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Division 2 Girls
Lancer Timing’s Results
On what proved to be the best weather day in the past few years for state championship cross country, the harriers of NH CrossCountry wasted no time getting after it and taking advantage! Bow’s Susannah Zahn set the example immediately as she took the lead and only extended over the first mile of our challenging, historic course at Derryfield. Zahn would run uncontested and free over the entire distance to win in an impressive 18:51. The competition was for 2nd as Oyster River’s Haley Kavanagh and Mackenzie Cook battled with Coe-Brown’s Sheldyn Fisher and Hanover’s Lea Perreard. Zahn’s lead was certainly cut into some as these four traded moves and pushed one another. In the end, Kavanagh would claim 2nd place in 18:58 with her teammate Cook behind her in 19:06. Fisher would win the battle with Perreard 19:14 to 19:19. Chasing the entire way, Plymouth’s Englund sisters (Addison and Elli) rolled to 6th and 7th with Lebanon’s Isabella Hastings being the final athlete under 20 minutes placing 8th in 19:59.
Hanover’s Perreard led the youth movement of Hanover as the pre-race favorites holding true to their seeding returning the Marauders to the top of D2 for the first time since 2009. Placing all 5 of their top scorers in the top 15, Hanover took the lead early and ran steady throughout like veterans. Maria Anderson, the lone senior in their top 5 placed 11th in 20:35, followed by 3 more freshmen, Lila Muirhead (12th, 20:37), Matilda Monroe (14th, 20:49), and Megan Faris (15th, 20:52). That’s a 2-5 pack time of 17 seconds! No wonder they are the champs! To their credit, Oyster River placed a strong 2nd tallying 80 points. Supporting Kavanagh and Cook, Eliza Hall, Talia Banafato, and Tessa Brown placed 22nd, 25th, 28th to grab the runner-up plaque. Looking to the future, with both Hanover and Oyster River being comprised of young runners with more on the way, expect a friendly competitive rivalry to ensue!!! Great for the sport and fans alike.
Zahn’s Bow placed their top 4 in the to 21 to claim 3rd with 101 points. Steady senior Maya Brochu led this placing 13th in 20:41. Souhegan placed 4th, 14 points behind Bow and just 9 points on up and coming Plymouth who placed 5th to make the Meet of Champions! Final MOC berth went to Kennett which placed 6th with 142 to punch their ticket by just 3 points over Coe-Brown.
Division 2 Boys
Lancer Timing’s Results
In a day full of surprises, Lebanon’s Birhanu Harriman pulled off perhaps the biggest one as he won the D2 individual title over Coe-Brown’s Aidan Cox. At the start, it seemed Cox would win another title rather easily looking strong and smooth through the 1st mile in around 4:50. Harriman was trailing at this moment but was certainly closer to the chase pack than to Cox. Up on the hills around the reservoir, Cox began to have some trouble uncharacteristic to this year. Harriman steadily gained ground, emerged off the hills with the lead which he would extend to victory in 15:31. To his credit, Cox finished the race in 16:10. We wish him good health this week. Hats off to Harriman who has steadily improved over the last 12 months! Another surprise to note was Harriman’s teammate Thomas Wolfe, who won the battle of the chase pack to place 3rd in 16:18.
Not a surprise was Coe-Brown, which won their 5th consecutive title and 8th of the past 9 years. They placed all 5 scorers in the top 10 with Tyler Tkaczyk placing a gutsy fourth in 16:20. He was followed by Jamia Lano’s 5th in 16:40. Oyster River’s Chris Jernigan placed 6th in 16:43 to hold off CBNA’s fourth man, Nikhil Chavda who placed 7th in 16:48. Stark’s Eli Lemire outleaned Souhegan’s Taloosh Anderson for 8th with both clocked in 16:53. CBNA’s 5th man, Gavin Demas returned to form to place 10th in 17:00. Coe-Brown sported a pack time of 50 seconds to score a scant 28 points. This has become a hallmark of this program over the past several years.
As forecasted, Souhegan took 2nd with 72 points and had the best 1-5 pack time of 28 seconds! Led by Anderson’s 8th as well as Jaren Noorda’s 11th, Souhegan may be the heir apparent to Coe-Brown. One of the team surprises in D2 had the Harriman/Wolfe led Lebanon placing 3rd with 121 points just 4 points in front of their Upper Valley neighbors, Hanover which scored 125 points off a 41 second pack time. Oyster River scored 176 points to place 5th. And claiming the final MOC berth, was surprise Milford! With 2 in the top 21 in Daniel Sixon and freshman Logan Korthals, the Spartans punched their ticket to Alvirne. Congrats!