The Coe-Brown boys’ cross country team has been regarded as the best team in the state all season long. And on Saturday at the Meet of Champions, the Bears proved it.
Running without their fastest competitor, the Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Bears defeated the best runners and teams from all three divisions of NHIAA competition to claim the MOC team crown on the course at Alvirne High School in Hudson.
CBNA also punched its ticket to New Englands, along with the other top six boys’ and girls’ teams.
Bears won with 70 points, with Souhegan (97), Pinkerton (128), Lebanon (168), Nashua South (184) and Windham (189) rounding out the top six boys’ teams.
Two-time defending MOC champion and state record holder Aidan Cox was out with an injury that flared up during last weekend’s Division II championship at Derryfield Park in Manchester (where the Bears won their fifth consecutive team title), but senior Tyler Tkaczyk (sixth, 15 minutes, 57.5 seconds), junior Jamie Lano (16th, 16:33), seniors Nikhil Chavda (17th, 16:34) and Gavin Demas (24th, 16:49), junior Max Lemay (50th, 17:22) and sophomore Luc Kerouac (62nd, 17:38) all ran well to still win by a comfortable margin.
Hanover (86), Bedford (128), Pinkerton (145), Winnacunnet (151), Oyster River (169) and Dover (186) were the top six girls’ teams.
Concord (218) finished eighth on the boys’ side, with Hopkinton (13th, 308), Bow (14th, 310), Concord (16th, 334) and Kearsarge (17th, 347) also competing as teams in the girls’ race.
The top 25 individuals in both races also qualified for New Englands, which will be held on Saturday at Thetford Academy in Vermont.
Portsmouth Christian senior Brianna Malone (18 minutes, 4 seconds) was first across the line in the girls’ race, while Gilford senior Patrick Gandini won in 15:02.2, edging Lebanon senior Birhanu Harriman by .2 seconds.
Coe-Brown senior Sheldyn Fisher (fourth, 18:57), Bow senior Maya Brochu (12th, 19:32), Kearsarge junior Molly Ellison (19th, 19:57) and Hopkinton senior Hannah Bennett (20th, 19:58) all qualified individually from local teams in the girls’ race.
Bow senior Susanna Zahn – the D-II girls’ individual champion crowned last weekend – did not race due to an injury.
Hopkinton junior Ben Daniels (15th, 16:32) also is heading to New Englands, while John Stark junior Eli Lemire (28th, 16:56) just missed the cut by seven seconds.