On May 12, 2018, the Oyster River Spring Track Team hosted their first ever invitational meet. In the photo above, Jacob Zercher (‘18) wins his 100 meter dash race with a time of  11.99 seconds. This race qualified him for finals within this invitational, where he finished with a time of 12.25 seconds. An invitational track meet is different from a regular meet as explained by head track coach Nick Ricciardi. “An invitational, due to the sheer number of athletes, will have better competition. The scale of it tends to produce good times, distances, and heights,” says Ricciardi. An invitational hosts around 10 teams, while a regular meet may only host three.

 

Evi Fischer (‘20) races in the 100 meter hurdles race before her 300 meter hurdle race. She talks about being nervous for the race due to the bad weather. “Cold weather makes tight muscles and it takes a little while to get warmed up,” says Fischer. “I actually got the slowest time ever that day, but that’s okay because I heard from the other girls that they hard a hard time as well. I wasn’t alone.” Fischer ended up setting a personal record time for the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 49.22 seconds, qualifying her for the state meet.

Amelia Concannon (‘19) runs the 100 meter after not running the race since her sophomore year. She went into the race not knowing how well she would perform. “I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t run it in so long, but I ended up getting a personal record by a lot,” says Concannon. “Last year, I ran a 13.6 and this year I ran a 13.28.”

Corinne Quaglieri (‘19) throws in the women’s javelin finals. Her longest throw was a solid 85 feet, giving her a provisional qualifier for states.

 

Asia Hanson (‘19) from Merrimack Valley throws in the women’s javelin finals. She believed the meet went well with some good competition for her multiple events such as javelin and discus. “I think that the first invitational went pretty smoothly. It was nice not to have a super large amount of teams there, but enough for good competition,” says Hanson.

 

Paul Kobus (‘18) runs the 3200 meter, a two mile race, after never running a long distance race this track season. He stepped up to the challenge, running over eight miles in practice this week to prepare. “It was a good workout, but I started off a little too fast because I didn’t know what pace to go. I eventually got the right speed and just kept going,” says Kobus.

Forrest Mitchell (‘18) runs in the boys 1600 meter (he is the one running with the number eight on his shorts). Track meets overall are won by points. The better your teammates place in their races and field events, the more points your team gets. For the men’s team, Winnacunnet placed first, John Stark and ORHS tied for second, and Portsmouth placed third. For the women’s team, ORHS placed first, Winnacunnet placed second, and Merrimack Valley took third. Ricciardi believes the meet went well, but is looking to make some changes for next year. “I think all in all it went great. I think I would make sure to have some ‘cheat sheets’ for the volunteers at the field events,” says Ricciardi. He also hopes to place more speakers around the facility next time around so events being called could be heard more clearly.