Cross Country: Local runners find success at 50th Manchester Invitational

In some ways, the midseason test is the toughest test. With 103 schools from all six New England states competing in 10 races throughout the day at Derryfield Park, the 50th Manchester Invitational provided intense competition for area high school cross country teams. With the majority of NHIAA programs in attendance, it’s a good measuring stick for how they might fare on the same course when they race for division titles on Oct. 25. 

Local runners measured up well.

Hopkinton junior Maddy Lane defended her Girls Small School title, clocking an 18 minute, 53.1 second 5K. The Coe-Brown Northwood Academy boys’ team, competing in its first meet off its campus this season, bested 41 other teams to win the Boys Small School title. And Concord senior Josiah Conley ran a personal course-record time of 16:34.5 to finish runner-up out of 236 runners in the Boys Large School event.

Girls Small School

After six junior varsity and freshman races to open the meet, Lane and her Hawk teammates toed the line for the first varsity race of the day. Lane took off in the lead right from the gun. A mile into the race she had already built a 10 second lead over the rest of the 240 runners and continued to cruise to a comfortable win, breaking the tape 31 seconds before runner-up Zoe Carroll of York, Maine, crossed the line in 19:24.3.

Lane’s time of 18:53.1 is even faster than the 19:28.4 she ran to win the same event last year. It also continued her undefeated season, having already won the Bobcat Invitational (setting a course record) the past two weekends.

Unseasonably warm temperatures and dry air led to dusty conditions, making an already grueling course even more challenging.

“It was definitely hot and that course is always hard, especially the second mile,” Lane said. “The goal was to run faster than I did last year on this course and win. I like to get out hard to take the lead.”

Lane’s performance led Hopkinton to a sixth-place finish, the best New Hampshire team in that event.

Haddam-Killingworth High School in Higganum, Conn., won the team title with 117 points, followed by Middlesex School from Concord, Mass. (148), York (171), Noble and Greenough from Dedham, Mass. (190), Loomis Chaffee from Windsor, Conn. (211), Hopkinton (217) and Concord’s St. Paul’s School (223).

“Maddy was once again very solid,” Hopkinton head coach Rob Rothe said. “She got into a good rhythm. It’s always great to get here midseason to see where we’re at and where other teams are at. Overall, for both teams, good showing. The girls weren’t as strong as they had been the past couple of weeks. Some people were a little bit off today, but it’s a good learning experience for states, and some of the other bigger races. This is the biggest one, for sure.” 

Sophomore Maisie Emerson (28th, 21:31), junior Rose Afflerbach (31st, 21:44), and freshmen Ellison Gregory (102nd, 23:49) and Hannah Clarner (108th, 23:57) were the other scoring runners for the Hawks. 

Hopkinton is undefeated so far against Division III opponents. The Hawks finished second to D-II Oyster River at the Bobcat Invitational and finished fourth, behind all D-I teams, at the Nashua North Invite.

The defending D-III champion Hawks graduated some key pieces to last year’s team and are one of the younger groups Rothe has worked with.

“They’re figuring out where they fit in, they’re jostling some positions and moving around a little bit, and they’re learning,” Rothe said. “It’s been good. We went heavy on the weekend big invites this year, by design, to give them the experience and ramp it up. We knew coming in there was potential. We’ve surprised ourselves by how quickly the girls have been able to come back.”

Coe-Brown (272) finished ninth with Hilary Wennberg (41st, 22:12), Eloise Hill (59th, 22:39), Annabelle Lovett (62nd, 22:50), Lily Travis (74th, 23:18) and Olivia Zadakis (105th, 23:51) scoring for the Bears.

Merrimack Valley (22nd) was led by Lily Moser (86th, 23:30), Emily Baca (122nd, 24:21), Reagan Jefferson (126th, 24:26), Brylee Flood (167th, 26:02) and Emma Geoffroy (201st, 27:50).

John Stark (26th) was paced by Nora Smith (51st, 22:27), Kayla Barriere (165th, 25:59), Grace Meisser (178th, 26:28), Milla Lunderville (186th, 27:06) and Rylee Barnard (208th, 28:08).

Pembroke (28th) was led by Caitrin Bergeron (46th, 22:18), Delana Girouard (163rd, 25:56), Isabella Delorme (190th, 27:19), Jasmine Blake (196th, 27:31) and Icesis Liska (238th, 32:45)

Bow did not have enough runners to score as a team, but had solid races from Julia Hou (22:35) and Madelyn Fish (151st, 25:17).

Boys Small School

Coe-Brown has been runner-up in D-II for the past two seasons, but don’t have any seniors in its varsity lineup. That inexperience didn’t hurt the Bears, whose five scoring runners all finished with a 19 second span in the top 32 to take the Small School title with 104 points, besting D-II rivals Oyster River, who finished second with 122.

Sophomore Patrick Youngs (16th, 17:32), juniors Ben Jobin (18th, 17:37) and Gus Glaser (22nd, 17:39), sophomore Ben Larson (29th, 17:44) and freshman Samuel Youngs (32nd, 17:51) were CBNA’s scoring runners, with freshmen Mateo Ferguson (36th, 17:56) and Broden Cox (47th, 18:10) right there with them.

“It was a surprise,” Coe-Brown boys’ head coach Lucas Fisher said. “This is a dress rehearsal for states. We went in with no expectations, just to have fun racing together. … They’re so young. For them to run together as a pack was a really nice surprise and seeing them earn first place was crazy. … I think can get even tighter (as a pack). They just run well together, they’ve been running all summer together.”

Youngs and Jobin did their job, going toe-to-toe with the leading group, while Glaser, a newcomer to the team this year, was a bright spot as the team’s third finisher. A former soccer player, Glaser made the switch to cross country this fall after two successful years on the track team. Saturday marked the first time he had ever run a cross country race off of Coe-Brown’s campus.

Fall Mountain’s Elijah Bodanza won the individual crown in 16:24.9. 

Haddam-Killingworth (177), St. Paul’s (181) and Weston, Mass. (211) rounded out the top five teams.

“Today shows we can be right up there with anyone. All seven of them impressed me,” Fisher said. ““They’re so intrinsically motivated. We just give them the guidelines and help them along the way, and they’re ready to roll.”

Bow (396) and Hopkinton (411) finished 10th and 11th, respectively.

Sam Kohl (61st, 18:32), Wyatt Worcester (67th, 18:35), Ian Sandahl (74th, 18:46), George Kohl (88th, 19:07) and Gavin Simon (137th, 20:01) scored for the Falcons, and Max Goupil (26th, 17:42), James Lavers (73rd, 18:45), Finnegan Kovar (10th, 19:23), William Shepard (128th, 19:53.5) and Michael Crosby (130th, 19:54.2) scored for the Hawks.

MV (25th) was led by Ben Geoffroy (54th, 18:22), Nathan Bain (112th, 19:28), Jonathan Degges (158th, 20:35), Westin Chevalier (168th, 20:46) and Nathan Mudgett (209th, 21:43).

John Stark (30th) was paced by Austin Patenaude (53rd, 18:17), Shane Brunini (161st, 20:37), Evan Furness (185th, 21:18), Jackson Loiselle (208th, 21:43) and Gavin Arel (230th, 22:16) 

Caleb Saturley (89th, 19:08), Willam LeCain (114th, 19:31), Hayden Petersons (160th, 20:37), Alexander Craigue (280th, 24:48) and Conor Preve (297th, 27:32) scored for Pembroke (33rd).

Boys Large School

Conley stayed with the leaders in the final race of the day, just one second out of first through the first 500 meters. Eventual champion Bocelli Howland-Vlahakis, a Gilmanton resident and former Gilford High runner who now attends Phillips Exeter, extended his lead to seven seconds through the first mile and pulled away for a commanding victory (15:43.3), but Conley held off the other challengers to finish second in 16:34.5.

Third-place finisher Ben Groves of Hanover (16:36.5) and fourth-runner competitor Benjamin Holoch of Champlain Valley, Vt., (16:36.7) were right behind Conley most of the race, but couldn’t catch him.

It’s the beginning of the season so you don’t really know where everyone is at,”  Conley said. “It was hard to get a race plan going into it, but it developed.”

Pinkerton won the team title with 83 points, with Champlain Valley (174), North Andover, Mass. (193), Hanover (205) and Cumberland, R.I. (226) rounding out the top five.

Concord finished 20th out of 35 teams with 430 points.

Spencer Clemans (21st, 17:13), Connor Fennessy (120th, 18:53), Will Magee (138th, 19:13) and Max Jimenez-Calderon (157th, 19:32) were the Crimson Tide’s other scoring runners.

Girls Large School

Concord junior Mahalie Burdette led the Tide girls, finishing 36th out of 174 runners in 21:04.

Concord (395 points) finished 13th out of 25 teams, with Champlain Valley (58) placing four runners in the top 10 to take first, and Hanover winning a tiebreaker over Cumberland to take second (both teams scored 100 points).

Quinn Doherty (74th, 22:24), Grace Henry (82nd, 22:39), Gianna Gualtieri (99th, 23:05) and Clover Doperalski (119th, 23:47) also scored for Concord.