NASHUA – Concord coach Tristan Black-Ingersoll put it simply, “The conditions worked well for Forest … they didn’t really work for anyone else.”
Heavy wind gusts, 2 inches of rain in some spots and mud everywhere didn’t slow down Crimson Tide senior Forest MacKenzie, who won Saturday’s Meet of Champions boys’ race by nearly 17 seconds and was the only runner to break 16 minutes on the 5K course at Nashua High School South and Mines Falls Park, helped secure Concord another MOC team title and earned a spot at next weekend’s New England championship meet.
It was the second individual title in as many weeks for MacKenzie, who won the Division I boys’ title last weekend at Derryfield Park in Manchester in even tougher weather conditions.
Merrimack Valley freshman sensation Sophia Reynolds, the winner of last weekend’s Division II individual title, won the girls’ race at the Meet of Champions in 17.59.6, while the Coe-Brown boys’ and girls’ teams both qualified for New Englands via top-six finishes.
Sophia’s older brother, David Reynolds, also punched a ticket to New Englands by finishing fourth in 16:09.
Kearsarge’s Mya Dube (fifth, 18:33), last weekend’s D-III girls’ champion, and Belmont’s Alice Riley (25th, 19:28) also qualified for New Englands individually by finishing in the top 25.
“The people who put this race on did as best they could to maintain (the course), but it was ripped up. All the way from start to finish,” MacKenzie said. “It made it a really slow race, but tactically fun.”
MacKenzie, Concord’s Eli Boesch-Dining, David Reynolds and Exeter’s Jake Winslow were in front through the first part of the race, and MacKenzie and Winslow started to pull away halfway through.
With 1,000 meters to go and nobody in striking distance of MacKenzie and Winslow, MacKenzie pulled away to win in 15:48, an impressive result given the course conditions.
“I think that there was some unfinished business here,” said MacKenzie, referring to last year’s result when Nashua North runners went 1-2 despite Concord’s team win. “To come back here and to win it is crazy. It’s awesome … It’s a state championship. You’ve got to make a gutsy move and this one worked out.”
Fourteen runners broke 16 minutes in the boys’ race last year, while MacKenzie was the only runner to do so this year.
“That’s part of the race,” Black-Ingersoll said. “You grind guys into the ground. Forest has worked really hard to prepare for this.”
Concord defended its MOC title with 83 points, but wasn’t as dominant as it was at this race a year ago, although the goal all season long has been to perform best at New Englands.
Boesch-Dining (12th, 16:30), Eben Bragg (13th, 16:30), Ryan Devine (25th, 16:41), Aidan O’Hern (42nd, 17:04), Brayden Kearns (44th, 17:06) and David Cook (72nd, 17:27) were the other runners for the Tide.
“I think people definitely struggled,” Black-Ingersoll said. “If they run like that next week, it’s going to be tough. The flip side is it’s certainly possible for them to run significantly better. It’s very clear what needs to be done differently.”
Despite a less than dominant team performance, MacKenzie still made history for Concord, becoming the first Tide runner in program history to win a MOC title on the Mines Falls/Nashua High School South course and just the second male runner from Concord to win at MOC. The last Concord High runner to win a MOC title? Olympian Guor Miading Miaker (then running as Guor Majak) in 2004.
Sophia Reynolds also made history for Merrimack Valley, becoming the first Pride runner to win an MOC title on the Nashua course and the first MV runner to win the title since Katie Chwasciak in 2004.
“Today was really hard,” Reynolds said. “Our race plan got thrown out the window at the start, but it still went pretty well.”
Manchester West’s Julia Robitaille (second, 18:13) took a big lead, but Reynolds completed the arduous task of making up that ground in the second mile of the race in the Mines Falls woods trail, the muddiest section of the course.
Oyster River (124 points) narrowly bested Coe-Brown (126) for second place on the boys’ side, after the Bears topped the Bobcats for the D-II boys’ team title the previous weekend.
Dawson Dubois (11th, 16:29), Luke Tkaczyk (16th, 16:34), Wyatt Mackey (28th, 16:43), Logan Mihelich (33rd, 16:53), Patrick Hill (54th, 17:13), Gavyn Lewis (62nd, 17:16) and Carter Sylvester (68th, 17:22) ran for Coe-Brown.
Keene (128), Pinkerton (156) and Winnacunnet (165) rounded out the boys’ teams advancing to New Englands.
John Stark’s Brandon Langdon (36th, 17:00) and MV’s Matt Reynolds (45th, 17:06) were other top area finishers on the boys’ side.
Kearsarge finished 16th and was led by Trevor Pauling (75th, 17:31) and Winnisquam finished 18th and was led by Kyle Mann (85th, 17:38).
Exeter (118 points) was the top girls’ team, while D-II champions Coe-Brown (121) finished second.
Addison Cox (11th, 18:57), Abby O’Connor (24th, 19:26), Ella Malone (29th, 19:42), Miranda Compton (36th, 19:55), Amelia Edmonds (78th, 20:48), Autumn Graham (85th, 20:58) and Tessa Millette (101st, 21:15) formed Coe-Brown’s team.
ConVal (155), Pinkerton (167), Oyster River (179) and Souhegan (194) were the other girls’ teams to qualify.
MV’s Emma York (31st, 19:49) ran a personal-record time and finished just a few spots shy of advancing.
Concord finished 11th and was led by Morgane Orcutt (42nd, 19:57), while Emma Rothe (38th, 19:56) led 15th-place Hopkinton.
New Englands will be held on Saturday at Derryfield Park in Manchester.