Gaughan shatters N.H. 3200m record; crickets cheer enthusiastically

I've been a consistent follower of New Hampshire track and field and cross-country since graduating from Concord High School in 1988. This has clearly become easier over the years with the creation and expansion of the World Wide Web, with two of my go-to running sites among the countless in my bookmarks being Lancer Timing and the MileSplit network.

Last Friday, a junior from Exeter High School named Jacqueline Gaughan went into the 3,200-meter run at the Loucks Games in White Plains, N.Y. already holding the outdoor state record in the event; last June, her second-place 10:24.27 at the New England Championship earned her that distinction. Also, in March, she ran 10:24.32 for two full miles to place seventh at the New Balance National Indoor Championships in New York City, a time equivalent to about 10:20.7 for the metric distance.

Whatever Gaughan's "true" fastest 3,200-meter time was going into the Loucks Games, she obliterated it, running 10:05.71 to place second to sophomore Kelsey Chmiel of perennial national powerhouse Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Chmiel's 9:59.62 and Gaughan's time were good for 3rd and 5th in the nation this spring.

At the same meet, in the boys' 3,200m, Oyster River High School's Patrick O'Brien -- whose mother Cathy is no stranger to high-school and professional success, having run a 2:34:24 marathon at age 16, still an American junior record, and later appearing in two Olympics at the distance -- grabbed fourth place with a 9:02.29. Only three New Hampshire kids have ever run faster: Eli Moskowitz (8:44.79 at the 2014 Loucks Games), Aaron Watanabe of Hanover (8:59.43 at the 2010 New Englands) and Cory Thorne of Portsmouth (9:03.75 for a full two-mile in 2004 in Hartford, Conn,, worth about 9:00.5 for 3,200 meters).

That local newspapers and other media outlets fail to take much notice of track and field, and in particular distance running, is a lament so familiar that it would be fair to apply some derivative of Godwin's law to it: Once you start whining that runners aren't adequately recognized for their efforts, you might as well have just stamped "I ONLY SPEAK DOUCHEBAG!" on your forehead.

Still, a new state record with such undeniable oomph, run by a junior, and at a mid-season meet at that, ought to trigger someone in a newsroom to take notice, right? Well, that depends on your definition of notice. Foster's Daily Democrat in Dover, next door to Durham (home of Oyster River H.S. and the University of New Hampshire) and up the road about 20 miles from Exeter, featured this blurb the day after Gaughan's and O'Brien's races -- and so far is, according to Google News, alone among media outlets in even writing about them:

Exeter High School junior Jackie Gaughan was second in the women’s 3,200-meter run Friday night at the 50th annual Glenn D, Loucks Games at White Plains High School, while Oyster River senior Patrick O’Brien was fourth in the men’s 3,200.

Gaughan ran a time of 10 minutes, 5.71 seconds to finish behind Kelsey Chmiel of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (9:59.2).

O’Brien’s fourth-place time was 9:02.29.

All of this is accurate, which itself is a relief, although I am tempted to fix the comma in "Glenn D, Loucks." But I would have expected someone to point out that Gaughan in effect broke her own New Hampshire record by the same percentile margin as someone carving two seconds off the 400m mark would have, never mind O'Brien's sterling effort.

To be honest, I think that New Hampshire sportswriters in the state's seacoast area have become spoiled by these two lately, and are thereby almost inured to their increasingly impressive achievements. O'Brien recently won the New England indoor title in the two-mile and set a state record in the 3,000 meters shortly before that, while last fall Gaughan was the New England Champion, second at the Foot Locker Northeast Region Championship and 11th at Foot Locker Nationals.

If Gaughan Girl doesn't break 10:00 this season, she almost certainly will in the future, and a sub-9:00 seems almost inevitable this year for O'Brien, who ran his last 400 at Loucks in about 61 but was gapped by the ludicr