The John Stark boys’ track and field team has established itself over the past couple of seasons as especially strong in the field events. The Generals gave a demonstration on Saturday at the NHIAA Division II indoor track and field championship.

Senior Rio Calle set a personal record in the high jump, clearing 6 feet, 4 inches to win the state title, and also finished second in the long jump (21-8.5). Fellow seniors Joel Douzanis (second shot put) and Sam Kinsey-Turner (fourth high jump) also scored points. With no competitors in the running events, the Generals sat on a big lead through the field event portion of the meet and waited as their opponents added points as the running events were completed.

In the end, Milford took home the boys’ crown while John Stark took third at the state meet at Plymouth State. Meanwhile, the Belmont girls’ team did exceptionally well on the track with junior Ava Lacasse winning the 55-meter dash in 7.48 seconds and anchoring the winning 4x200-meter relay (1:53.46) and runner-up 4x400 (4:24) to lead the Raiders to third place.

Oyster River cruised to another team title on the girls’ side with 80 points, while Hollis-Brookline (30), Belmont (29), Hanover (28), Coe-Brown (26.5), Bow (25.5) and Kingswood (23) rounded out the top seven in a tightly contested battle for the runner-up spot.

Milford (51 points) won with strong performances in the distance races and two title-winning relays. ConVal (35), John Stark (30), Oyster River (28), Merrimack Valley (26), Trinity (26), Monadnock (24), Coe-Brown (23) and Mascoma (22) filled out the top nine boys’ teams.

In addition to Calle, Merrimack Valley senior Mychal Reynolds (1:25.5 in the 600 meters) and Kearsarge senior Daniel Dalbec (4:11 in the 1,500) won individual D-II boys’ titles. Bow senior Hannah Pawlowski won the girls’ 600 title in a commanding 1:38.52, nearly four seconds faster than the next competitor.

As expected, the Stark boys scored all their points early, getting consistently high marks in the field events.

“We have some top-notch kids who performed as well as they expected to,” John Stark head coach Joel Kress said. “We got those 30 points at the beginning of the meet and we were hoping to hang on, and we hung on for third place.”

Call defended his high jump title and took second with a leap of 21-8.5 in the long jump, finishing second to Trinity’s Rere Edokpolo (21-10), just like last year.

“Rio is a very smart kid. He approaches jumping from a very methodical and analytical approach,” Kress said. “He went to a camp this summer that helped him work out the kinks. This season he was consistently at 21, 20 feet. In the high jump he was very fluid over the bar. When he makes a mistake, he sits down and thinks about how he will do it better next time.”

John Stark also had senior Ethan Veilleux (ninth) compete in the long jump and three others – Douzanis and juniors Owen Dion (eighth) and Grant Spooner (ninth) – in the shot put.

“For our jumpers, I would say the work ethic (that makes them successful),” Kress said. “They come every day and work, work, work. They use their meets as high-level practice. It’s a fine line of resting versus getting a solid workout in.”

For the throwers, in addition to bulking up in the offseason, Kress highlighted the addition of volunteer throwing coach BJ Ocker as a contributor to Stark’s success in the field.

“The throwing squad has had consistent, rigorous training all season, making microadjustments in the circle,” Kress said.

Douzanis, who had been throwing in the mid- to high 40s all season, threw 46-11.75 on Saturday to finish second. Douzanis won the title last year, but nobody was going to catch Mascoma’s Barnaby Diehn after a monster throw of 52-8.25.

Similarly, a strong work ethic and willingness to drill on technique and make adjustments was also key for the Belmont girls’ team en route to their third-place finish.

Lacasse had the fastest time (7.50 seconds) in the 55 prelims before winning the finals. Senior Adeline Takantjas was sixth in the hurdles and also ran in both the 4x200 and 4x400 relays with Lacasse.

Junior Hannah Young and senior Talia Watson completed the title-winning 4x200, and senior Jaelyn Nialetz and junior Hailey Clermont ran on the 4x400 to cap Belmont’s scoring performances.

“I brought 14 athletes and all of them exceeded their seeds, which is every coach’s dream,” Belmont head coach Scott Clark said. “They ran really, really well. … (Ava) is so mentally tough. She absolutely hates to lose.”

Out of 50 athletes on his team (boys and girls combined), most of them are sprinters and hurdles but are willing to do things in the offseason that many sprinters won’t.

“The majority of (the girls team) are sprinters, but all ran cross country, too, something you would ordinarily not see sprinters doing,” Clark said. “They work hard every day and go through drill after drill. They’re a fun group, no drama.”

With so many area girls’ teams competing for silver to Oyster River, there were many scoring performances from local teams.

Isabelle Grenier (second shot put), Bristol Shirland (fourth 55 hurdles), Eloise Hill (fifth 3,000), Jazzlyn Curry (tied fifth high jump) and Annabelle Lovett (sixth 1,000) scored individually for fifth-place Coe-Brown. Hill, Meredith Kerivan, Lovett and Paige Murdough formed the third-place 4x800 unit, and Delaney Manning, Shirland, Curry and Tessa Kouchoukos were the fourth-place 4x200 quartet.

In addition to Pawlowski, Camden Wilson (third), Keegan O’Meara (fourth) and Emily Fauteux (tied fifth) all scored in the high jump, and Julia Hou was fourth in the 1,000 for the other Bow points.

John Stark (tied 16th, six points) was led by Anna Chasse (fifth 1,000), who also ran on the fourth-place 4x800 team with Kayla Barriere, Rylee Barnard and Elsa Winther.

Sarah Allen (fourth long jump) scored for Bishop Brady.

Madison Geddes (sixth 600) anchored MV’s sixth-place 4x800 effort with Sydney Spack, Kendra Davidson and Reagan Jefferson, and Pembroke’s Caitrin Bergeron was fifth in the 1,500 as both squads tied for 22nd with two points each.

MV’s boys tied for fifth (26) behind Reynolds’ win in the 600. He also anchored the sixth-place 4x400 with Christopher Bode, Owen Turner and Beckett Rose. Turner (second high jump) and Nic Oglesby (third long jump, sixth high jump) also scored individual points for the Pride.

Eighth-place Coe-Brown (23) was led by Cameron Lee (third 55 hurdles), Bryce Sartin (fourth long jump) and Brogan Grzybowski (fifth 55 hurdles). Lee, Blake Spina, Luc Kerouac and Anthony Szatko finished third in the 4x400. Gavin Dyjak, Dylan Plowman, Quinn Froburg and Luc Kerouac finished fourth in the 4x800, and Ethan Newick, Lee, Szatko and Sartin finished sixth in the 4x200.

Bow and Kearsarge tied for 15th with 10 points each, with Kody McCranie (second 300) and the fifth-place 4x800 squad (Thomas Sargent, Sam Kohl, Wyatt Worcester and George Kohl) scoring for Bow, and Dalbec’s win accounting for all of Kearsarge’s points.

Brendan Goodwin (fifth 600) and Nolan Abbott (sixth 600) combined for Winnisquam’s (tied 22nd) three points.

The top six overall finishes in each event in the state (between Division I and II) will have the opportunity to compete at New Englands on March 1 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston.