While we didn’t cover a meet directly this past weekend (we are about to cover 5 meets – JV State Championships, both Middle School State Championships and Capital Area), there was plenty to celebrate with NH cross Country this past weekend as teams spread across several meets. Below are quick shout-outs to individuals and teams!
All results to meets below can be found on our HOKA Meet Results Hub!
Friday Meets!
CVC Championships
These were held at the Cheshire Fairgrounds. The CVC includes teams along the Connecticut River Valley like Keene, Hanover, Fall Mountain, Thetford Academy, Monadnock, Lebanon, and Newport. Shout-outs to Keene girls who won by 1 point over Hanover (Lea Perreard did not compete) as well as individual champ Thetford’s Ava Hayden, who won by less than a second over Fall Mountain’s Jenn Fillion. NH #2 Hanover boys gets the shoutout on the boys side as they won 58-74 over the Keene boys. The real treat, from what we hear, was the battle between Keene’s Sullivan Sturtz and Hanover’s Lucian Gleiser with Sturtz pulling away to win in 15:11 to Gleiser’s 15:23.
Bob Glennon Twilight Meet at Cape Cod Fairgrounds
NH#1 Oyster River on the girls side made the trek down to experience this huge festival under the lights. The Bobcats competed in the Medium School Races certainly made their presence felt as the girls won their race and the boys placed 3rd. Because of this, they also won the “Glennon Cup” as best combined program of the meet across all 3 races (Small, Medium, Large). Pacing the girls once again was Mackenzie Cook who placed 4th in 18:00. But watch out for Haley Kavanagh as she continues her come back placing 7th. Once again pacing the boys (NH#8), and quietly having a strong season was Ian Hricz who placed 16th.
Saturday Meets
Pelham Invitational
Largest meet in NH this weekend was held at Pelham with 23 schools competing. Shout outs go to NH#3 Pinkerton girls and NH#6 Souhegan boys who took the team titles. The Trail Blazers scored a scant 25 points placing 6 in the top 10. Individually, Hopkinton freshman Madeleine Lane outdueled Pinkerton frosh Sookie Folsom with Lane winning in 18:39 to Folsom’s 18:49. Wow! We will be in for a treat the next several years. Factor in a 3rd frosh in the top 4 as Samantha Swonbon placed 4th in 19:20 and the future is bright for NHCC!
Souhegan boys won with a total of 84 points and were paced by Taloosh Anderson who placed a close 3rd in 16:04. Anderson was a part of a heckuva individual battle as 4 hit the track battling. In the end it was PCA senior Jonas Teeter breaking the tape in 16:02.2 to Sanborn’s Jake Pitre’s 16:02.5. Con-Val’s William Simard was right there as well placing 4th in 16:06.
Merrimack XC Festival at Freestyle Farm
NH#6 Exeter girls performed to their ranking winning this one rather dominantly scoring only 24 points. They were placed by freshman Eli Cross who placed 2nd to Salem’s Lily Thomas 20:18 to Thomas’s 20:11. Exeter placed 8 in the top 10. The boys race featured 3 ranked schools as NH#4 Salem won a relatively tight battle with #7 Bedford by just 9 points 37-46. Salem was paced by sophomore Brody Chisolm who placed 2nd. Bedford’s Jacob Redman won the race in 16:14. NH#10 Londonderry placed 3rd with 86 points.
62nd Annual Catholic Memorial Invitational at Franklin Park
The girls race saw NH#4 Bedford and #6 Winnacunnet making the trip. Hanging back at the beginning, Bedford turned it on over the second half to place 2nd with 93 points. Nashua North placed a somewhat surprising 4th with 149 points beating #6 Winnacunnet which placed 6th with 173 points. Bedford was led once again by Fiona Lee and Kelseigh O’Neil who placed 3rd and 4th respectively in 19:03 and 19:10. Matter of fact, NH was super well represented in the top 10 with Winnacunnet’s Charlotte Koutalidis, North’s Laura White and BG’s Anna Fondakowski placing 8th-10th respectively.
The boys race saw NH#1 Coe-Brown, NH#3 South, NH#5 Pinkerton and NH#9 Bishop Guertin competing. Riding their momentum off of last week’s victory down at BoB, Coe-Brown eeked out another win by 1 point over Lexington, MA. Nashua South placed 4th, without one of their top runners competing, with 133 points. Pinkerton, who has attended this meet for many many years, placed 6th with 166 points. Bishop Guertin was 10th. BG was of course led by individual champion Matthew Giardina who pulled away to win in 15:36 to Hall, CT’s Isaac Mahler 15:47. Coe-Brown certainly benefitted by having 2 in the top 10 as Jamie Lano placed 6th, but his teammate Sanjith Nomula had a breakout race placing 9th overall. South’s Daniel Byrne also cracked the top 10 placing in 16:18.