Maddy Lane is new to varsity level this season, although you wouldn’t know it by watching her. She’s finished in the top five of every major invitational she’s competed in this season, and the Hopkinton freshman added another impressive result to her resume with a fifth-place finish at the 48th Manchester Invitational on Saturday at Derryfield Park.

The biggest race of the entire season that NHIAA teams compete in, the annual competition features 70-plus teams from all six New England states, plus New York, that compete in 10 races throughout the course of the day.

Lane’s 5K time of 18 minutes, 57.3 seconds was good for fifth out of 219 runners in the Girls’ Small School Varsity race, leading the Hawks to ninth out of 38 teams.

“Maddy has been coming along really well and is making some noise in her first ever cross country season,” Hopkinton head coach Rob Rothe said. “She is running like a veteran only four races into her career. I am really excited to see what she and the team can accomplish in the second half of the season.”

Saturday’s result is also promising given that Derryfield Park is also the site of all the NHIAA division championships on Oct. 28. The Hawks – the three time defending D-III champions – performed as well as they did, even with one of their second fastest runner, Shaylee Murdough, out with an injury.

Elizabeth Trafton (53rd, 21:53), Reese Bove (56th, 21:55), Amelia Walsh (85th, 22:49) and Annie Daniels (152nd, 25:17) stepped up and ran well in Hopkinton’s other varsity spots.

“Though they didn't have their number two, they are firing on all cylinders and are exactly where they should be at this time,” Rothe said.

Ruth White of Orono, Maine, won the race in 17:20.7, about 50 seconds faster than the runner-up, Hanover’s Lea Perreard. 

Oyster River (47 points) and Hanover (57) battled for the team title, with Harwood, Vt. (206), North Shore, N.Y. (212) and Mascenic (218) rounding out the top five.

Hopkinton (288), Coe-Brown (13th, 327), Merrimack Valley (15th, 419), Bow (18th, 448), Kearsarge (23rd, 519) and John Stark (did not score) were the other area teams that competed.

Kearsarge senior Molly Ellison (ninth, 19:26) was the only other area competitor in the top 45, while John Stark’s Kayla Barriere (46th, 21:46), Bow’s Julia Hou (48th, 21:48), MV’s Lily Moser (51st, 21:51) and Coe-Brown’s Paige Murdough (54th, 21:53) led their respective teams.

MV’s Madison Geddes (63rd, 22:00), Bow’s Lena Thompson (67th, 22:09), Coe-Brown’s Madison Taylor (22:34) and Kearsarge’s Amelia Lefebvre (83rd, 22:47) also ran well.

John Stark didn’t have enough runners to score in the varsity race, opting to have rookie Anna Chasse run in the 2.1 mile freshmen race that kicked off the day, where Chasse finished third out of 80 competitors. 

Boys’ Small School

Matching Hopkinton’s performance as the highest-finishing area team of the day was the Bow Falcons in the boys’ small school division with a ninth-place finish.

Hanover, led by individual champion Lucian Gleiser (16:06.8), finished with 87 points, following by Souhegan (132), Haddam-Killingworth, Conn. (154), BFA-St. Alban’s, Vt. (174) and Oyster River (191).

Bow (377), Hopkinton (14th, 439), Merrimack Valley (16th, 462), Kearsarge (34th, 795), John Stark (did not score) and Pembroke (did not score) were the other area teams in the 42-team field.

John Stark’s Eli Lemire (14th, 16:45) and Austin Patenaude (61st, 18:11), Kearsarge’s Daniel Dalbec (16th, 16:47), Hopkinton’s Matt Clarner (16th, 16:58) and Ben Daniels (31st, 17:19), Merrimack Valley’s Mychal Reynolds (43rd, 17:46), and Bow’s Alden Betterley (45th, 17:49) and Owen Miller (84th, 18:47) were the top area runners out of 262 finishers.

The Falcons showed good depth within their top five with Wyatt Worcester (89th, 18:43), Aiden Ciminesi (91st, 18:52) and Thomas Sargent (105th, 19:07) finishing in a good pack time.

Boys’ Large School

Competing up a division with New Hampshire’s Division I teams and the top teams from New England, the Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Bears held their own, finishing 16th out of 34 teams, while senior Jamie Lano finished seventh out of 231 runners with a time of 15:50.

Phillips Exeter Academy’s Byron Grevious won in 15:03.6 to lead his team to the title with 82 points, with St. Johnsbury Academy, Vt. (112), Bishop Hendricken, R.I. (149), Phillips Academy from Andover, Mass. (162) and Nashua South (209) rounding out the top five.

Coe-Brown finished 16th with 391 points, while Concord was 26th with 663.

Sunny Nomula (34th, 16:42), Luc Kerouac (65th, 17:41), Liam McLean (144th, 18:21) and Keegan Sousa (147th, 18:25) also scored for Coe-Brown.

Concord sophomore Josiah Conley was 15th in 16:12, while Tyler Watt (90th, 17:33), Ian Mamos (153rd, 18:33), Elliot Clendinning (208th, 19:34), Oliver Conley (209th, 19:35) and William Corbett (215th, 19:51) rounding out the Crimson Tide’s top five.

Girls’ Large School

The Tide girls finished 12th out of 26 teams, with Champlain Valley, Vt. (48), Pinkerton (135), Phillips Academy (136), Needham, Mass. (152) and Phillips Exeter (171) finishing in the top five.

Concord (364) was led by Shelly Smith (51st, 21:09), Chloe Gudas (62nd, 21:34), Morgan Doherty (76th, 21:52), Bella Komorek (85th, 22:01) and Ava Philbrook (100th, 22:25).

Needham’s Greta Hammer won in 18:28.6.

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