Mark Zoda Among Winners At 2016 New Hampshire High School State Championships

Photo Courtesy: Swimming World

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The 2016 NHAA Swimming and Diving Championships took place this past weekend with fast swims occurring in both Division I and II.

Division I

Exeter won the state title for both the men and the women collecting a total of 223 and 207.5 points respectively. Pinkerton was second for the men with 216 points, while Dover claimed second for the women with 197. Bishop Guertin rounded out the top three on both sides with 195 (men’s) and 194 (women’s) points.

Lauren Somers of Alvime outlasted the competition in the women’s 200 free finishing more than six seconds ahead of the competition for first and a time of 1:53.31.

Somers grabbed her second individual win of the meet in the women’s 100 free where she turned in a final time of 51.61.

Exeter’s Hannah Lord and Hannah Deschenes turned in a 1-3 finish for the women’s 200 IM. Lord stopped the clock at the 2:12.23 mark, while Deschenes grabbed third with a 2:15.71. Second went to Kerry McCann of Bishop Guertin and her time of 2:15.08.

Bishop Guertin’s Mark Zoda dashed ahead of the crowd in the men’s 50 free to post a final time of 21.88, finishing 1.33 seconds ahead of the competition. Zoda’s time was only .58 seconds off the state record of 21.30 set in 2001 by Justin Zeimetz.

Zoda continued his sprint prowess into the 100 free where he finished first with a time of 48.34 to be the only athlete under the 50-second mark.

Taylor Hogan of Timberlane flew ahead of the rest of the 100 fly field finishing with a time of 57.15, more than four seconds ahead of the competition. Hogan later turned in a 57.95 to take first in the 100 back.

It was a race to the finish in the women’s 500 free with the top two finishers touching .06 seconds apart. Sophomores Pritthida Chea of Nashua South and Colleen Mahoney of Dover battled to the finish with Chea getting her hand to the wall first to stop the clock at 5:14.19 over Mahoney’s 5:14.25.

Pinkerton’s Christian Arrell grabbed first and succeeded in being the only athlete in the men’s 500 free under the five-minute mark with a final time of 4:56.97.

Zachary Denbow of Pinkerton turned in a sizzling 1:00.93 to finish first in the men’s 100 breaststroke, while teammate Bernard Suwirjo took second with a 1:04.28. Matthew Lashua of Bishop Guertin was third with a 1:04.72.

Division II

Oyster River claimed the state title for both the men and the women with 295 and 285 points respectively. The men and women of St. Thomas Aquinas rallied to take second on both sides with the men collecting 181 points and the women 151. Third went to Hanover (151) on the men’s side and Lebanon (150) on the women’s.

Kristian Hansen of Hanover delivered a scorching 1:45.46 in the men’s 200 free to claim first. He finished just under two seconds away from the 2005 state record of 1:43.54.

Hansen continued his mid-distance prowess in the men’s 500 free finishing a stunning 19.77 seconds ahead of the competition to stop the clock at a 4:39.47. The junior from Hanover missed Brian Livingston’s 1990 state record of 4:39.46 by a shy .01.

Oyster River’s Audrey Duvall outlasted the A-final comprised mainly of juniors in the women’s 200 IM with a final time of 2:10.46. Duvall later collected her second individual win of the meet in the women’s 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:07.69.

CAM’s Trent Levasseur grabbed first in the men’s 200 IM with a time of 1:59.05 to be the only athlete under the two-minute mark in the event.

Connor Hopkins of Windham just barely missed the state record of 21.30 in the men’s 50 free, stopping the clock at the 21.33 mark. Later in the men’s 100 free Hopkins yet again neared Justin Zeimetz’s state record posting a final time of 47.39 compared to Zeimetz’s 47.19 from 2001.

connor-hopkins-new-hampshire-high-school

Connor Hopkins of Windham High School in New Hampshire poses on the podium for the NHIAA D2 Swimming and Diving Championships for the 100 free. Also pictured are Brendon Sullivan (St. Thomas Aquinas, second) and Michael Douglass (Campbell High School, third).

Lebanon junior Catherine Gavell neared Jenny Thompson’s 1991 state record of 57.04 in the women’s 100 fly, posting a final time of 57.78. Trinity’s Noelle Theodoulou finished second with a time of 58.20, while Bow’s Kathleen Jenkins was third with a 59.20.

With very little time to rest, Gavell turned around and blazed to first in the women’s 100 free with a time of 53.74.

Oyster River’s Sydnee Aubin and Derryfield’s Emma Wagner delivered strikingly similar times in the women’s 500 free, finishing a slim .10 seconds apart. Aubin reached the wall first to stop the clock at a 5:11.41 over Wagner’s 5:11.51.

Levasseur and SAI’s Mattias Keyser kept a tight race in the men’s 100 breaststroke posting final times only .08 seconds apart. Levasseur reached the wall first with a final time of 1:02.12 over Keyser’s 1:02.20.

Oyster River also took down the women’s 200-yard medley relay D2 record with a 1:49.11.  That swim blasted the 1:51.89 set by Oyster River just a year ago.  Oyster River then took down the women’s 200-yard free relay record with a 1:41.17, clearing the 1:42.49 set by Lebanon back in 2011. A third relay mark took a tumble as Oyster River posted a 3:40.63 to demolish the 3:43.49 set by Lebanon back in 2011.

The men’s 200-yard free relay record also fell as Oyster River clocked a 1:30.88 to down the 1:31.56 set by Concord way back in 1995. Both Oyster River (3:20.30) and St. Thomas Aquinas (3:20.46) cleared the previous men’s 400-yard free relay state record of 3:21.28 set by Concord back in 2012.

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fact checker
fact checker
8 years ago

The state record in the men’s 200 yard freestyle relay was set by Campbell high school.

Bob Hopkins
Bob Hopkins
8 years ago
Reply to  fact checker

my mistake; I misinformed Taylor

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