Manchester Middle School Invitational! 9/25/2014

Deerfield Boys Repeat, McLaughlin Girls Win Big at Middle School Manchester Invitational

The Deerfield Boy’s Cross Country team successfully defended their 2013 title by winning the 2014 Middle School Manchester Invitational held at Derryfield Park. Last year’s victory was never in question with Deerfield winning by 59 points.  This year was a different story. A reloaded Londonderry team, fresh off beating last year’s NH Large School Champion Keene last week, made it a real close one.  In the end, 2013 Defending NH Small School Champion Deerfield beat Londonderry 57-60 in a real hard fought battle.  Hollis-Brookline placed third with 110 points, Hampton Academy 4^th 129 points, Rundlett was 5^th with 188 points, and Elm Street was 6^th 243 points.

Deerfield’s Forest MacKenzie ran all alone for a wire to wire first place finish over the hilly 2.1 mile course, easily winning with a time of 12:14. The battle for second was won by Deerfield’s Ryan Devine in 12:28 just ahead of Merrimack’s Robert Sawdey 3^rd 12:31.  Joe Gagnon of Cawley Middle School took 4^th in 12:37 just ahead of 6^th grader Matthew Griffin of Londonderry 5^th 12:40.  Parkside’s Abukar Khamis 6^th 12:44 ran a strong second half to beat Londonderry’s Kyle Hoglund 7^th 12:45, Hood’s Jeffery Mize 8^th 12:53, Londonderry’s 9^th 12:57 and Deerfield’ David Cook 10^th 13:00.

The 2013 Defending NH Large School Champion McGlaughlin girls made it look easy on way to 63 point victory. McLaughlin scored 55 points, to outdistance Merrimack 2^nd 118 points, Londonderry 3^rd 122 points, Hillside 4^th 134 points, Hollis-Brookline 5^th 160 points, while Deerfield and Hampton Academy finished in a tie for 6^th with 172 points.

Individually Kay Partridge of Hollis-Brookline took the lead early and never relinquished it, placing first in 13:20, over a pair of McLaughlin runners Jordan Vaillancourt 2^nd 13:31 and Morgan Nault 13:34.  Merrimack’s Sophie Kim 4^th 13:34, Hillside’s Katelyn Pepin 5^th 13:46, Merrimack Lauren Brennan 6^th 13:47, Hillside’s Keegan Pepin 7^th 13:50, Elm Street’s Grace Jones 8^th 13:53, Parkside’s Julia Robitaille 9^th 13:54 and Addison Cox 14:02 of Northwood rounded out the top ten.

Full Results