MANCHESTER – There was no doubt that the Coe-Brown boys’ cross country team would defend its Division II title, but this result was exceptional. Even for them.
Junior Luke Tkaczyk blazed his way through the Derryfield Park course in 16:06 with teammates Aidan Cox (16:09) and Dawson Dubois (16:12) right behind and all seven Coe-Brown runners finished in the top 12 to give the Bears a victory with 21 points, the lowest team score by any champion team in any division, in the last 30 years.
Carter Sylvester (sixth, 16:25), Logan Mihelich (ninth, 16:36), Wyatt Mackey (11th, 16:43) and Patrick Hill (12th, 16:46) also finished in the top 12 for Coe-Brown, a squad that earned a DyeStat national ranking (No. 28) earlier this week.
“We really wanted to come in and send a very clear message,” Coe-Brown co-head coach Brent Tkacyzk said. “To be honest we wanted to get seven guys in the top 10. That’s very difficult to do. We didn’t quite make that, but we ran so well as a group and executed our game plan.”
The Bears easily topped Oyster River (63), Hanover (130), Windham (150), Bow (173) and ConVal (174).
Fifth-place Bow qualified for the Meet of Champions by finishing in the top six as a team and were led by the trio of Ben Neff (20th, 17:09), Gabe Neff (21st, 17:12) and Colin Lessard (22nd, 17:14).
On the girls’ side, Souhegan’s Chloe Trudel (18:43) led a 1-2-3 Souhegan finish, giving the Sabres a narrow victory over the Coe-Brown girls’, 41-47.
Merrimack Valley (94), led by Sophia Rebenciuc (fourth, 19:11), defending champ Sophia Reynolds (fifth, 19:19) and Emma York (12th, 20:45), finished third.
Oyster River (124), Kennett (168) and Hanover (176) rounded out the girls’ teams qualifying for MOC, while John Stark’s Brianna Langdon (19th, 21:01) and Katie Palmateer (23rd, 21:14) qualified individually.
The Coe-Brown boys have been the undisputed best team in New Hampshire all season, getting the top spot in New Hampshire Cross Country’s rankings in the preseason and holding No. 1 since.
Tkaczyk, Cox, Dubois and Sylvester were at the front of a tight leading pack of seven runners which went out slowly in the first mile, with nobody wanting to challenge the Bears’ leaders.
“I told Luke all week long ‘do not lead the first mile,’ ” coach Tkaczyk said, “but we forgot about the fact that nobody wanted to go out in front of him. This course, if you go out too hard, you’ve got some major hills to climb. During the hills he absolutely took the race over.”
“I usually go out too fast in races, but today it kind of helped that the entire race was going slow,” Luke Tkaczyk said. “So in the second mile I really had my legs underneath me going down the hill.”
Tkaczyk and Cox, whose father Brent is the other co-head coach, battled for the lead with Tkaczyk holding it for the final stretch.
“For our two boys to be battling it out for the victory, you couldn’t ask for more,” coach Tkaczyk said. “Our wives are cousins, so it’s all in the family on that one.”
Dubois out-kicked Sanborn’s Jared Khalil in the final 150 meters to move into third, but coach Tkaczyk credited everyone in the lineup for their contributions right down to the seventh man.
“When Patrick (Hill) is pushing in the seventh spot, he’s not just holding on and going for the ride. No. 7 and No. 6 are putting pressure on our fourth and fifth (runners) and that’s part of the magic.”
“There’s some pretty fast guys in D-II this year, so we’re pretty happy to see (seven in the top 12),” Luke Tkaczyk said. “And the team title – that’s what we were looking for really.”
Although the Bear boys make it look almost effortless, actually getting to this level has been the opposite.
“It’s a testimony to the boys. They work hard,” coach Tkaczyk said. “Everyone of them was in bed by 8 o’clock last night. There’s sacrifices associated with being up there (on the winner’s stage). To be that good, they don’t party, they don’t get involved with those things, they leave that behind. You can call that a sacrifice if you want, we call it a choice of a lifestyle. That’s something that’s been clear with them from the start. We worked really hard as a unit over the summer. It’s all those things together.”
The hard work has also paid off with national recognition. Coe-Brown is one of just three New England teams in the DyeStat top 30 national rankings.
The other two are La Salle, R.I. (seventh) and Bishop Hendricken, R.I. (20th).
“DyeStat, that’s a real committee getting together,” coach Tkaczyk said. “It’s a cool thing for our school. It’s a great thing for our community. When people see us running out in the rain and all kinds of weather, people see our dedication, it’s nice for them to understand that this is really paying off.”
While the identity of the Coe-Brown boys’ team had been established since the start of the season, it was opposite of the girls team, whose lineup was significantly altered by transfers and injuries, including a preseason back injury to junior Addison Cox, which was followed up this season by Lyme Disease.
“Our (lineup) changed a lot this year versus what we thought were going to have,” Tkaczyk said. “Addison, first her back, and then she get’s Lyme Disease, that’s a lot for a young girl to go through. We had a good game plan that was ready to support her. We had staff all over this course. If she didn’t look right, she wouldn’t (stay in). Addison is as tough as nails. She is our leader.”
Senior Abby O’Connor, who emerged as an elite runner in Cox’s absence, finished sixth in 19:27, improving on her 11th-place finish from 2016 and 12th-place finish from last year.
“She fought all the way through,” coach Tkaczyk said. “I’m super proud of her. She wants it really bad and she works for it. She sacrifices and she does all of the right things.”
Cox’s gutsy seventh-place finish in 19:51 and strong finishes from freshmen Sheldyn Fisher (eighth, 19:54) and Mallory Taylor (10th, 20:10), Tessa Millette (16th, 20:55), Samantha Lemay (18th, 20:57) and Amelia Edmonds (25th, 21:19) challenged Souhegan, the No. 1 team in the NHCC rankings for the past few weeks.
“They had perfect execution and they all ran PRs,” coach Tkaczyk said. “You’re never happy to get second place, but when our girls have been through so many things this season, today was a happy second. We’ve had a sad second before over the years, but this was a happy second.”
Samantha Kimball (24th, 21:15) and Madisyn Garrity (49th, 22:05) rounded out MV’s scorers, while Madison McDonald (33rd, 21:37) also ran well for ninth-place John Stark.
Maya Brochu (62nd, 22:19) and Autumn Boisvert (65th, 22:25) led 15th-place Bow, while Charlotte Corbitt (99th, 23:56) was the top runner for Pembroke (not enough runners to score).
MV (12th), John Stark (18th) and Pembroke (21st) were the other local teams that competed.
Ethan Dodenhoff (41st, 17:57) and Mark Mercier (42nd, 18:02) were the top runners for MV, Jack Hagan (76th, 18:59) led John Stark and David Testerman (109th, 20:00) led Pembroke.