was still immense. The Eagle Tribune will tell you she is now No. 1 all time for the area high schools they cover. She extended her school record to 135’ – 2”, now over 20 ft beyond the school record before her. Those types of performances led to individual champion titles at the D1 and the MOC. Briana started putting the shot some rather majestic distances as well. Her 39’-5.75” from the Merrimack Invitational set new school and junior records, 3 ft beyond the 11 year old record of Katy Ebner ‘11. Briana took home a 3rd place at D1 and a 2nd place at MOC in the shot.
Jordan Wheaton set a new school record at the best possible time: winning a D1 Championship race! Her 14.84 resets an 18 year old record held by Kiah Quarles ’04. At MOC, Jordan placed 2nd. Jordan still has her senior year coming, so this old hurdler is looking forward to seeing what might come. Also looking forward to that 300m IH, but I’m greedy. In that event, Jordan’s 46.8 hand time from the Londonderry dual leaves her at No. 3 on the junior list and a 0.1s outside the All Time Top 5. Jordan also set the school record in the high jump when she cleared 5’ – 5” at the Keene and Nashua South home meet, breaking a 3-way tie at 5’ – 4”. All three of those are from a way back: first was Jen Kotce ’90 and then the duo of Nicki Pelletier ’99 and Amy Hoepf ’98 who did it in the same 1997 season.
The 4x100m relay team rewrote the record books in a way I haven’t seen since I started this for all the teams in 2012. When I was establishing relay record Top 5s, I had to choose between using a season’s fastest time vs. any running. I worried that a fast quartet would just keep breaking times and dominate the list, but that doesn’t really happen. It is really tough to keep a foursome together, healthy, and continually performing at a high level. And that’s what makes Jordan Wheaton, Hannah Sippel, Madison Connors, and Eva Roberts rather special: they ran a Top 5 time in five separate races this year. At the Clipper Relays they were No. 5 all time. At the Londonderry dual they bested that with another No. 5 time. Then they set the school record at the Londonderry Invite followed by a No. 2 all-time at MOC (and we’re just gonna move past that D1 DQ . . . ). Finally, they set the school record again at the New England Championships, resulting in this year’s squad holding all three of the top times in the 4x100m list. That is not just dominance, it is consistent dominance that is rare in outdoor track.
Eva Roberts enters the All-Time 100m list tied at No. 3 by virtue of her 12.63 D1 Championship Meet performance. Her addition means a farewell to PA legend Sherri Hughes ’83 (former school record holder) from the top 5. Eva is also No. 2 on the sophomore list, which bumps both Sherri Hughes and Bree Robinson ’08 (current school record holder) from the top 3 of the sophomores. Hannah Sippel finishes the season as the No. 4 sophomore, missing No. 3 by a mere 0.01s.
Hannah Sippel did, however, finish tied at No. 4 on the All Time 200m list when she stopped the clock at 26.13s in the Londonderry dual. Maria Virga ’17 is bumped to No. 6. On the sophomore list, Hannah is No. 2, bumping Heidi Pelletier ’92 and Jordan Doherty ’10 from the top 3.
Honorable mention to Madison Connor’s triple jump, the Londonderry Invite leap of 35’ – 1.75” is probably the No. 6 all time TJ.