As the smoke from the D-2 Championship cleared, the D-1 teams arrived to the George Davis Track at Plymouth State. The Pinkerton boys were heavy favorites. If you grew up a Red Sox fan when I did, this did not give you comfort. Better than the alternative but the athletes still have to go out and win it.
Field events up first. In the high jump, Oliver Gould tied his PR of 5’-8”, the same height reached by senior Caden Michaud. It was over at the long jump that Caden stretched it out. Similar to Eva Roberts, it looks like Caden started his indoor long jumping career this January. Other than tying a PR, he set a new best each time he tried it. Before D-1 he was touching the sand at 20’-8.50” but *at* D-1 he released a doozy, 21’ – 6”, placing 3rd. Caden joins a club of only five other Pinkerton jumpers over 21 ft, and he settles in at No. 3 All-Time. To get there he bypassed Fareed Rice ’95, one of Pinkerton’s best all around athletes in Jim Fitzgibbons ’81, Matt Jordan ’94, Brandon Bennet ’03, and Brian Scott ’01. Other than No. 2 Ryan Dane, this list hasn’t moved much until now. Back in the present day, Camren Dillon also had a solid effort, breaking 20’ for the second time with a PR 20’ – 4.25”, placing sixth. Oliver Gould also got the ultimately satisfying 20’ – 0.00” (so much further than 19-11.75), finishing 10th. Great jumping career ahead for Oliver.
The big guys took the circle, and they came up big. I failed in my goal this year to figure out the MYSQL database code to find if we have ever had this much shot put depth, but c’mon, when your No. 4 thrower is going over 40’ on the regular (awesome season for Luan Premoli), you’ve got great people. The boys have traded places all season, but this time it was Jordan Chick heaving the massive PR 48’ – 5”, placing 2nd and reaching No. 9 All-Time. Senior Luke Delange was just behind, finishing 3rd with his PR toss of 47’ – 3.75”, No. 12 All-Time. Senior Joe Packowski rounded out the scoring in 5th place with a mark of 46’ – 1.00”.
And that, track and field fans, is how to get a meet started. At the end of the field events, Pinkerton had dropped 23 points into the team bucket.
The PA boys usually have enough depth in the mid-D to avoid using the studs in the 4x800m and still field a very competitive team. This year was no different, fielding an enviable team of senior Logan McDonald and young speed in freshman Jason Robie and sophomores Trainer Mailloux and Sean Hayes. It was Jason who took the baton first, coming through in about 2:12. He was just behind a big pack-mess of a hand-off, and that probably worked for the best. Only a second or two behind the chaos but not *in* the chaos. Trainer took the second leg and he does a nice job of moving from 6th into 4th on his 3rd lap, a 2:11-high leg. Logan, trapped in no-man’s land and running alone ran admirably to a 2:11 split. Sean fought off Londonderry with an excellent last lap and a 2:10, finishing in fourth place.
Starting off the straight events, Matt Morrison (again, I typed “Kevin”) wasted no time in the first set of prelims, setting a new PR in 7.72 with no one else really close. In the second trial, Bedford’s Chong did his thing (7.80), but sophomore John Child never really let him go, dropping a 7.93 which got me real excited. Sub-8 FAT for the first time and only the second sophomore in team history to do so. You kidding me? I’m talking about Cody Kretchmer ’02 times for comparison now?
The 55m trials came up next, and I was psyched to watch these, too. Some of the fastest and deepest fields NH had seen for a while. Now, I love NH Track & Field for putting these meets on video so this isn’t a shot at them but oooooh, to have their feed fail for all of the 55m trials, I was gnashing my teeth. All I can tell you is that when the feed snapped back, we had Matt Morrison (6.54 PR, 2nd), Caden Michaud (6.56 4th), and Brayden Parker (6.74, 8th) set for the final. Jamie Isaac (6.76, 10th) and freshman Travis Cavallo (6.85, 15th) were left on the outside. Although Travis’s time may be a disappointment for him, that’s still almost a 6.6h. *THAT* is a career I’m stoked to watch. Matt’s time, by the way, slotted him into No. 2 All-Time and Caden was right there at No. 4 All-Time. Wow.
The boys’ 3K was mostly the Giardina show (opened with a 64/2:16/4:22 1500m), but we had senior Finn Christensen Kraft and frosh Oscar D’Amelio and Joe Gutstavson in this one. Finn tailed South’s Castellano for most of the race but with 300m made the move and dropped him, finishing 2nd in a fine PR 8:56.80 and a 5s gap behind him. The effort makes him No. 6 All-Time, moving past Joe Gagnon ’18 and Grant Langevin ’12 among others. Oscar finished up with a PR 9:34.11, just outside the frosh top 3, while Joe wrapped it with 9:48.60.
And we’re back to the 55m HH finals! Everyone taking bets on Morrison vs. Chong, the same match-up that went 1-2 last year. The race was TIGHT, called even over the first hurdle, but I thought Matt touched down first. Matt had him at hurdle 2 and definitely at 3, but somehow Chong passed him over 4. “IT’S GONNA BE CHONG!! OH WAIT!!” I love announcers’ calls. Watching the replay, with two steps left I think it’s Chong. With one step left, the hips look even. Over the line, it was a *great* lean by Matt to seal it, 7.61 and your only Astro D-1 champion of the night. Now Matt is No. 3 All-Time, past Adam Spencer ’19. And don’t look now, but my new favorite hurdler, John Child ran an electric middle stretch of the race and cleared the last hurdle clean as a whistle to finish in a PR 7.88. As a sophomore, he’s already tied for No. 8 All-Time with TJ Urbanik ’15 and has-been Matt Worster ’94. Fourteen points for the team.
(from nh.staterunning.net give them all the traffic and all the business at Runner’s Alley because they’re great at bringing attention to the sport and athletes)
Steaming into the 55m finals, the top spot figured to be Morrison, Stevens, or Brooks but seriously everyone in this final is screaming. “Brooks had a great start! But it’s gonna be Morrison. OH WAIT!” Happened the other way around this time, as Brooks got off a truly professional lean and nipped Matt, who grabbed second at 6.47. 6.47?! Yes, tied the school record held by Mike Grella ’02! Caden came back in 6.57 to grab 5th and Brayden rounded it out with a 6.75 and a 7th. Ten points. So many points already scored.
Not gonna lie, I do like this look:
(from NH Track & Field youtube channel, also great and thank you so much for broadcasting)
Five Astros taking the line, Sean Hayes, Logan McDonald, Trainer Mailloux, Noah Daigle, and Jason Rzasa. Bedford’s Redman did Redman things, comfortably in control but visibly holding back for later races. Jason did a great job in the last 100m, getting around Zumbach to nab 2nd place in PR 2:36.38, No. 7 All-Time. He moves past Craig MacPherson ’06 and Nolan Cooney ’14. Noah Daigle finished 5th in PR 2:40.73. Ten more points for the team.
If you needed convincing that Pinkerton came to play, the 600m was a statement event. *After* bringing five runners to the 1000m final, the Astros brought half the runners in the 600m fast heat: Dowd, Binda, Santomassimo. At the first lap Bedford’s Beckkering has gone all out, Dowd and Binda at 2nd and 3rd, and Cody at 5th. After the next lap they were 2-3-4 and then finished Binda-Dowd-Santomassimo:
That? That’s a visual of a door being slammed shut. Pinkerton was already rolling, picking up double-digit points in event after event. Now we’re at the 600m and these three just dished eighteen more points. 2-5 in the 1000m and 2-3-4 in the 600m. That is mid-D power. G’head Redman, g’head Bekkering, front-running talent is impressive on its own, not taking that away. But this is how a team wins a track championship: high end depth. Binda’s PR 1:24.93 for second is No. 10 All-Time, cruelly bumping teammate Aiden from the Top 10. Aiden finishes in 1:25.36 and Cody in a PR 1:25.87. Applause. Standing applause.
The 300m would be a rematch of the 55. Brooks, Morrison, and Stevens were the favorites to watch, and they finished in the same order as the 55. But Morrison. This guy. Seriously, this guy. Have a G-D DAY. Second place, No. 2 All Time at 35.63 on a flat track. To this point, all Matt has done is go No. All-Time hurdles, tied the 55m School Record, and No. 2 All-Time 300m. Complement multi-runner depth in the 600m with a dude who can drop 26 points on his own. And we had depth in his events, too! Jamie Isaac runs a near-PR 37.51 to finish 8th.
Bedford’s Redman would come back in the 1500m and be tough to beat. BG Giardina had done wonders in the 3K and was coming back, as was Finn Christensen Kraft. Jason Rzasa would also test what was left in the tank after his blazing 1000m. Redman took out Giardina and Bedford’s Fish in a lead pack, Finn hung back in the chase pack. Fish soon fell into the disconnect between packs. With two to go, Finn led the pack but it was still maybe 10-12m up to Fish. By the bell, Finn has roared up and passed Peters showing a similar kick to what we saw in the 3K. Always love fast finisher. Finn holds strong to take 3rd, 4:13.60 and six more team points.
Yeah, relays. Pinkerton’s 4×400 would toe the line in the third and final heat of this event, matching up with Nashua North, Bedford, and Portsmouth. Bedford has talent, but their lack of depth meant a used core. Bedford put Chong out there first, an interesting choice to use perhaps their fastest fresh-ish runner right away. Pinkerton countered with senior Aiden Dowd. Just before the two-turn break-in, it looked a little dicey. Portsmouth was kinda out there and North had come by Aiden’s inside pretty quick. Chong was in that annoying spot just outside that makes cut-ins exciting. In a flurry of activity, Portsmouth throws out their drag chute (saw that in the girls race), Aiden accelerated to get by North on the inside, and a VERY late burst from Chong saw him try to get around Aiden as the turn commenced. [narrator inserting himself in the story] I ran a lot of college indoor 4×400 and a lot of them were lead off. I do love a good tactical race with a wee bit of contact. Aiden did great. There was a shoulder bump but it was Chong that wheeled the arms, ceding the inside lane to Aiden. Chong did manage to throw it down on the back stretch and cut in on Aiden just early enough to be competitive and make Aiden wheel his inside arm. Gotta tip my hat, that was nicely executed by Chong. The teams came into the exchange separated enough for a clean handoff.
I so wanted Bedford’s second leg to get passed with all the times he looked back, but they opened up a good lead for the leg, handing off with a little bigger lead than the prior exchange. Bedford again opened up a larger lead on the 3rd leg but Jamie Isaac ran a fantastic back half, speedily catching back up and handing off even. Redman vs. Binda. Binda’s awesome. It’s just . . . it’s Redman. Nathan ran great, keeping Redman honest in the first 200m, challenging him on the last back stretch. It’s a good thing Redman conserved his 1500m finish because I think he needed it all to stay ahead of Nate. Nate split a 51.5 by my count, and damn, that’s a nice indoor split. Pinkerton closed up 3:35.03, and 8 more points to bring the total to 111.
111 points. If other sources are to be believed, Pinkerton was already at the highest point total in NH indoor track championship history. They had already scored more points than any other Pinkerton team at the big meet, I know that. Well, not everything went perfectly this night, as the boys 4x200m missed the first exchange and went out of the running. I admit it, I was greedy, wanted to see them get the next 10 points, wanted those four boys to get the glory of punching through a great 4×200. Sports teach us lessons in so many ways. It’s all part of the mosaic.
And this was a championship mosaic, no doubt. Congratulations to the athletes, those who ran and those who cheered and worked right along with these guys in every practice and every weight room session. Congratulations to the coaches for fostering a program that brings about success like this: 9 championships in the last 11 years competed. And congrats to the parents and families that trekked all over NH, MA, and RI this year to get the competition in. Good luck in the few postseason meets ahead, and I’m already looking forward to a little jav, a little pole vault, and a little intermediate hurdling.