41st Middle School State Championships – Recap & Results

The 41^st New Hampshire Middle School State Cross Country Championships were held at Londonderry High School.  With over 3000 entrants and 10 races, this made for a very exciting day.  The weather was changeable throughout the afternoon with mostly clouds above and only one brief downpour, so for a mid-October day, it was pretty much perfect.  The course was lengthened from last year and from one noted source it was measured at 2.33 miles on the tangents.  Trophies were given out to the winning teams and plaques to the top ten finishers in all of the championship races.

The Small School Girls Championship race was the first of four team scoring championship races slated for the day. 6^th grader Addison Cox of Northwood ran a very smart and tactical race to win in 14:18.  It was the second year in a row that a Northwood girl raced to victory lane (Ahna McCusker 2013 winner). Hopkinton’s Sydney Stockwell place second in 14:32, followed by Kay Partridge of Hollis Brookline 3^rd 14:41, Madison Labrie of Boynton 14:45, Deerfield’s Serena Britos 5^th 15:06, Nashua Catholic’s Elizabeth Croke 6^th 15:10, Litchfield’s Kaylee L’Etoile 7^th 15:14, Merrimack Valley’s Emma York 8th 15:18, Hollis Brookline’s Lily Jackson 9^th 15:18 and Litchfield’s Gillian Gallagher rounded out the top ten in 15:18.

Deerfield won their first Girls’ State Championship ever with 85 points, Hollis Brookline was second with 115 points, Boynton 3^rd 144 points, Nashua Catholic 4^th 151 points, and Hopkinton 5^th with 160 points.  Winning team members for Deerfield were, Britos, Sarah Zarakotas, Piper Kilgore, Caley Nault, Sam Lemay, Julia Fifield, and Julianna Fusco.

The Large School Girls Championship was won by Violet Sullivan of Cooperative Middle School. She controlled the race from start to finish, crossing the line in 13:23 which was the fastest time of the day by any girl.  Taylor Clark of Amherst ran a great race to finish second in 13:47, ahead of last year’s champion Lauren Robinson of Fairgrounds 3^rd 13:57.  Lauren Brennan of Merrimack 4^th 14:08, McGlaughlin’s Morgan Nault 5^th 14:12, Amherst’s Arielle Zlotnick 6^th 14:12, Hillside’s Katelyn Peppin 7^th 14:24, Keene’s Hannah Drew 8^th 14:26, Hillside’s Keegan Pepin 9^th 14:27 and Sophie Kim of Merrimack place 10^th 14:28.

Amherst and 2013 Champion McGlaughlin finished in a tie with 66 points, but Amherst’s all important sixth runner placed higher than McGlaughlin’s, giving the Amherst girls the 2014 Championship. Cooperative Middle School placed 3^rd with 115 points, Hillside 4^th 163 points, and Elm St. 5^th 169 points. Winning team members for Amherst were Clark, Zlotnick, Abigail Kirk, Sophia Lunati, Jennifer Ladd, Emma Sette and Marissa Romano.

Deerfield’s Forest MacKenzie proved again why he is the top Middle school racer in the Granite State, posting the fastest time of the day in 12:49. Joe Gagnon of Cawley placed second in 12:56 to finish way ahead of the next pack of runners which included Jake Velazquez of Chesterfield 3^rd 13:24, Deerfield’s Brett Richard’s 4^th 13:26, Barrington’s Noah Strout 5^th 13:26, Oyster River’s Henry Keegan 6^th 13:26, Hollis Brookline’s Evan Simonds 7^th 13:32, Deerfield’s David Cook 8^th 13:34, Boynton’s Logan Thibeault 9^th 13:35, and Matt Hutchinson of Hollis Brookline 10^th 13:37.

Deerfield defended its 2013 State Championship despite missing Ryan Devine (broken foot suffered in last race) arguably the second best runner in the Small School Division.   Deerfield won its 3^rd State Championship in the last four years with 48 points.  Hollis-Brookline placed second with 78 points by placing 4 boys in the top 15 places.  Oyster River was 3^rd 117 points, Boynton 4^th 182 points and Chester Academy 5^th 226 points.  Deerfield winning team members were MacKenzie, Richards, Cook, Brandon Richards, John Murphy, Joey O’Brien, and Jared Woodman.

Cooperative Middle School’s Will Coogan is making quite a name for himself, with parents that were both in the Olympics and a multi All American sister in track and cross country. Seventh grader, Coogan ran 12:53 to win the Boys Large School Championship over Amherst 7^th grader Zena Primmer 2^nd 13:01, Londonderry 6^th Grader Matt Griffin placed 3^rd in 13:08, just ahead of teammate Kyle Hoglund 4^th 13:09, Merrimack’s Robert Sawdey 5^th 13:10, Keene’s Wyatt Ferrando 6^th 13:11, Gilbert Hood’s Jeff Mize 7^th 13:15, Keene’s Nico Ramirez 8^th 13:17, Elm St. 9^th Alex Chen 13:21, and Londonderry’s Christian Ganim 10^th 13:25.

Londonderry won the 2014 Championship with 44 points by placing all 5 boys in the top 14 places to beat 2013 Champion Keene 98 points, Elm St. was 3^rd 135 points, Hampton Academy 4^th 189 points, and Amherst 5^th 219 points.  Londonderry winning team members included Griffin, Hoglund, Ganim, Ryan Young, Thomas Fougere, and Mathew Naso.

Thanks always to Londonderry High School and Londonderry Legend Larry Martin and his crew for putting this very special event together for so many years for all the middle school runners. Simply, we would not have a Middle School Championships if it were not for him, his family and crew.  We are very fortunate to have many individuals and organizations in our state that promote the sport of cross country.

Full Results Courtesy of LancerTiming