It’s still early in the season, but on the first weekend of big cross country invitationals, the Concord boys’ cross country team is already breaking records.
Seniors Forest MacKenzie and Eli Boesch-Dining finished 1-2 in 15:35 and 15:41, respectively, on the Mines Fall 5K course, and Concord’s top five runners averaged 16:02 on the course, a meet record, leading the Tide to a decisive victory at Saturday’s Nashua Invitational.
Concord’s 24 points easily bested Londonderry (72), Pinkerton (96) and the rest of the 11-team field.
MacKenzie set a course record that was previously held by Concord’s B.J. Smith in 2012 (15:43). The Tide’s team record of a 16:02 average smashed the previous mark of 16:32, set by Pinkerton in 2015.
Concord placed eight runners in the top 15 – Eben Bragg (fifth, 16:14), Aidan O’Hern (seventh, 16:18), David Cook (ninth, 16:22), Brayden Kearns (11th, 16:30), Ryan Ciesluk (13th, 16:34) and Ryan Devine (15th, 16:41).
Freshman John Murphy rounded out Concord’s varsity runners, finishing 44th in 17:49.
The course at Mines Falls is also the site of the NHIAA Meet of Champions, which determines which six teams and 25 individuals represent New Hampshire at New Englands.
The Tide set an MOC team record last year, with the 2017 top-five runners averaging 15:53.
MacKenzie and Boesch-Dining ran faster than the times of 15:38 and 15:42 that they clocked at MOC last year.
Saturday’s result bodes well for next weekend’s Manchester Invitational at Derryfield Park, featuring teams from across New England.
The Concord girls’ team also had a successful day, finishing third out of nine teams, led by sophomore Morgane Orcutt (ninth, 19:38).
Salem (62) and Groton-Dunstable, Mass. (80) were the top two teams, while the Tide finished with 89 points.
Freshmen Katherine Kennedy (18th, 20:26) and Abby Goulas (24th, 20:40) were the next Concord finishers, while Hannah Willette (26th, 20:56), Katie Watt (31st, 21:13), Sarah Zarakotas (32nd, 21:21), Serena Britos (34th, 21:30) and Quincy Bolduc (41st, 22:06) rounded out the Tide’s varsity lineup.
Nashua South’s Cali Coffin (17:21) won the girls’ race by over 57 seconds.
It was a solid day for the Reynolds family as senior David and freshman Sophia swept the individual titles for Merrimack Valley at the Bobcat Invitational, hosted by Oyster River at Tibbetts Field in Madbury.
David Reynolds clocked a 16:21 on the 5K course to win by over 11 seconds, while twin brother Matt finished 24th in 17:47 in a field of 21 teams and more than 150 runners.
“David ran an interesting race, going out hard in the lead, getting caught, then running away with the win over the last mile,” MV coach Dave Irving said. “It gave the race some drama, as you were never sure who would come out of each section of the woods in the lead.”
Sophia Reynolds, already the winner of multiple races in her short varsity career, performed well in her first major invitational.
“Sophia ran a strong race,” Irving said, “running in a small lead pack over the first mile before pulling away to win by 28 seconds against many of Division II’s top runners.”
Division I’s Winnacunnet (62) and D-II Oyster River (83) topped the boys’ team standings, while Phillips Exeter (92), Souhegan (119) and Hanover (149) rounded out the top five.
The Pride finished 11th with 283 points. Ethan Dodenhoff (77th, 19:25), Christian Oglesby (93rd, 20:01) and Connor Butt (110th, 20:42) rounded out MV’s scoring along with the Reynolds twins.
Hopkinton finished 13th with Theodore Mollano (59th, 18:53) and Simon Page (61st, 18:54) leading the way for the Hawks.
Aidan Rupp (73rd, 19:23) was the top runner for Belmont, which did not have enough runners to score.
On the girls’ side, Phillips Exeter won with 72 points, with Souhegan (112), ConVal (113), Oyster River (154) and Campbell (159) rounding out the top five.
Hopkinton was the top local team, finishing sixth with 170 points, just 11 points behind the two-time defending D-III girls’ champions.
Freshmen Anna O’Reilly (19th, 21:07) and Cailey Stockwell (29th, 21:30) led the Hawks with Emma Rothe (32nd, 21:32), Sydney Stockwell (40th, 21:50) and Lilia Klingler (60th, 23:00) rounding out Hopkinton’s scoring.
MV finished 12th with Emma York (20th, 21:08), Kate Butt (93rd, 24:26), Maizie Thurber-Wells (95th, 24:31) and Tristan Beyer (123rd, 26:04) joining Reynolds as the Pride’s scoring runners.
Makayla Palmer (64th, 23:16) was the top runner for Belmont, which did not have enough competitors to score.
Pembroke finished 20th in the boys’ race and 21st in the girls. Shawn Tremblay (114th, 20:57) was the top Spartan finisher for the boys and Olivia Berkeley (115th, 25:33) led the Spartan girls.
The Bears swept both team and individual titles in their homecoming races against Bow and Portsmouth.
Dawson Dubois won in 17:17, leading a sweep of the top five, giving the Coe-Brown boys a perfect score of 15 points.
Luke Tkaczyk (17:22), Wyatt Mackey (17:25), Gavyn Lewis (17:38) and Logan Mihelich (17:39) claimed the second- through fifth-place spots.
Bow, led by Kirpal Demian (sixth, 18:04), Colin Lessard (seventh, 18:10), Sam Berube (10th, 18:49), Gabe Neff (11th, 18:55) and Ben Neff (15th, 19:30), finished second with 47 points.
On the girls’ side, Addison Cox won in 20:24 and the Bears claimed 14 of the top 16 spots to give Coe-Brown a victory with 18 points.
Portsmouth finished second with 43 and Bow placed third with 83.
Libby Parker (21st, 23:47), Leah Boisvert (26th, 24:23), Tory Burke (27th, 24:23), Autumn Boisvert (28th, 24:38) and Kate Watt (33rd, 25:53) scored for the Falcons.