For the first time since 2022, both Concord cross country teams are going to the Meet of Champions.
Senior Josiah Conley led the boys’ team with a third-place finish, staying with the best in Division I the entire way through, to clock a 16:26 and the rest of the team outperformed expectations to finish eighth at the Division I championship at Derryfield Park on Saturday.
Junior Mahalie Burdette led the girls’ team with a ninth-place finish in 20:36, leading the Tide to fifth in D-I, and extending the program’s streak of consecutive MOC qualifications to eight.
Conley was in the lead pack from the beginning of the race, hanging onto individual champion Ethan Fischer, a Bishop Guertin sophomore, and Keene senior Sully Sturtz, the runner-up, for about half of the 5K, before they started to pull away.
Fischer won in 16:01.76 and Sturtz won the silver in 16:15, but Conley held onto third for his best career finish in D-I.
Despite a decorated cross country career, Conley had fully delivered in a D-I championship race. This year, he went into it with a different mindset.
“Obviously it’s high pressure at states, but mentally I was trying to calm down and enjoy the race,” Conley said. The strategy paid off.
“I’m just so impressed with him,” Concord boys’ head coach Zach Procek said. “He’s had a hell of an experience over the last four years. He came in strong with all these expectations, all this weight on his shoulders. Every kid has highs and lows (in high school). He’s always come back to running as his center. It’s what he loves to do, it’s what brings him joy every day. He loves the guys on the team. To see him in the top three and run, what I would say, is his best race of the season. …I’m just so impressed with his performance today and over the last four years. He deserves all the credit that’s due to him.”
Qualifying for MOC as a team made the day even sweeter for Conley. The Concord boys hadn’t qualified as a team since his freshman year.
“The last two years that was our seasonal and we didn’t get it those times. But this year we had two really good freshman in Connor (Fennessy) and Will (Magee), and we thought we had a shot,” Conley said. “We went for it and we got it. It felt great, we knew it would be close, and it was close, but we have another week to prove ourselves.”
Sophomore Spencer Clemans (15th, 17:18), Magee (46th, 18:29), Fennessy (63rd, 18:44) and sophomore Ethan Harmon (72nd, 19:03) were the Tide’s other scoring runners.
The top five teams in each division qualify automatically, but three wildcard spots were also up for grabs, going to the three teams that had the best average time among its top five runners, regardless of division. Concord claimed the third and final spot with an average time of 18:00 among its top five.
“My projection was that we’d finish ninth and average about 18:48, so to get eighth and an average of 18:00, it came (from everyone),” Procek said. “I told them that if you improve by five seconds individually, it only drops one second off your average time. Everyone had to improve. They were a pack pushing so hard all the way through.”
Pinkerton (37), Keene (96), Londonderry (114), Nashua North (164), Nashua South (173), Bishop Guertin (179), Salem (197) and Concord (199) were the top eight boys teams.
On the girls’ side, Pinkerton won its fourth straight title with 55 points, narrowly holding off Exeter (58). Bedford (110), Bishop Guertin (152), Concord (153), Keene (158), Windham (164) and Winnacunnet (188) rounded out the top eight and the teams competing at MOC next weekend at Alvirne High School.
Exeter junior Alexis Paterna won the individual crown in 18:40.11.
Junior Quinn Doherty (21st, 21:13), freshman Grace Henry (35th, 22:17), and seniors Clover Doperalski (43rd, 22:38) and Bella Komorek (45th, 22:40) were the other scoring runners for the Tide girls.
“It was a big goal for us to qualify,” said Burdette, who improved significantly over her 63rd-place finish from her freshman year, the last time she ran at the D-I championship. “I knew we could do it, but making it feels really good.”
“We knew that if we came in and ran the way that we can run, we would make the trip back,” Concord girls’ head coach Chris Beyer said. “We had a couple kids really step up today and run personal bests on the course. Overall they had a great performance.”