Records fell, state champions were crowned and New England Championship berths were secured at Saturday’s NHIAA Meet of Champions at Sanborn, where Conant, ConVal, Mascenic and Wilton-Lyndeborough competed against the state’s best across all divisions.
Conant senior Ethan Vitello won the triple jump crown with a school-record jump of 43’3”. Vitello also took second in long jump at 20’9.5” and fifth in the 200m in 22.84.
Fellow Conant senior Garrett Somero threw a personal record of 46’9” in the shot put to finish second, ahead of everyone from Division I, II and III aside from champion Caden Zalenski of Milford (48’8.75”). Somero also finished eighth in discus (132’8”).
Mascenic’s Division III champion 4x800m relay team of Jethro Somero, Drew Traffie, Ryan O’Shea and Connor Traffie defended their DIII title, finishing eighth in 8:48.34 but beating all other DIII competition, including Conant’s John Oakes, Austen Richard, Nathan Alajajian and Jacob Sawyer (11th, 9:10.68).
Conant’s champion 4x400m relay team of Michael Brooks, Jon Ciglar, Ben Sawyer and Ethan Vitello defended their title as well, finishing seventh, ahead of all DIII competition, and improving on their divisional meet time with a finish of 3:32.58.
Conant’s Ben Sawyer was 10th in the high jump (5’10”) and sixth in long jump (19’7.5).
On the girls’ side, Wilton-Lyndeborough senior state champ Sam Boette was once against best in Division III with her eighth-place finish in the 200m dash in 26.79.
ConVal’s Tasha MacNeil took fifth in javelin with a throw of 112’2”.
Conant’s Kylie Aho finished 14th in the 1,600m (5:44.35), and the Orioles’ 4x800m relay team of Neve Mormando, Lainey Holombo, Emma Tenters and Adrienne Kennedy finished eighth in 10:32.17.
ConVal’s Elise Robbins was seventh in the pole vault with a jump of 8’.
Top-six finishes earned trips to Saturday’s New England Championship meet at Willow Brook Park in New Britain, Connecticut.
Earlier in the week, the Conant boys got themselves another record, breaking the school’s long-dormant 4x200m relay record. After Jaffrey-Rindge Middle School hosted the Southwest New Hampshire Middle School meet in Jaffrey Wednesday, the team of Brooks, Ben Sawyer, Ciglar and Vitello raced against the clock and shattered the 31-year-old school record with a time of 1:35.1. The previous record of 1:42.6 dated back to 1991 (Grant, Brassard, Heath, Boisvert).