Conant junior Garrett Somero became an unlikely state champion at Wednesday’s NHIAA Division III track and field championships at Gilford. Somero, a baseball player recruited by Conant track coach Bill Edson to try his hand at some field events, had only practiced the shot put twice this spring before tossing a qualifying distance at Conant’s last chance meet. On Wednesday, Somero took on the best of DIII – many of whom had been training for years – and hurled the shot put a personal best 45 feet to win the state title.
“It feels amazing,” Somero said. “Even though I didn’t put many hours in, I feel as though with some more training, I can turn some heads and put my name out there for this sport.”
Somero’s best throw was more than two feet better than his qualifying distance, and he’d top himself even further in the discus, where he’d previously logged a 109’9”. On Wednesday, inspired by his top-level competition, Somero tossed the disc for a new personal best of 126’3”, just behind winning senior Marius Edwards of Newport (127’1”).
“I think just the environment of states and the competitive level there helped me get those extra feet,” Somero said.
The junior will move on to Saturday’s Meet of Champions in both events. Somero said he plans to take the events seriously over the course of the next year. With the proper training, Conant’s school shot put record of 50’7” (Justin Haase, 2015) is within reach.
“He doesn’t know his limitations yet nor do we,” Edson said. “It was really fun to see an athlete rise to the top like that, and he’s only scratched the surface of what he can do.”
The Orioles had high hopes going into the state championship meet, many of which rode on the shoulders of junior Ethan Vitello, who was strategically entered in four events designed to maximize his scoring probability and move Conant closer to a team championship. But Vitello’s workload was intensified Wednesday by the looming thunderstorm. In order to get the meet in before any lightning reached the area, the NHIAA started the meet half an hour early and reduced the amount of time between events. On a sweltering 90-degree afternoon, that reduction in recovery time was a killer for athletes like Vitello who were already planning on pushing themselves to the limit in multiple events.
“Our boys fought like warriors,” Edson said, “but our strategy was based on those built-in periods of recovery. That took our chances from being probably the favorites to win the thing to just seeing where we will finish.”
Vitello under-jumped his qualifying distance in the long jump and finished sixth (21’5.25”). After a short break, he blazed around the track in 400M for a third-place finish (52.24) behind winner JJ Davis of Kearsarge (51.58) and runner-up Owen Carney of Inter-Lakes (52.01). Vitello went to the ground at the finish line before his teammates got him some water and started refreshing him; while he was still catching his breath, the loudspeaker rang out with the call to check in for the 200M dash. Gassed in the afternoon heat, Vitello checked in but scratched just before his heat.
“He knew that the system had failed us,” Edson said regarding the shortened recovery time.
Despite the early start time and the sped-up schedule, the skies still opened up before the meet’s conclusion. Vitello and his competitors were still working through the triple jump when the air horn sounded and the attendees scurried to their buses and cars.
The meet resumed Saturday alongside the Division II championships in Pelham. Vitello saved his best jump for last, leaping 40’10” to land in third place and earn another six points for his team.
“He only had one shot at it,” Edson said. “That’s a lot of pressure.”
Conant finished just one point behind Monadnock, taking fourth overall. Newport won the meet with 68 points; Kearsarge had 66, Monadnock 48 and Conant 47. The Orioles had hoped for a podium spot, but Edson said his team did all they could, regardless of the final tally. And with only a few key pieces graduating, next spring looks promising, too.
“This is not just a fluke thing,” Edson said. “We’re here for the long haul. I was very pleased with the guys – I am not disappointed in how we did at all.”
The Orioles got strong performances across the board from the rest of their divisional meet athletes.
Senior Matt Bernier came into the state meet with some demons to exorcise, and he left with a Meet of Champions berth.
“It was really important for me that he could finish his high school career without that monkey on his back,” Edson said.
Bernier took it hard back at the 2019 cross-country championships when a mid-race collapse cost his team a shot at the state title, and after losing the 2020 spring season – and a shot at redemption – and then finishing 22nd at the 2020 cross-country championship, the senior still had some unfinished business.
“He’s grown and learned from those experiences and he’s really matured as a person and an athlete,” Edson said.
Bernier anchored the 4x800M relay team, powering them home for a third-place finish, and ran a leg on the 4x400M, which finished fifth. His best performance, though, was in the 1,600M. While no one was going to catch hometown hero Patrick Gandini of Gilford, who swept the distance events by winning the 800M, 1,600M and 3,200M, Bernier made a big move down the stretch to pass Winnisquam’s Dylan Robert and nearly catch Monadnock’s Harry Ryan. Bernier finished third in 4:50.76 and earned a spot in the Meet of Champions.
Senior Ethan Weinhold finished up his Conant career with the same solid running the Orioles have come to depend on the past four years.
“He’s kind of the glue that holds everything together and we needed him,” Edson said. Weinhold ran a leg of the 4×800 and put up a nice seventh-place finish in a hotly contested 800M.
Junior Austin Poikonen added to the Orioles’ point total by scoring a fifth-place finish in the 300M hurdles.
“Other guys saw that Ethan was struggling,” Edson said, “and while Ethan has had the team on his shoulders, other guys stepped up.”
That was it for Conant’s scoring positions; John Mormando had a 10th-place finish in the 3,200M; Mike Brooks finished a hair out of sixth place in the 400M, landing in seventh by just 0.03 seconds, and Jordan Nagle was 11th in the high jump.
Mascenic brought a smaller contingent to the state meet; the Vikings didn’t have thoughts of a team title, but competed mightily individually, despite running up against some world-beating performances.
Senior Gabe Turner and junior Jimmy Crawford both threw the shot put, but with Somero’s phenomenal performance setting the tone, there wasn’t much room at the top. Crawford finished sixth with a 41’3” and Turner was right behind with a 40’3.5”.
It was a tough blow for Turner, who’d hoped to improve on his strong sophomore year performance as the top returner from 2019, but with unexpected emergences like Somero’s, it wasn’t to be. Still, Turner was happy just to be competing after losing out on the previous spring. Like so many COVID-era student-athletes, Turner’s time at Mascenic was all about rolling with the punches, something he said his time with coach Mike Smith prepared him for well.
“[I learned] adapting, very well,” Turner said. “When you learn a skill, it may not work out, and you have to go, start from the bottom, and I appreciate that. That’s the main thing I’m going to take away from this is to be adaptable, don’t be disappointed if something doesn’t work out, because there’s always another way to do it.”
Turner also threw the discus, finishing 11th.
With his college deal for UMass-Lowell in the bag, senior Landen Vaillancourt didn’t over-exert himself this spring, taking a weeklong spring break from training midseason and opting to race only the 800M at Wednesday’s meet, where Gandini was not to be caught.
“On a year like this, you can’t lose that much time and split the season up with loss of focus and beat Patrick Gandini,” coach Smith said. “He showed why he beat Landen in cross-country – he’s the real deal.”
Nonetheless, Vaillancourt nabbed a Meet of Champions spot with a third-place finish in 2:01.25, behind Gandini (1:58.46) and Monadnock’s Harry Ryan (1:59.76).
The Vikings got an unexpected boost in the 3,200M, where “the Traffie boys” – as Smith has dubbed junior Connor and sophomore Drew – put on a show in the long-distance event.
“We’ve been watching Drew progress all season long,” Smith said. “His record against Connor prior to this track season was as many losses as you can count to zero.”
Nowadays, Connor and Drew are neck-and-neck, and the two were up front for a large portion of the 3,200M, Drew leading the way.
“When you watch him take the lead, hold the lead for four laps against the big guns when he’s just a neophyte?” Smith said. “He knows how to race, for sure.”
Gandini eventually made his move, of course, and won it in 10:18.42; Drew fell into third (10:34.24) and Connor landed in eighth (11:16.69). With Vaillancourt set to graduate, the two should be Mascenic’s best heading into next year.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see them side-by-side leading races in cross-country this fall,” Smith said.
The Cougars got some strong performances from their underclassmen at Saturday’s Division II state championship meet at Pelham.
Top performers for the ConVal girls included:
Freshman Aida Davis, 11th, 400M (1:07.77)
Junior Allison Bull, 10th, 1,600M (5:57.63)
Junior Kendall Larson, ninth, triple jump (29’7”)
Freshman Tasha McNeil, fourth, javelin (90’); eighth, shot put (26’5.5”)
For the ConVal boys, top finishers included:
Senior August Kotula, 10th, 1,600M (4:55.16)
Junior Tyler Beard, 12th, 1,600M (5:26.05)