Wilton-Lyndeborough’s blonde burner Sam Boette blazed her way to a sweep of the short-distance dashes at Tuesday’s NHIAA Division III track and field championship meet at Gilford High School. Boette, who came in to the championship with the top seed in the 100M dash and the second-best time in the 200M, held off the best of DIII to take first place in both events.
“It feels pretty good,” Boette said after her 100M dash, which she won in 13:58, ahead of second-place finisher Alissa McCarthy of Inter-Lakes (13.64). “[Being fast] is just kind of something I do.”
While the Warriors have had a few state champion field athletes over the years, WLC Athletic Director Brice Miller said Boette is the first-ever Wilton-Lyndeborough track runner to take home an individual title; the boys’ 4x100M relay team won in 2003, but that’s it.
It makes sense. After all, the Warriors don’t have a traditional track facility, so the team practices on the dirt track encircling the WLC soccer field – the same field where Boette lay writhing in pain after tearing her ACL during a soccer game in fall of 2019.
“When it first happened, I was really worried,” Boette said. “I felt like I was like never going to be fast again, but then once I started going through PT, I realized that I was kind of starting fresh, I could build my muscles up properly…I just had to think about getting better and that really helped me.”
Boette was the top seed in the 100M dash, but Monadnock’s Liliana Chirichella was the favorite in the 200M, with a qualifying time more than half a second better than Boette’s. It was a photo finish, but Boette had it all the way, topping Chirichella’s 27.91 with a first-place finish of 27.89 for her second state title of the day.
It was the kind of performance that makes the rest of the state take note, as the junior has made a name for herself over the course of the season, winning sprint after sprint this spring. On Tuesday, all eyes were on her as she dashed to victory.
“It’s really weird,” Boette said. “Throughout the season, it didn’t really click with me that I was number one and that people knew my name – I’m not used to people knowing who I am.”
A two-time state champion as a junior, Boette’s only just begun forging her legacy, but no matter what happens, her name is already cemented as one of WLC’s all-time best track stars.
WLC ended up in 12th place as a team, despite only sending two athletes to the meet. Senior Mairead Brady Markey competed in the javelin toss, where she heaved her final throw for a personal record of 89’1”.
The Mascenic and Conant contingents raced well but only mustered one point between them. The Vikings’ 4x800M relay team of Brielle Shippee, Victoria Smith, Amelia Smith and Emma Schaumloffel placed sixth after Conant’s crew was disqualified on the first baton pass. Hopkinton won that event – and the meet – handily.
Mascenic senior Quinn Aldrich placed seventh in the 3,200M in 12:32.57; Monadnock’s Delaney Swanson won the race in 11:29.08.
Schaumloffel placed 12th in the 1,600M in 6:09.08.
For Conant, Kylie Aho was ninth in the 800M in 2:39.73, besting her seeding time by about two seconds. Adrienne Kennedy was 11th in the same event, shaving four seconds off her qualifying time with a finish in 2:42.38.
Aho also placed eighth in the 1,600M in 5:55.
Lainey Holombo set a new personal record in the 400M, finishing seventh in 1:04.78 before making her way over to the edge of the track for a jubilant hug from her mother.
Conant’s 4x400M relay team of Holombo, Kennedy, Kaia Colby and Aho took eighth in 4:38.78.