2017 Middle School State Championships Meet Hub – for all videos, pics, interviews!
All Results – LancerTiming
On a beautiful, warm, fall day in NH, thousands of middle schoolers took to the trails and fields of both Londonderry High School and Coe-Brown Northwood Academy to not only determine the best individuals and teams, but also to simply celebrate the phenomenon that is middle school cross country in NH!!! Now in its 44th year (Thanks Larry Martin!), due to the sheer popularity of the sport, the championships had to be contested in the two locations.
Division 1 Girls
In one of the surprises of the season and off the strength of taking three of the top five places, Woodbury Middle School from Salem, took home their first Division 1 title. Bethany Graham won the race going away in 12:25, and was followed by teammates Natalie Coryea (2nd, 13:05) and Erica James (4th, 13:13). Hillside’s Fiona Doherty broke up the triumvirate by placing 3rd in 13:11 to lead her team to the runner-up finish along with teammate Ella Tarsta (6th, 13:17). Placing third was Keene Middle School which also had three representatives in the top 10, as Stephanie Ager placed 5th (13:14), Mia Brown placed 9th (13:26), and Avery Dobbins came in 10th (13:28). Ali McFarland (Cooperative Middle School) and Caroline Leone (Londonderry) placed 7th and 8th respectively to complete the top 10.
Also scoring for the state champion Woodbury Middle School were sixth graders Allyson Martiniello (12th, 13:33) and Lily Thomas (20th, 13:50). Also scoring for Hillside Middle School were Emily Hobausz (14th, 13:38), Devon Booth (18th, 13:49) and Kathryn Craig (34th, 14:07). Rounding out the top 5 teams were Londonderry Middle School with 116 points edging Rundlett with 120 points.
Division 1 Boys
As predicted, the Londonderry boys repeated once again as the Division 1 champs. And as predicted, Keene Middle School and Woodbury would make them work for it! While Woodbury’s Bradley St. Laurent would complete the individual title sweep for his school, Londonderry would take the next two slots with Tyler Kraft (11:36) and William Plante (11:51), along with a 7th place with Jack Marshall (12:00) to take home the title once again scoring 53 points. Also scoring for Londonderry were Andrew Young (19th, 12:28) and Nicholas Borovicka (22th, 12:33).
Keene would be a threat as they placed 4 in the top 14 with Tavi Maes (4th, 11:57), Austin Morris (8th, 12:04), Luca Maes (12th, 12:14), and Fitsum Visser (14th, 12:19). With sixth grader Jett Giza placing 33rd in 12:45, Keene would take the runner-up plaque with 71 points.
Led by St. Laurent’s win, Woodbury would place 3rd with 106 points. Evan Tremblay (5th, 11:58), Tyler Valerio (21st, 12:32), Jeremy Poirier (30th, 12:42), and John Plante (49th, 13:07) were the additional scorers. Rundlett Middle School would edge Elm Street Middle School 146 – 148 to nab 4th place.
Also placing in the top 10 were Pennichuck’s Connor Dowling (6th, 11:59), Dover’s Tyler Sheedy (9th, 12:05), and Elm Street’s Jesse Bordelon (10th, 12:10).
Division 2 Girls
Identical to D1’s Woodbury, Amherst took three of the top four places including state champion Chloe Trudel, runner-up Masho Primmer and 4th place Stephanie Svendsen. Masho’s little sister Ashereka would place 7th and Emma Herrero 25th as Amherst scored 35 points to repeat as state champs!
With a solid 1-5 pack time of 45 seconds, and an unbelievable top three differential of less than 3, Oyster River Middle School placed 2nd. Addie Berglund, Tessa Brown, and Haley Kavanagh would pack in to placed 13th-15th with 13:53-13:56. 5th grader Mackenzie Cook placed 26th in 14:26 and Kelly Zhang placed 32nd in 14:38 to round out ORMS’s scoring. Led by Maya Brochu’s 9th place finish, Bow Memorial School placed 3rd with 127 points edging Hanover’s 132 points. Hanover’s Lauren Eiler placed third in 13:11 to break up AMS’s top three. West Running Brook would round out the top 5 teams with 145 points and were led by Grace Jellow’s 8th place finish in 13:32.
Rounding out the top 10 individuals were Merrimack Valley’s Samantha Kimball (5th, 13:20), Milford’s Abbey Halloran (6th, 13:23) and Jona Velazquez (10th, 13:43).
Division 2 Boys
In what was the closest finish of the day in the most exciting race, Hanover’s Sam Murray outleaned Oyster River’s Amani Harvey
11:11.37 to 11:11.51! Both boys clearly gave it their all! A pack of four battled most of the way. In addition to Harvey and Murray, two seventh graders, Sanborn’s Jared Khalil and Portsmouth’s Avery Crowell battled strongly over most of the course with Khalil (11:22) eventually placing 3rd and Crowell (11:32) 4th. Placing a close 5th was West Running Brook’s Luke Brennan (11:42) while Kingswood’s Matthew Perkins placed 6th in 12:04. Theo Castonguay made it 2 in the top 10 for Oyster River placing 7th in 12:07, which Hollis-Brookline’s John Kotelly soon followed in 12:12. Sanborn also placed 2 in the top 10 as sixth grader Tyson Khalil placed 9th in 12:16, outlasting Milford’s Christian Waller (12:20) to round out the top 10.
With five in the top 20, Oyster River comfortably repeated as D2 Champs! Supporting Harvey and Castonguay were Dillon Labonte (13th, 12:29), Theo Fleischer (16th, 12:39) and Keane Swiesz (20th, 12:50) who all combined to score 58 points. With 4 in the top 20, Kingswood took the runner-up spot with 87 points. Scoring were Perkins, Casey Arsenault (14th, 12:31), Matthew Jacobs (17th, 12:42), Tim Huckman (19th, 12:47), and Jonathan Hossack (31st, 13:07). They essentially edged the Khalil brothers-led Sanborn Regional Middle School which placed 3rd with 99 points. Fourth was Amherst with 129 points just a mere 5 points ahead of Hollis-Brookline.
Division 3 
The 2017 New Hampshire Division III Middle School Cross Country State Championships were held at Coe Brown Academy in Northwood. On a beautiful almost summerlike October day, the feel of excitement and anticipation was in the air. The energy of the runners along with the noise of the crowd helped to fuel the competitive spirits through the prestigious Black Bear 2 mile course.
Andover 8th grader Sophia Reynolds ran within herself jumping out to the early lead easily gapping her nearest competitors. Running relaxed and relatively unchallenged, Reynolds, the course record holder had her sights clearly on winning. Her time was not a factor as she slightly eased off the gas pedal and cruised to a 10-second victory. Her winning time of 12:10 efficiently got the job done. Hannah Shepard of Marlborough took 2nd in 12:20. Tri-County Division IV Champion Hopkinton’s Cailey Stockwell (3rd)ran strong in the last 300 yards to just beat out the first 7th grader on the day, Southeast Champion Deerfield’s Sophie Hopkins. Mariesa Preble of Hampstead placed 5th (12:38), Reagan Hoy of Surry Village was 6th (12:45). Mallory Taylor of Strafford was 7th (12:51) a split second in front of Gilford’s Cat Stow, who finished in 8th (12:51) just in front of a pair of Newmarket runners Isabel Pentony 9th (12:51) and Hannah Edgerly 10th (12:57) the last to break 13 minutes. Elizabeth White of PMA was 11th (13:02), 
Abbie Switzer placed 12th in 13:05, Deerfield’s Ava Woodman finished strong to place 13th (13:12) just in front of Southeast competitor Brianna Malone of Barrington. Newfound 6th grader Zoe North ran 13:15 to finish in the Top 15.
After settling for runner-up honors last year, Deerfield won the team competition rather handily this year scoring 80 points to double up the competition. The surprise of the day went to Newfound Middle School which placed 2nd with 160 points to place in front of Hampstead 3rd (169 points) and upset last year’s State Champion Hopkinton which placed 4th with 172 points. PMA was 5th (201 points), Strafford 6th (209 points), Plymouth 7th (219 points) edged out Barrington 8th (219 points) in a tiebreaker. Newmarket was 9th with 238 points and Jaffrey-Rindge took 10th with 277 points.
The 2017 New Hampshire Division III Championship team were led by Hopkins, Woodman, Bella Lemay 17th (13:19), Captain Quincy Bolduc 27th (13:41), Christina Mallette 28th (13:42), Seven Doperalski 32nd (13:45) and Rose Layton 77th (14:48).
Northwood 7th grader Aidan Cox won his second straight Division III New Hampshire State Championship in workman fashion. Cox 
appeared to be struggling with the effort early on in the race. He soon settled in just after the mile distancing himself from a viable challenger in Torin Kindopp of Chesterfield. Cox cruised to victory in a time of 10:20 only 8 seconds off of his course record. Kindopp finished admirably in second place in time of 10:48. Connor Traffie ran tough placing 3rd in 11:12. Three Southeast rivals battled it out through the entirety of the race and in the end Northwood’s Tyler Tkaczyk took 4th in 11:25, Deerfield’s John Murphy was 5th in 11:28 and Lars Hogne settled for 6th in 11:35. Bobby Canaway of Nashua Catholic placed 7th over the ever-tough Jamie Lano of Strafford (11:46), who finished less than a second in front of Alexander Girata of PMA (11:46). Deerfield’ second scorer was Shaun Fifield placed 10th in 11:51, Hampstead’s Ethan Charles was 11th in 11:51, Gilford’s Patrick Gandini was 12th in 11:52, Kariso Anderson of ASD was 13th in 11:56 and Deerfield’s Trent Kinsvater was the last runner to break 12 minutes placing 14th in 11:59. Eric Baughn of St. Mary Academy rounded out the top 15 boys with a time of 12:01.
After winning 3 straight NH Cross Country Championships, the Deerfield Boys took a backseat last year, placing second to a very strong Northwood team. The sting of defeat helped to refocus this group of boys to work hard to accomplish their ultimate goal, the 2017 NH Cross Country Division III Championship. Deerfield accomplished their mission with no real superstars, but by strategically placing all seven boys in the top thirty places. Deerfield’s score of 67 points helped to thwart the competition. The true battle of the day was for second place where a mere 6 points separated all three teams. In the end we had another surprise with Hampstead Middle School garnering the runner-up spot with 154 points, Boynton placed third for the second straight year with 158 points. Northwood had to settle for 4th with 160 points. Strafford ran well to place 5th with 211 points, PMA was 6th with 222 points, Auburn was 7th with 236 points, Chesterfield 8th with 262 points, Academy for Science & Design was 9th with 272 and Nashua Catholic was 10th with 275 points of the 29 teams competing.
Deerfield’s State Championship team was led by Murphy, Fifield, Kinsvater, Sam Hopkins 18th (12:10), Jacob Comrie 20th (12:16), Danny O’Brien 27th (12:29) and Will Pegnam (28th) 12:30.
On a somber note: In 2013 Deerfield lost one of their runners Rose Robert during a training run when she died of an epileptic seizure. Since then the Deerfield team and alumni has honored her memory by wearing black socks with a red rose on them in every State Championship to commemorate their beloved teammate. Since her passing Deerfield has won 6 NH State Championships. Two of those Championships were won and celebrated on her birthday October 21, 2017. The luck of the Irish lives on!
