JV State Championships Meet Hub – keep checking for pics, race interviews!
Results Courtesy of LancerTiming – Girls Results Boys Results
By Ian French
The Division I JV State Meet took place on Friday and over the last decade, it has basically just been a formality in giving the remarkably consistent Pinkerton squad. Would their JV dynasty continue for another year?
The race started with a group of runners charging to the front but would they be able to hold on? The Alvirne course is about as true cross country as they get with numerous small to medium sized hills that go through a winding wooded section. It’s easy to lose sight of people if you let them get a decent sized gap. One of those runners who started by hanging out towards the back of the front group was Londonderry’s Will Plante. He employed what seems to be a strong strategy for the course which involved hanging back a little bit early on and then hitting the final mile with everything he had once he reached the wooded section. By the time he reached the long downhill with about 600m left, one could tell he was pretty beat as he peeked over his shoulder to check the competition. They were nowhere to be found and Plante scored a 23 second victory. Would that be enough to lead his team to a win?
While Plante deployed the strategy like a seasoned vet, Winnacunnet’s entire scoring team seemed to follow his lead. At the one mile mark their top five were all hanging back in around tenth place, but during the second and third mile they clearly turned up the effort level passing most of the field. With Abel Ravencroft (17:42), Rathanak Chea (17:44), Ben Berman (17:53), Clayton Rodgers (17:58), and Benjamin Webb-McClain (18:16) they ended up taking 2-3-5-6 and 12 to score an impressively low twenty eight points and cruising to a seven point victory over second place Londonderry. Londonderry would have looked like a winning squad most years coming in with a 35 point score. They mixed 
it up well with Winnacunnet trading back and forth going 1-4-7-8-15 with Plante, Ryan Fortin (17:47), Matthew Vogel (18:05), Matthew Palmer (18:06), and William Bieler (18:21), but they simply couldn’t match the Warriors depth. Pinkerton also had a strong day with their top runners, Michael Packowski (18:10) and Henry Hood (18:11) taking 10th and 11th.
On the girls side, Nashua North freshman Isabella Di Vernieri ran away with the individual title by 33 seconds winning with a time of 20:56. However, Bedford would take the next 4 places to take home the team title with a scant 22 points. Matter of fact their entire scoring five of Kaitlyn Dinndorf *2nd, 21:29), Ela Goucher (21:53), Sydney Santiago (21:53), Sierra Dinndorf (22:16) and Carolyn Tierney (22:31) would place 2-3-4-5-8, dominating the team race.
Scoring 5 in the top 20 (7-10-14-16-17), Londonderry claimed runner-up with Katie Kraft (22:23), Alea Millis (22:41), Katiana Chylinski (22:55), Gabrielle Page (22:57), and Caitlin Henderson (22:57) scoring. Rounding out the top 10 were Nashua South’s S. Lakshminarayanan (6th, 22:21), and Winnacunnet’s Brooke Millis (10th, 22:41).
Congrats to all!!!
