It’s almost time for the second annual Moonlight Madness meet at the Cheshire Fairgrounds on October 6th hosted by Monadnock. The two loop course traverses the fairgrounds on a mostly flat, very fast circuitous loop making the darkness the only hard part about spectating. With racers passing out of the shadows at various points on the course, it’s easy to get glimpses of your racers as they fade into the darkness. Translation: wicked fun. Let’s look at the races.
Girls Teams: Bellows Falls, Bow, Conant, Fall Mountain, Gilford, Hinsdale, Keene, Mascenic, Merrimack, Monadnock, Newfound, Wilton
Last year, the winner of the girls race came down to a tie, with 2022 D3 State champions Hopkinton winning over D3 runner up Mascenic on the tiebreaker. With no Hopkinton in the lineup, Mascenic is the team to beat on paper. Led by the O’Shea sisters who have been having a banner year. With a strong support staff of seniors, in Skye Lambert, Emma Schaumloffel, Florrie Schaumloffel and Amelia Smith, the Vikings should have the wind in their sails.
Keene girls are the next team coming out of Manchester (# 12) and are fronted by Lily Runez and Abigail Pinegar. They will be looking to upset top seed Mascenic. Runez and Pinegar should be at the front of the field along with the O’Sheas, making this a burner from the beginning.
Gilford and Merrimack are making the trip over to Swanzey and will be looking to run fast at the fairgrounds. Merrimack has a front runner in Melanie Bedard.
Also making the trip, crossing the Connecticut River, is Bellow Falls. Not seeing much from the Vermont team it’s hard to predict what this means race wise, but we’re sure to find out.
Individually, I expect the a great race up front, Runez and Pinegar of Keene, Bedard of Merrimack, Jenna Fillion of Fall Mountain and the O’Shea sisters of Mascenic out front. Behind that I expect Alana Sawyer and Maria Tilley of Gilford, Bella Nero and Amelia Hill of Conant, and Lambert, Schaumloffel and Smith of Mascenic to make up the chase pack.
Boys Teams: Bow, Conant, Fall Mountain, Gilford, Keene, Mascenic, Merrimack, Monadnock, Newfound, Wilton
With none of the boys teams currently ranked, it’s a bit of a tough pick for which team is the front runner. D1 Keene might be a good pick but without much to go on I’d be shooting in the dark. They certainly have a low stick in returning champ Sully Sturtz and I can only assume they have a solid crew behind him.
Monadnock is the top team entered coming out of last weekend’s merges and had a strong front three in Carlton Lampinen and the Joslyn brothers, Peyton and Jace. If they can close up the gap between #3 – 4 – 5 they will be dangerous come the end of October.
Behind these two is Fall Mountain. Led by Ben Tetu, the Wildcats have assembled a strong pack, and if they are firing on all cylinders, their pack mentality might just get the job done.
Bow and Merrimack are the next two teams coming out of the merge but with no front runners it will be tough for the Falcons of Tomahawks to upset the apple cart.
Individually, there should be a great battle between Keene’s Sturtz and Gilford’s Bocelli Howland-Vlahakis. Behind them I expect to see the hard grinding Lampinen, the brothers Joslyn and Tetu looking for spots in the top five.
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I actually had the preview written prior to the merge and had Monadnock slotted in before Fall Mountain and forgot to make that change. Fall Mt came out of the merge just in front of Monadnock. sorry for the discrepancy.