Athletes from ConVal, Conant, Mascenic and Wilton-Lyndeborough travel to Dartmouth Sunday for the NHIAA Division II indoor track championships.
Winter indoor track is split into just two divisions, rather than four as in most other sports, which means that local schools that usually compete against similarly sized Division III and IV schools are lumped in with the larger programs.
“It makes it a really tough challenge for any DIII athletes to compete and qualify for states,” said Conant head coach Bill Edson. The Orioles had five individuals reach the state qualifying times in their events this season, but since the state meet seedings are generally limited to 12 in running events and nine relay teams, many athletes who qualified did not make the cut after Tuesday night’s seeding meeting.
Nonetheless, it was a big step up for the Orioles this winter. Sophomore Ethan Vitello is the tenth seed in the 600M, with a best time of 1:31.89.
“Ethan Vitello just knocked it out of the park this season,” Edson said.
The Orioles will also send two boys’ relay teams to Dartmouth. The 4x800M team of Vitello, Matt Bernier, Ethan Weinhold, and Chris Taylor (alternate: James Mormando) is seeded fourth of nine (8:44.99). The 4x400M team of Taylor, Vitello, Weinhold and Trevor Pierce (alternate: Michael Brooks) is seeded 11th at 3:52.60 (an extra heat was added, so the field is 15 teams deep).
Those state meet entries barely scratch the surface of the strides Conant made this winter. After an extended cross-country season that saw them in the Meet of Champions and then traveling to the national championships, several runners took a short break before starting the winter season, missing a week or two of competition that could have had them in the mix for the state meet. Lainey Holombo, for instance, improved her 300M time each meet this winter.
“Lainey was the star,” Edson said. “If she had another chance to run a 300, I think she would have easily qualified.”
Conant finished second in an all-Division III meet this winter, and Edson said they’re “pushing for a banner” in the spring. The Orioles, indeed, look primed for big things once they get outside and expand their field competition. Vitello and Karel Wolterbeek improved their long jumps mightily this winter, despite not having a dedicated long jump facility where they can practice, and once the Drew sisters finish the girls’ hockey season, they add state champion level sprinting and long jumping to the already excellent Orioles.
Mascenic will send just one athlete to the state championship, but he’s a good one. Junior Landen Vaillancourt, who competed in just about every event possible this winter, continued his tremendous progress in the long distances, and he’s seeded third in the boys’ 1,500M run with a time of 4:11.49, behind only a pair of DII runners from Oyster River, Myles Carrico and Andy O’Brien.
Small school or not, Wilton-Lyndeborough’s Brooke Lane is heading to states as well. Lane, an indoor track convert after the Warriors couldn’t field a girls’ basketball team, improved each week and made the cut as the seventh seed in the girls’ 1,500M run with a time of 5:16.76; she’ll be facing New Hampshire luminaries like Souhegan’s Chloe Trudel, Kearsarge’s Mya Dube, Merrimack Valley’s Sophia Reynolds and favorite Liza Corso of Portsmouth Christian.
ConVal has two entries Sunday – the boys’ 4x800M relay team of August Kotula, Tyler Beard, Abe Dreher and either Wylie Kendall or Thomas Sennett, which is seeded 11th at 9:03.98 – and senior Harrison Kim, who had an excellent season and a tough choice to make between the 1,500M and the 3,000M. Kim and head coach Lance Flamino settled on the 3,000 as it’s “ultimately his better event,” Flamino said. Kim’s seeded fifth in that race with a qualifying time of 9:22.07, behind O’Brien and three of Coe-Brown’s seemingly infinite stable of distance runners.
“He is hoping the race plays to his strengths,” Flamino said, “but if it goes out super fast he plans on running his own race and moving up in the later stages as this is how he runs his best.”