Londonderry High track and field coaches Sue Johnson and Matt Smith got the satisfaction of watching their athletes perform quite well at two competitions last week.
Both Johnson’s Lady Lancers and Smith’s Lancer guys trounced their opponents from Alvirne High School of Hudson at LHS on Tuesday, May 13. And then two days later, the boys bagged a solid fifth-place finish out of 15 teams at the annual Merrimack High School Invitational and the Lady Lancers wound up sixth out of 14 squads at that Merrimack competition.
BOYS
The Lancer guys hammered the visiting Broncos of Alvirne by a 90-44 tally in dual meet action last week, with the hosts snagging a dozen first places.
Derek Davies was victorious in the pole vault (10 feet, 6 inches), Kyle Foden was tops in the shot put (43’4 1/4”), Cullen Enwright was the winner in the javelin (126’4”), Jon Deschamps won the triple jump (36’10”), Starlin Ortiz was first in the high jump (6’0”), and Nick Lafond won the 100-meter dash (11.7 seconds).
Additionally, Londonderry wins were bagged by Grant McAuliffe in the 1600-meter run (4 minutes, 57.1 seconds), Trevor Guay in the 300 hurdles (41.9), Jared Kane in the 800-meter run (2:10.8), Luke Charbonneau in the 200 dash (24.1), and the 4×100 (47.0) and 4×400 (3:47.3) relay teams.
Then at the Merrimack Invitational – which was won by the Pinkerton Astros – the Lancers received their lone event win from Ortiz in the long jump (22’2 1/4”). But other top-six finishes were claimed by Damon Kilgore, Ortiz, Guay, Eric Fairweather, Davies, Foden, and the 4×100 crew.
GIRLS
Johnson’s girls demolished the visiting Lady Broncos from Alvirne by a 92-47 score last week, with multiple first places coming from Patty Driscoll in the shot (32’11 3/4”) and the discus (96’), Gretchen McGrath in the 1600 (5:25.7) and the 200 (26.5), and Natalie Howes in the 100 hurdles (17.0) and the pole vault (10’).
Individual LHS wins in that impressive meet came from Kelsey Coffey in the javelin (90’0”), Yorgelis Ortiz in the long jump (14’11 1/2”), the aptly-named Ellie Goodspeed in the 100 dash (13.4), Bella Ziolek in the 400 (1:05.4), Lexy Freire in the 300 hurdles (49.8), and Makayla D’Urso in the 800 (2:26.9).
And at the Merrimack Invitational – which was won handily by Coe-Brown Northwood’s girls – the Lady Lancers got event wins from Howes in the javelin (118’10”) and the 4×100 relay quartet (50.89).
Other point-scoring, top-six finishes were claimed by Londonderry’s Jackie Luckhardt, Kristen Bourque, Jordan Dufresne, and Howes as the Londonderry High girls capped off what was one highly productive week of action.