By Patrick O’Brien
**Note: The meet will now begin at 8:00am due to forecasted weather
On Saturday, 9/9, Oyster River High School and DeMeritt Hill Farm will host 23 teams from NH, across divisions. The course at DeMeritt Hill, as the name implies, is notoriously hilly with grinding up-hills and rip-roaring downhills as runners navigate double-wide trails and rows of apple trees. Like last year, it is a spectator friendly course featuring 3 loops, roughly 1 mile each. The only change to the course is one last climb along the orchard in the last quarter mile, followed by a longer finishing stretch that provides an awesome view of the farm at the end.
On the girls side, it appears to be a showdown between Bedford (NH-3) and Oyster River (NH-4). Both teams are ranked second in their respective divisions and will be looking for a strong showing to start the season. They should each have some low-sticks up front with Fiona Lee of Bedford and Haley Kavanagh and Mackenzie Cook of Oyster River. If either of these teams falter, look out for Hopkinton (NH-9) to slide into the top 2 spots. Freshman Madeleine Lane was their top runner at their first race.
On the boys side, the top two teams on paper appear to be Bedford (NH-8) and Exeter (NH-9). Bedford is led by one of the top returners in the state in Jacob Redman. Behind him, we could see Patrick Fish, Jared Bekkering and freshman Jack Mortimer try to will them to victory. Exeter had a strong top 3 in their first race with Gavin Malark, Spencer Mann, and Nathan Mikulsky. If their 4 and 5 can decrease the gap to those 3, they could take the title. While there are no other boys teams ranked in the Top 10, look for teams like Londonderry, Oyster River, Concord, Hopkinton and Bow to make some noise up front.
Individually there should be a handful of top returners vying for the title. Expect Oyster River’s Cook and
Kavanagh, Bedford’s Lee, and Newmarket’s Alanna Hagen all to be in contention for the win. Behind them we could see Hopkinton’s Lane, Bow’s Hannah Pawlowski and Julia Hou, and the remainder of the scorers from Bedford and Oyster River in the chase pack.
Boys Race will feature Bedford’s Jacob Redman as the presumptive favorite. He finished 9th at MOCs last year and is coming off of a great track season. The guys looking to challenge him should include Monadnock’s Peyton Joslyn, Concord’s Josiah Conley, Bow’s Alden Betterly, and Exeter’s Malark, Mann and Mikulsky. Out of this pack, based off his 15:11 on the track last spring, expect Conley to give Redman some competition.
Of course, there are sure to be some surprises. This will be the first race for many of these teams!
