Runners Up

By Owen Kurtiak

     “Everybody did what was expected of them and more, and although we didn’t get the state title, we had a very successful day,” said winner of the 1000m (2:57.28) and the 1500m (4:41.26), Maegan Doody (‘16).

      There was a lot of action at Dartmouth College as the best high school runners in Division II battled it out to show their talent on Sunday, February 7th. Oyster River High School had a rewarding day with both boys and girls teams finishing as runners up in the meet. The biggest story of the busy day was Oyster River’s girls 4x200m relay, which set a state record with a time of 1.46.45 seconds.

     “There’s not really a way to describe how it feels to be a part of a state records relay team,” said Devan McClain (‘19), who also set a school record in the 300m with a time of 41:78 seconds. The relay team was made up of Xiana Twombly (‘18), Devan McClain (‘19), Maegan Doody (‘16), and Dominique Twombly (‘16). Each member of the relay had already competed earlier in the meet in multiple events, which made the outcome even more impressive. Xiana competed in three events prior to the relay, finishing sixth in all of them. McClain, the only freshman of the four, finished seventh in the 55m dash with a time of 7:62 and fourth in the 300m. Meagan’s double preceded the relay and Dominique won the 55m dash for her third straight year with a time of 7:27. “I thought that the meet went very well, because we have such a small girls team it can be hard to compete with the bigger schools but I think we showed that we are a strong team,” said Dominique Twombly (‘16).

     “That was a strong team against some extremely strong competition. To win and pull out a state record is amazing, something that has not been done for over 10 years,” said track coach Nick Ricciardi.

 

     On the boys side Oyster River student finished first and second in the 3000m, with Patrick O’Brien (‘17)  placing first with a time of 9:12.29 and Neville Caulfield (‘16) finishing second, his time being 9:17.41. O’Brien also won the 1500m in 4:12.89 seconds, winning both his events on the day, contributing to OR’s success. Senior Hunter Rief also scored for the team finishing sixth in the 55m dash with a time of 6:88.

     “The boys really exceeded expectations. We came in hoping to battle Souhegan for runner up, and never really considered the possibility of challenging Portsmouth for the title. They were so far out in front of everyone else. We ended up easily out-scoring Souhegan, and came within 2 points (and .05 seconds) of winning the state title!” said distance track coach Greg Gephart.