Hopkinton cross country sends coach out with two team titles

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MANCHESTER – Not only did Rick Welch receive every coach’s dream retirement gift, he got it twice. In his last season as the Hopkinton cross country coach, Welch saw both his girls’ and boys’ teams win Division III championships yesterday at Derryfield Park.

“This is Coach’s last year, so we knew we had to do everything it took to win today, and that’s what we did,” Hopkinton senior Alex Bostic said. “His motivational speech on the bus today was one of the best I ever heard.”

The speech was about how a serious ankle injury has kept Welch from running for most of his adult life, but that he’s been able to pour his passion for the sport into his teams. It certainly showed yesterday as the Hopkinton girls blew away the field for their sixth straight title and eighth in the last nine years. The boys’ team standings were closer, but the Hawks still finished with a comfortable margin over second-place Fall Mountain, 65-81.

“It’s a nice way to finish,” said Welch, whose voice was hoarse but still full of emotion.

The Hopkinton boys didn’t just give their coach a great gift, they lifted a huge burden from their own shoulders. After winning the title in 2004, the Hawks finished second in 2005, ‘06, ‘07, ‘10 and ‘11. Not wanting to repeat that runner-up history, the boys trained on hills all year to simulate the up-and-down course at Derryfield Park and to prepare themselves for yesterday’s race. And the work was worth it.

“The decisive moment of the race was when (Bostic) went out and pulled two of our younger kids on the hill and past a kid from Fall Mountain,” said Welch, who has been at Hopkinton since 2001. “That was it.”

“I just did what I was told,” Bostic said.

Senior Cam DeBrusk led the Hawks with a time of 16:52, good enough for sixth place overall. Senior Sam Smith was next in 10th place (17:22), followed by freshman Declan Campbell in 18th (17:41), junior Cody Roberge in 20th (17:42) and Bostic in 21st (17:46). Not only did those Hawks get the second-place burden off their shoulders, they also stepped out of the considerable shadow cast by the girls’ team.

“It’s been more than annoying,” Bostic said with a smile. “All of our seasons the girls have been the one with the best team and we’ve been in the shadows, so thankfully we got a little recognition today.”

Of course, there’s little shame in being overshadowed by a team as good as the Hopkinton girls. The Hawks finished with 41 team points while second-place Pelham had 100. Bow finished third with 144, Derryfield fourth with 152 and White Mountains fifth with 158. All five of those teams, along with the top 23 individual finishers, qualified to compete in the Meet of Champions next week in Nashua.

“We were such overwhelming favorites on paper that we pretty much trained through the meet,” Welch said. “The rule was you’re not allowed to kill yourself for one place today - pain but not agony. We didn’t want them to spend too much before next weekend.”

Despite those restrictions, Hopkinton sophomore Emily Calder finished second overall (19:56) behind only Laconia’s Sami Hicks (19:38). Freshman Sarah Nadeau was seventh overall (20:47), although Welch said she could have finished faster, “but she was following instructions.” Junior Katie Irwin was next for the Hawks in 11th (21:16) and she was followed by seniors Emma Geiger in 14th (21:19) and Shannon Nadeau in 18th (21:28).

The Bow girls were led by junior Allie Krause, who was 19th overall in 21:40. Also scoring for the Falcons were Hannah Weckstein (21st, 22:00), Katrina Weisner (31st, 22:43), Audrey Zecha (42nd, 23:31) and Julia Maurer (50th, 23:55).

The Kearsarge girls finished ninth overall (244 points) and were paced by Briggie Carr (12th, 21:17) and Maggie Bolger (47th, 23:42). Hillsboro-Deering was 12th (296) behind Maggie Girard (25th, 22:25), who set the school 5k record two weeks ago, and Aspen Dubuque (74th, 25:11). Bishop Brady was 15th as a team (356) with freshmen Amelia Toole (41st, 23:26) and Devyn Saucier (58th, 24:27) leading the way.

The top five teams on the boys’ side were Hopkinton (65), Fall Mountain (81), Pelham (96), Bow (109) and Moultonborough (189). Bow, the defending champ, was led by last year’s individual winner, Andrew Weckstein, who had to settle for second place this year (16:20) behind Levi Frye of Fall Mountain (16:12). Bow also got points from Kevin McCully (19th, 17:42), Alex Evans (31st, 18:10), Sam Evans (33rd, 18:13) and Peter LaRiviere (35th, 18:14).

Kearsarge was eighth on the boys’ side (257 points) and was led by Conor Terhune (seventh, 16:57) and Sam Van Etten (27th, 18:01). Bishop Brady was 13th (425) behind Warren Bartlett (40th, 18:34) and Stephen Weinmann (73rd, 19:38). Winnisquam was 17th as a team (475) with Zach Baker (45th, 18:45) and Mike Roy (57th, 19:07) leading the way. The Belmont boys were 26th (645) behind Kyle Patten (108th, 20:28) and Travis Akerstrom (124th, 20:55). And Hillsboro-Deering was 27th (705) behind Andrew Roberge (99th, 20:13) and Arthur Tuttle (135th, 21:17). Sant Bani didn’t have enough runners to post a team score, but Colby Clark finished fifth (16:51) to qualify for the MOC.

(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3371 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)