By Dave Irving
With the weather cooperating and providing a mostly sunny, seasonably cool afternoon, 16 area schools gathered at Merrimack Valley High School for the 46th running of the Capital Area Championships. With race founder John Goegel handling the starting duties as always, roots, rocks and the infamous ravine were the only obstacle between a clear start for the runners and the finish line.
The combined JV race was the first off the line, with Concord’s Elliot Clendenning taking the win in 20:13. Gianna Gualtieri, also of Concord, was the first girl across the line in a time (21:50) which would have placed her 15th in the varsity race, foreshadowing the depth of the Concord squad.
The boys varsity was the next to toe the line, and right from the opening horn blast one thing was clear – it would be barn burner up front. Bocelli Howland-Vlahakis of Gilford went right to the front, and after some an early gap Concord’s Josiah Conley closed it down and spent the entire rest of the race in elbow-knocking distance of Bocelli. A good-sized time gap opened between the leaders and the ‘best of the rest”, with 6 different schools represented over the next 6 runners. In fact, in a demonstration of the parity on the boys side this year at Capital Area, at the finish each of the top 8 runners were from 8 different schools. When the finish line did come into view, it was Bocelli with the bigger kick, winning in 16:39, 4 seconds ahead of Josiah in the biggest gap of the race. The next 4 runners were all separated by a second each, with Proctor’s Max Preuss taking the third podium spot. Hopkinton’s Matt Clarner was next, followed by Alden Betterley of Bow and Jonathan Dase of St. Paul’s. Colin Foster of Newfound and older brother Evan Foster placed 7th and 9th, giving the Bears the first team to have two across, with John Stark’s Eli Lemire sandwiched between in 8th. The final top ten spot went to St. Paul’s Andrew Carroll. In a minor surprise, St. Paul’s took home the win, ending Concord’s streak. Bow was second with 80, while Hopkinton placed third with 93 points.
As the sun approached the horizon line the girls lined up to close the day. The girls’ varsity race prediction held true to form, as Madeleine Lane of Hopkinton stormed away to win wire-to-wire in 19:16. With the winners of both races freshmen, the challenge is now on to see if one or both of them can become the first four-time winners of the race. Molly Ellison of Kearsarge spent the entire race in a land of her own, behind Lane but always safely ahead of third. She would eventually cross in 20:08. The next three, Emerald Briggs of Newfound, Shaylee Murdough of Hopkinton, and Aedyn Kourakos of St. Paul’s were packed together the entire race, but always roughly in the same order. NOT staying in the same order was Concord’s Shelly Smith, who, along with most of her teammates, ran smartly conservative races to gradually grind down the competition over 3.1 miles. Her teammates Chloe Gudas (8th) and Quinn Doherty (10th) also scored top-10 medals. Proctor’s Niko Cole-Johnson finished 7th, while Bow’s Julia Hou took home the 9th-place medal. In the team competition, by virtue of placing 5 runners in the top 14, Concord extended it’s win streak to a record-tying 11 wins in a row with 51 points. Hopkinton once again was runner up, with 81 points, to St. Paul’s 107 points.
