Milford coach Julie Dutton hugs Spartan runner Logan Korthals after his win in the 800 meter run during Sunday's Division II championship meet in Kingston. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

KINGSTON – Julie Dutton admits to being superstitious, so she never counts her winners until they run the race.

The Milford High School boys track team she coaches had just cleaned up in the 800 meter run, earning a whopping 22 points in that one event thanks to a strategic move, and had positioned themselves to grab a Division II outdoor championship.

Nope, she was thinking. Merrimack Valley is strong in field events and they have more points to grab.

Then, even with just one event left, the 4×400 relay in which the Spartans were favored and her team up by eight, Dutton still wasn’t convinced.

Not to worry.She kept her team on top of its game and after winning the Division II state indoor title nearly four months ago, the Spartans made it a clean sweep on Sunday at Sanborn High School with the outdoor title as well.

“Everybody stepped up when we needed them to,” Dutton said after the Spartans totaled 85 points, well ahead of second place Coe-Brown (68) and third place Merrimack Valley. (67). “In a lot of different places. We had guys score today that had never scored in a state meet before in four years.

“We scored little points where we needed it, and then we had our big guys do what they’re supposed to.”

Locally, Souhegan finished sixth with 40 points, while Hollis Brookline was eighth with 35. Oyster River (141) rolled in the girls meet, with Coe-Brown second there too at 89. Milford was the top local with 26 points while Hollis Brookline (10th, 22) and Souhegan (15th, 3) also competed.

But the day belonged to the Spartan boys, who won all three relays. Avery Wilson had a big day as a two-time winning relay anchor and also captured the 200 in a Division II record time (21.36) after finishing second to Hollis Brookline’s Sam Bruneau (10.64 vs. 10. 69) in the 100. But, as he said, it just wasn’t about him.

“Every guy stepped in today and really put their heart and effort and pulled up points,” he said.

For Wilson and Kenyon Sora, it’s their third state title of their senior year, as they won in boys soccer as well as the two tracks.

Sora was asked to add triple jump to his running duties, and he came through with a fourth place finish (38-7.5).

“It’s definitely an obstacle to overcome, but at the end of the day I was just glad to help my team become state champs,” Sora said. “We hadn’t been state champs in a long time (the boys last outdoor title was in 2011) so it definitely feels good I was able to contribute the way I did.”

Sora, who ran in two relays, also took third in the 400 (50.42).

A key move that Dutton made was to pull a big gun or two out of the 1600 and load up in the 800. It paid off big time, as Logan Korthals won it in 1:59.93, and Grant Skorupan took second in 1:59.54. Will Whitley was fourth (2:02.22), and that was an 22-point haul. When Wilson won the 200, the Spartans grabbed an overall point lead they never relinquished.

The relay sweep was impressive. First, the foursome of Chase Paiva, Grant Skorupan, Will Whitley and Logan Korthals captured the 4×800 in 8:27.08.

Then it was Josh Pettingell, Sora, Tiegan Barb and Wilson anchoring for a 43.36 winning time in the 4×100. They capped it off with another Division record time of 3:25.47 in the 4×400, the team of Korthals, Whitley, Sora and Wilson as the anchor.

Others contributed. Ethan Morin picked up some Spartan points with a fourth in the high jump, and Cameron Lewicki got a point with a sixth in the javelin.

Milford’s Avery Wilson turns the corner duirng the last lap of the 4×400 relay that clinched the Division II title for the Spartans on Sunday at Sanborn High School. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

For Souhegan, Brody Smith won the high jump at 6-2 and was fourth in the 400. Owen Pisinski took second in the pole vault (12-0), while John Katsel was fourth in the long jump. The Saber 4×800 relay crew was fifth and the group of Smith, Thomas Arnoldy, Ben Gaudet and Katsel were third (3:30.92) in the 4×400.

Besides Bruneau’s 100 win, the Cavs’ Brady McCammack was second (15.29) in the 110 hurdles. McCammack, Bruneau, Adolfo Figueroa and Andrew Desmarais took third in the 4×100 relay in 43.89. McCammack was also third (41.09) in the 300 hurdles and Desmarais was sixth in the 200.

Yet this was a Spartan party. The indoor title was incredible, done with just seven athletes. They had four more for Sunday, either didn’t compete or score in most field events, and still pulled it off.

“I knew we’d do well in indoor, but I didn’t have everything worked out on paper,” Dutton said. “In track, you have to have everything go well, a lot of moving parts. In outdoor, there’s so many more events, a lot of field events. We have a small team so a lot of guys tripled, quadrupled, doubled, and the guys that weren’t, they did what they needed to do in that one event to contribute to the championship.

“This is a special group of guys we have right now, a special group of guys for sure.”

They had it all the way, right Coach?

The Milford boys track team celebrates its Division II title win on Sunday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

GIRLS MEET

Milford’s points came from a winning 4×800 relay (10:07.70) by Catriona Carter, Jaylyn Paul, Isabella Cornaro and Rylee Coates. Coates was also fifth in the 400 and 200. Zoe Ric was second in the discus (95-4) and fourth in the shot put (29-1).

For the HB Cavs, Grace Dow had a championship day with a win in the 300 hurdles in 47.42 seconds, and she took third in the 100 hurdles (15.46). Julianne Berquist was sixth in the pole vault and Margaret Noble the same in the high jump. HB was fifth in the 4×800 and 4×100

Souhegan’s Samantha Swanbon was fifth in the 800 (2:28.89) and sixth in the 1600 for all the Saber points.

DIVISION III

The Division III meet was held simultaneously – not easy to pull off, as the whole day began at 9 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. Pelham (96 points) captured the boys title going away as Monadnock was second at 70. Hopkinton (84 points) took the girls with Belmont second at 67.

Campell scored a combined eight points on the day. They had just one point in the boys meet, a sixth by Ethan Bellino in the long jump at 19-7.

The girls were 19th with seven points

Skyla Houle was sixth in the long jump at 14-10 for a point and the 4×800 relay team of Brianna Flanagan, Calleigh Duncan, HannahFlanagan and Rylie Lemire took third (six points) in 10:45.12.

(For complete results of the Division II and III Meets, go to Lancertiming.com)