42nd Middle School State Championships – Recap , Pics, Videos (Updated!)

Click on any picture below to link to Dave Scannell’s 800+ photos (free, downloadable)!!!

Race Videos Courtesy of Greg Hall and Peter Attisano

The 42nd New Hampshire Middle School State Cross Country Championships were held at Londonderry High School.  With 3000 entrants and 10 races, this made for a very exciting day of racing.  The weather was cool and mostly cloudy, so for a mid-October day, it was pretty much running heaven.  The course was slightly changed from last year by removing the lap around the softball field to measure 2 miles in length.  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. 7^th grader and defending state champion Addison Cox of Northwood ran an unchallenged wire-to-wire race to win in 12:35. The competition for second thru ninth was the real race where there were nine girls separated by nine seconds. Sophia Reynolds of Andover won the battle royal placing 2^nd in 13:15 followed by Sophie Sullivan of Oyster River 3^rd (13:16), Gillian Gallagher of Litchfield 4^th (13:17), a pair of Deerfield runners Serena Britos 5^th (13:17) and Caley Nault 6^th (13:18).  Hollis Brookline’s Lily Jackson placed 7^th in 13:21 ahead of a pair of Hopkinton runners Sydney Stockwell 8^th (13:22) and Anna O’Reilly 9^th (13:22). Haley Schmitt of Nashua Catholic, (13:26), finished tenth.

Hopkinton Girls won the Girls’ State Championship with 58 points, Litchfield was second with 109 points, Deerfield 3^rd 116 points, Northwood 4^th 128 points, and Portsmouth 5^th with 177 points.  Winning team members for Hopkinton were, Stockwell, O’Reilly, Lilia Klinger, Cailey Stockwell, Addison Locke, Lily Sabol and Emma Roth.

The Large School Girls Championship was won by home schooler Caroline Fischer in 11:54. She controlled the race from start to finish, running the fastest time of the day by any girl. Carly Rinko of Ross A. Lurgio finished second in 12:11 ahead of Hillside sister sensations Katelyn Pepin 3rd (12:21) and Keegan Pepin 4^th (12:28).  Elm St. Grace Jones placed 5^th (12:36), Morgan Nault of McLaughlin 6^th (12:40), while Silvia Caddell of Woodbury 7^th (12:55) just nipped Jessica Carrier of McLaughlin 8^th (12:55), Charlotte Bausha of Mountain View School 9^th 12:56 and Grace Mercier of CMS rounded out the top 10 in 13:07.

Hillside of Manchester won the Girls Large School State team championship with 89 points. The battle for second was very close with McLaughlin of Manchester placing 2^nd with 101 points besting Amherst by only 3 points! Ross A. Lurgio of Bedford placed 4^th 125 points and Londonderry was 5^th with 143 points.  Hillside’s winning team members included, The Pepin sisters, Ella Tartsa, Erin Flurey, Emma Krantz, Alexandra Topic, and Fiona Doherty.

The Small School Boys Championship was won by Jake Velazquez 1^st 11:14 of Surry. He was the top returnee improving from last year’s third place finish.  He ran a very strong race to defeat Deerfield’s Ryan Devine (11:21). Noah Taracena of Hampton Academy took the day’s second battle royal placing 3^rd just outleaning Myles Carrico of Oyster River in 11:30.  Deerfield’s David Cook took 5^th (11:32) followed by Hollis Brookline’s Carson Bottomley 6^th (11:34), Logan Patnode 7^th (11:34), Northwood’s Aidan Cox 8^th (11:38), and Boynton’s Dakota Somero 9^th (11:42). and Eli Misavage (11:51) clinched tenth.

The closest team battle of the day was won by Deerfield. They won their 3^rd straight State Championship and fourth in five years with 86 points, a mere two points better than Oyster River’s 88 point total. Northwood placed 3^rd with 126 points, Hampton Academy 4^th (148 points) and Boynton 5^th (196 points).  Deerfield winning team members were Devine, Cook, Brandon Richards, John Murphy, Joey O’Brien, Brayden Kearns and Shaun Fifield.

Keene Middle School’s Nico Ramirez ran the fastest time of the day winning the Boys Large School individual title in 11:13 over 2014 champion William Coogan of CMS,  11:16. The next four were all Londonderry harriers Matt Griffin 11:24, Ryan Young 11:36, Kerry Daley 11:39 and Will Heenan 11:43.  Fairground’s John Sullivan placed 7^th (11:45), followed by Woodbury’s Bradley St. Laurent 8^th (11:52), Elm St. Christopher Keefe 9^th (11:52) and Amherst Mason Silk rounded out the top ten in 11:53.

Londonderry defended its 2014 championship with 31 points by placing all 5 boys in the top 13 to beat Keene (58 points). Rundlett placed 3^rd with 187 points, Elm St. 4th  and Woodbury 5^th with 214 points. Londonderry’s winning team members included Griffin, Young, Daley, Heenan, Nicholas Camuso, Levi Nezballa and Shane Ball.

Thanks always to Londonderry High School, Larry Martin and Lancer Timing for putting this very special event together for so many years for all of the New Hampshire middle school runners. Martin founded this meet back in 1973 in Raymond.  The meet moved to Londonderry 9 years later.  Let that sink in!! 42 years of selflessly organizing and directing a meet for middle school kids (often the overlooked in our world of high school and college athletics), which has grown to around 3000 entries year after year after year!  Thanks Larry and crew!!! No one can do it better!