Favored to win by a slim margin, the Astro girls team couldn’t match the breakthrough performances of Bedford, coming in third place just two points behind Exeter. The girls rallied late to score some tough point, but there were accomplishments up and down the event sheet to celebrate.
Leading off with the field events, senior Eva Roberts started long jumping this year — like this calendar year. In six meets, she only missed a PR once when she failed to get off a clean jump. Two weeks ago she leapt to a massive foot-plus best at 16′-10.25″. It is tough to replicate a huge improvement, but Eva nailed it at D-I, getting out to 17′-0.25″ in the sand and a fourth place finish. She has pushed her way to No. 5 All-Time with that effort. In the same event, we have to acknowledge Bedford’s Anika Scott. She entered the meet with an 18′-7″ effort, already beyond the State Record of 18′-6″. Scott absolutely uncorked one, skipping 19 ft altogether and stretching out to 20′-3″. To the degree we trust Athletic.net, that is No. 3 in the nation as of this writing. Boy howdy.
Rolling into the track events, the 4x800m is the first event, drawing out Sarah Rzasa, Gabby Bedard, Parker Knowlton, and Izzy Groulx. Saving Tess Silva and Nicole Blake for other events, this remained a highly talented quartet. Talented enough for second place in the meet, a 9:47.34, and the No. 3 All-Time 4x800m time for the Astros. Three times this team has made a 4x800m attempt, and the 2024 Astros now have the No. 1, No. 3, and No. 4 fastest times. Will there be a New England Championship effort?
In the 3000m, four of the field of twelve were from Pinkerton. Tess Silva, last year’s champion in this event, paced the lead for most of the race, but the Exeter runner behind her had shown off a devastating kick in a 1500m last week. She used it again and Tess held on strong, finishing 2nd in a PR 10:26.22, now the second fastest 3000m meter runner in Pinkerton’s history. Kali Marzolf finished with a valuable 4th place (11:11.90). Althea LeBlanc added a PR 11:17.78 and Samantha Priya Phillip finished in a PR 12:15.47.
Eva Roberts has been a 55m revelation these past few weeks. Cutting her time again and again, Eva was already 5th on the school list with her D-I seed time. In the prelims she blasted a PR 7.41, No. 2 All-Time and less than a tenth of a second from the school record held by Bree Robinson ’08. Nora Brayall matched her own PR with a 7.54, but wow was this event loaded this year. A 7.54 didn’t qualify for the 8-runner final, and neither did a 7.43. Speed AND depth. Eva duplicated her 7.41 in the final, finishing in 6th behind two runners that bested the D-I record.
The girls of the 1000m were next, with Pinkerton adding Izzy Groulx, Parker Knowlton, and Gabby Bedard into the race. Izzy ran a solid 3:07.99 for third place. In the 600m, Nicole Blake (PR 1:42.78) placed 6th. Sarah Rzasa, coming back from a fast 4x800m, closed the 6 in 1:45.44. On Nicole’s run, she secured the No. 3 sophomore time, displacing none other than Brittney Johnson ’18. If you are surpassing Johnson times, you are moving. Moving right up to No. 9 All-Time, too.
In the 300m we saw Hannah Sippel place 5th in 42.10. A top-level effort, her only time faster was on the fast banked tracks at the Reggie. The 1500m at a championship meet is famous for being a “show me what you got left” event. It was no surprise at all to see Tess Silva running strong, finishing 3rd in 4:57.14, only 0.5s off her personal best.
RELAYS!
The 4x400m was composed of the future of the franchise in Camryn McNulty, Parker Knowlton, and Bella Sippel and then an anchor leg of, incredibly, Tess Silva. As in the same Tess Silva that PR’d to become the second best 3000m runner in team history and then nearly PR’d in the 1500m like 15 minutes ago. In fact, the announcers never quite got her name right, I think because they didn’t believe it was her! To lead off, I thought Camryn ran a fine leg navigating a very strange run, even in the first 150m. The Nashua South runner got way out to hit the break line first while the Winnacunnet runner came by Camryn on the inside. South inexplicably threw out the drag chute at the break and slowed down while the Winnacunnet runner streamlined through, dragging Camryn with her. Winnacunnet then didn’t cut in from Lane 2, so Camryn cut in only as far as Lane 2 throughout the first turn. It was a weird leg to make sense of, but the freshman navigated it well in about 64. Parker started out maybe 7m down but held it there in the early going. I thought she ran the first leg beautifully when so many athletes want to cut the distance down all at once. At the 250m mark the deficit had actually increased to about 12m, but then it was a steady reel-in to the hand-off, maybe 3m down, a fine 64-low split. Bella quickly closed the small gap and got on the leader’s shoulder, but maybe thought better of it and tucked in behind her. I think that was probably the right move. It made Winnacunnet run scared as she got way out ahead of Bella at the mid-point. At 350m Bella was just stronger, simply put. She gave it the ol’ corner slingshot to perfection, sliding past the leader to give Tess the stick ahead, a 63-high leg. The Winnacunnet anchor then made the same mistake we always see — made up all the deficit at once and shot around Tess on the back stretch. With 200m to go Tess was 10m back. At 160m in the race, the camera gets Tess perfect. She looks like she just ran the 3k and the 1500. And she blows out a few breaths, cheeks puffed, the eyebrows go down, and her head cocks to the inside. It’s like I can hear her think, “Welp, I’m gonna have to do this, aren’t I.” At the back corner you can see the gap tightening fast. As Winnacunnet hits the straight, it doesn’t look like Tess will make it but Tess hits the straight and visibly downshifts. She had to have been scraping the last reserve, had to! — so tough. Tess gets by and wins the heat, a meter clear of Winnacunnet, 4:16.73. “I love Pinkerton,” repeats the announcer, referencing the straight fire it had to have taken to finish up that leg.
In the fast heat, Bedford finished last in 4:16.50, a frustratingly small margin ahead of Pinkerton, but the Astro girls put it out there, no fault to be given.
I may have written this whole post just to write about the 4x200m. I’m not above it. I have watched that race so many times and have put my own narrative into it and I just love this race. To set the tone, Pinkerton–alas–is destined for 3rd place at the meet. Tess’s anchor and the rest of the 4x400m was awesome but left the Astros 11 points out of 2nd, so the best the team could do would be 1 pt out of second. No matter. This 4x200m is bookended by two accomplished seniors and already held the school record, looking for more.
In the 3rd and final heat of the 4x200s, Eva Roberts settled in to start from Lane 2. Nashua North took Lane 3, Bedford 4, and Nashua South 5. 100m in Eva had already made up the 3-turn stagger on North. She visibly ate up ground on the other two teams pouring through the 2nd turn and exited it with the stagger made up on Bedford — what a run. The handoff to Aislinn Sprague was everything it was supposed to be: smooth and uneventful. For Bedford, disaster struck. 2nd leg Anika Scott came to a complete halt at the end of the zone to get her baton. It ensured Aislinn would get a completely clean cut in coming out of her first turn. Going into the second turn Scott was already back in second and bearing down.
So here is where the race blows my mind. Down the home stretch Scott got by Aislinn — and there is no shame in that! Scott had an insane All-World day. The girl is talent! But look at the gap in the photo above, with the left line over Scott and the right line over Aislinn. You could ease a Mini Cooper through that. But Bedford was still outside of Pinkerton, they didn’t switch spots when Scott came around Aislinn. Key, because it left Pinkerton, and Nora Brayall, in the pole.
Now Bedford has just received the baton. Nora takes the stick late in the zone–she doesn’t even have it here–but she has taken the exchange zone so aggressively that Scott’s lead is 80% gone. Now I can only ride a Schwin between Bedford and Nora. Nora takes the stick from Aislinn so fast I missed it in real time. Arm flashes back, one beat, snatches the baton, gone. It’s so good. The Bedford runner doesn’t quite have a clear path to the inside of the turn. If she’s *really* aggressive she could do it but there is bound to be some contact.
Nora gives her absolutely no chance. In two charging strides Nora is undeniably IN the space. In 6 strides she has pulled ahead and the announcers are all over that exchange. In four more strides Nora is in full flight. By the time she hits the back straight, look at this, I mean, just look at this.
The first time you watch it, the whole sequence looks impossible. A 2m gap erased, a cut-in that was never realized, and Nora is CHURNING down the back stretch in the clear. She holds it well into the second turn but with 30m to go all of that aggression that was so desperately needed is taking its toll and South has moved up, Bedford has reeled them in, and it’s another chaotic exchange.
Give it to the senior. Give it to the No. 2 300m runner in the history of the program. Give it the one of the girls who–along with Eva–has been on every one of the ten fastest outdoor 4x100m times and three of the four fastest indoor 4x200m times. I’m not a coach, but I think she’s good for it. Hannah Sippel gets the stick and pushes around the turn. As the runners come out of the first turn the South runner swings a little wide. She’s making up ground on Hannah but the straights are a limited opportunity. Here’s the final touch, the icing on an incredible tactical relay: With 10m of straight left Hannah micro-drifts to the right. You don’t even see it unless you closely watch her feet as they come just about onto the line outside Lane 1. It’s so subtle I don’t know that *she* knows she did it or how critical it was. It’s enough. It slams the door on South, South can’t make the move, and has to tuck in behind Hannah. From there Hannah just increases the spacing and now it’s just a matter of how fast is this winning time going to be. Answered: 1:48.40. New school record by over half a second. Immense handoffs: well-coached and well-executed.
And that closed out the girls indoor season in the state of New Hampshire. Team championships are so hard to come by and I dislike judging seasons by that yardstick. What I do like to judge by is the record book and the PRs. So much red on those lists this year, in every event and relay except the 1500m, the hurdles, and the 4x400m. So much improvement everywhere. Three new senior records. A freshman record. Two relay school records. A super-exciting young core everywhere you look. All the way from here I enjoyed the hell out of this team, and hope y’all did, too.