MANCHESTER – For the last two years they’ve been on the outside looking in, but this year it was their turn.
The Hopkinton Hawks girls’ cross country team, a program steadily rebuilding for the past three years, emerged from the shadow of the two-time defending champion Campbell Cougars.
Kearsarge’s junior Mya Dube defended her individual title, running her best time at Derryfield Park, in 19:50, but Hopkinton placed three runners in the top 12 and five in the top 26, giving Hopkinton a score of 52 points.
Campbell placed five runners between 15th and 29th place, but it wasn’t enough to keep up the Hawks top three of freshmen Cailey Stockwell (fifth, 20:47) and Anna O’Reilly (12th, 20:57), and junior Emma Rothe (10th, 20:55).
Juniors Sydney Stockwell (16th, 21:27) and Lily Sabol (26th, 22:21), and sophomores Lilia Klingler (33rd, 22:17) and Cate Westbrook (28th, 24:04) completed the title-winning lineup.
Dube led Kearsarge to third place on the girls’ side, while the Kearsarge boys’ also finished third, just 15 points behind the defending champions from Mascenic.
The Winnisquam boys finished fifth, earning a spot in next weekend’s Meet of Champions at Mines Falls in Nashua.
You could say that Hopkinton’s path to the championship has been three years in the making when head coach Rob Rothe took over a Hawks program depleted of varsity experience.
Sydney Stockwell and Emma Rothe finished fourth and seventh in D-III as first-year runners and a varsity roster made up of four freshmen and no seniors finished eighth in 2016.
With another strong class joining the program, the Hawks finished second to Campbell by 18 points last year.
Although Hopkinton knew it had a good team this year, it wasn’t until the last couple of weeks that thoughts of a championship started to form.
“I think after the Capital Area race when we got second we thought that we might be able to do this,” said Emma Rothe, referring to Hopkinton’s near-upset of D-I Concord 10 days ago.
Hopkinton also beat Campbell for the first time in a couple of years at the Pelham Invitational two weeks ago.
“These girls had a race plan in mind,” coach Rothe said. “It’s something they’ve been working on for three years, some of the juniors on the team, and everything fell into place. There were tough conditions, but they’re a tough team.”
The Stockwell sisters, Emma Rothe and O’Reilly have been the consistent top four for the Hawks, although the order was fluid through the season and that close group, that finished within 40 seconds of each other on Saturday, has been an asset for Hopkinton.
“That (group) is good thing. They can work with each other and work together during races to push each other,” coach Rothe said. “They’ve made each other stronger throughout the season. I’m so proud of them. It’s a goal that they’ve been working toward for a while. I’m happy and proud of them all for achieving that.”
Having a strong contingent of supportive teammates close by also paid off in the cold, wet and windy conditions.
“We’ve trained in weather like this before,” said Cailey Stockwell. “We worked well together as a team.”
The victory was Hopkinton’s first cross country championship since 2013, the end of Hopkinton’s seven-year championship run, and the team feels optimistic about its future.
“Our juniors have been here for three years and getting stronger and helping the younger ones along,” coach Rothe said. “It’s a good group of girls and its nice to have them spread out over several grades. No seniors, so we’re hoping we get stronger.”
Campbell scored 81 points in its runner-up effort, while Kearsarge finished third 101.
Dube’s strategy went according to plan, staying in the lead group at the beginning of the race pulling ahead at the top of the McIntyre hill about halfway through the race.
“It went pretty good, especially since the weather was really bad,” Dube said. “I’m really happy that I broke my personal record on this course.”
Jenna Bears (11th, 20:56), Ada Gardner (32nd, 23:12), Cassie Gilbert (34th, 23:16) and Avril Prak (51st, 24:10) were the other top runners for Kearsarge.
Lebanon (131) and Monadnock (146) were the other two girls’ teams to advance to the MOC while Belmont’s Alice Riley (third, 20:25) and Winnisquam’s Faith Gosselin (eighth, 20:52) qualified individually.
The top five teams and 20 individuals advanced to the MOC.
Makayla Palmer (41st, 23:44) ran well for 10th-place Belmont. Winnisquam’s Jasmine Piper (21st, 21:59) and Hillsboro-Deering’s Elizabeth LaBier (94th, 26:59) ran well for non-scoring teams.
On the boys’ side, Kearsarge’s 78 points narrowly trailed two-time defending champions Mascenic (63) and Campbell (65), who boasted the individual champion, Jeffrey Allen (16:24).
Ben Boulton (eighth, 17:43), Edward Stowell (12th, 17:50), Trevor Pauling (13th, 17:52), Tom Lick (18th, 18:06) and Aidan Kellogg (28th, 18:35) were the top five for Kearsarge.
Trinity (103) and Winnisquam (151) rounded up the top five teams.
Rick Fournier (10th, 17:49), Kyle Mann (25th, 18:15), Riley Mann (30th, 18:43), Dylan Robert (40th, 18:59) and Evan Griffin (49th, 19:23) were Winnisquam’s top five.
Hopkinton finished sixth with 243 points and were led by Michael Eggers (33rd, 18:46) and Simon Page (36th, 18:50).
Oscar Miller (47th, 19:14) and Joseph Tierney (48th, 19:18) led 12th-place Bishop Brady, Jared Whitcomb (62nd, 19:51) led 22nd-place Belmont and Zach Camp (72nd, 20:15) led 26th-place Hillsboro-Deering.