Local track season gets under way

April 17, 2008

By Anna Grearson Times Argus Staff

HINESBURG – Two of the three teams competing in Wednesday's season-opening track and field meet at Champlain Valley Union started practicing outside this week.

"That's been difficult, and I know it's been difficult for a lot of teams, especially in central Vermont," Harwood coach Taggert Haslam said. "We've only been on our track twice so far this season. It hasn't even been a full track; we still have a corner that's covered in snow. (Tuesday) was the first day our jumpers saw the pit, and it was only the second day my throwers had a javelin and a discus in their hand. We can throw a shot put inside but we can't do anything with a discus or a javelin."

CVU, which recently put in a new track with an artificial turf infield, got outside earlier this spring and took home wins in both the boys and girls competitions, outscoring the Harwood boys by 29 points and Spaulding by 33.5 and the Harwood girls by 20 and Spaulding by 38.

"To come out and have basically two practices outside under our belt and to do as well as they did today, I'm very pleased," Haslam said. "It's a good base to build from. That's what this meet was all about, to come to a nice facility and set the base individually and build from that."

Harwood, the lone Division II program in Wednesday's tri-meet, won three girls' and two boys' throwing events. Highlander senior Kelly Foster took first in the discus (109 feet, 7 inches) and the javelin (94'9") as well as second in the shot put, and teammate Kayla Dillon took first in the shot put with a throw of 29'5". Amanda Haslam took fourth in the shot put and second in the javelin, and Kacey Kerrigan took third in the javelin. For the boys, Lorne Nix took first in the shot put (33'9"), and Joe Simoes took first in the javelin (125'10") and third in the discus.

"Our girls are doing an excellent job again," Haslam said. "We've got a nice core of three or four deep, and it's not the same three or four. We've got a couple of young ones who are coming up that will be strong and filling up some roles. They should definitely carry some points for us."

Division I programs CVU and Spaulding dominated the boys jumps, with Cody Duquette of Spaulding taking first in the high jump with a personal-best 5'10".

"He was jumping in the 5'6" area last year," Spaulding coach Shawn Woods said of Duquette. "You add Nick Paton (second, 5'8",) to the picture and now Cody's challenged."

Paton, a junior who also won the 200-meter run with a time of 24.17 seconds, is one of several new additions to the Tide boys' team that has seen double the participation since last spring.

"It's an amazing thing," Woods said of the increase in interest. "We went from having 15-18 boys over the last three or four years to having 35. There's a lot of wrestlers, football and soccer players, but that means half the team has never done track before. The boys' piece is going to take a while to figure out because they're all new, but what's really good about them is they're all athletes. I have competitive people who are a part of that wrestling program and that football program. They want to win, and they have."

In the boys running events, Harwood's Zach Pfister won the 110-meter hurdles in 16.21 and 300-meter hurdles in 44.83 while Spaulding's Jordan Robbins won the 400-meter run in 54.99 and was part of the winning 4x100-meter relay with Steven Rich, James Durham and Chris Rossi, which finished in 46.62.

Rich also took second in the 100-meter run and third in the long jump, and teammates Tim Ix and Justin Hepburn finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 400. Trevor Cook of Harwood placed second. Durham added a second-place finish in the 200 and teammate Jason Allen was fourth.

Caleb Kernan of Harwood broke away from the pack early and held on for a win in the 3,000-meter run, finishing in 9:55. Teammate Tim Shepard finished second, Colton Crowley third and Nick Wisniewski fourth.

On the girls' side, Spaulding's Katie White took first in both the 100 (12.87) and the 200 (27.64) while teammate Kelsie Bailey turned in first-place finishes in the 300-meter hurdles (48.9) and the long jump (14'9 3/4"). Both were part of the winning 4x100-meter relay team alongside Jessica Gosselin and Averill Pazdro. Gosselin and Pazdro were filling in for an injured Lindsey Tassie and a vacationing Brianna Baker.

"That 4x100 relay team is going to be real incredible to watch," Woods said. "That's going to be a lot of fun. Averill Pazdro and Jessica Gosselin are tremendous alternates. There are lot of teams in the state that would want those two on their relay teams, and I've got them as alternates."

Spaulding's Bridget Montour and Kirstin Nyquist both rebounded from shaky first events to win later in the afternoon.

"Bridget Montour…there's somebody who really struggled in her 4x800 today and really stepped up in her high jump," Woods said. "What I saw today was a lot of good things, especially people who didn't always have great first events really stepped up in their second event and did well. That's what we as coaches are trying to preach to them. It's a long season, and even in states, if you're doing three or four events and you have a bad one, you cannot let that effect you."

Nyquist win the triple jump with a jump of 30'6" after a frustrating long jump.

"Kirstin Nyquist, after a disappointing long jump where she couldn't get her steps, came back and took the triple jump," Woods said.

Ally Bataille of Harwood won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.37, and was followed by teammates Paige Cleary in second and Cecilia Scribner in fourth, and Nyquist was third. Scribner was also second in the triple jump. Bataille finished third in the 300-meter hurdles.

"As far as the girls, we have Paige Cleary, Ally Bataille, and Annie Mendes, and a freshman Sophie Lisais, did really well for us, and of course our throwers did real well for us," Haslam said. "We've got a strong distance crew this year with Annie Mendes, Jillian Mendes, and we've got some good numbers this year. It's spread out over all grades. We've got a lot of sophomores and probably a dozen freshmen and picking up a dozen juniors and seniors as well."

Spaulding will host Mississquoi and Rice on April 30 while Harwood will also host a meet that same day.