By Ian French
The JV state meet marks the start of the playoffs of the New Hampshire cross country world. Runners who have spent the season watching their varsity counterparts shine are given the opportunity to lead their team to victory. Sometimes, it’s the meet that helps runners reach levels they didn’t think was possible. So, what happened this year?
On the boys’ side, typically, teams that have the strongest varsity squads tend to have really excellent JV squads and this year was no exception. During the JV meets Nashua South, Pinkerton, and Salem’s JV squads had battled it out all having quite a bit of success throughout the season and so picking a winner prior to the race was honestly a coin flip. It was simply going to come down to who’s team came in the best prepared and then executed their plan successfully.
Thankfully, the weather decided to cooperate. After a rough Battle at the Border and the weather threatening to be similar all week, the rain decided to give us a reprieve and the JV guys would have their shot at running the fast Alvirne course with excellent conditions. The race always starts with a mad dash around the field and by the time the kids entered the woods for the first time Pinkerton’s Austin Cipriano had laid claim to the top spot challenging everyone to come and take it from him. It already looked like a three team race with the top 20 being absolutely dominated by Pinkerton, Salem and South.
When they came back out onto the field closing on the two mile mark, it was anyone’s guess who was going to win the meet. Cipriano continued to lead and had built a 20 meter lead from teammates Owen Boucher and Logan McDonald who were battling with South’s Joshua Mathson. On the team side, it was clearly down to Pinkerton and South with the math having it nearly even. It seemed like for every member you saw from one team they would be immediately followed by one or two from the other. In the word’s of Pinkerton’s coach Mike Clark, “It was a barn burnah!”
Coming out of the woods, Cipriano continued to hold the lead but Mathson had cut the gap to about 10 meters. As they turned onto the road leading up to the finish line both broke into an exhausted all out sprint with Mathson gaining inches with every step he took. As they hit the line, Cipriano would pull off the end to end victory winning by just over a second with Mathson only steps behind. Cipriano’s teammates would come in 3rd and 4th and you might have thought going 1-3-4 would have sealed an obvious victory but South’s squads depth showed up with their guys taking 2-5-7 and 8! Amazingly, both teams would have their entire scoring squads in the top 16 places of the race with Pinkerton ultimately taking the tight victory winning by three points 35-38. Salem’s squad was also excellent taking third with an almost 80 point gap separating them from fourth place Windham. An incredibly exciting end of season for all our JV guys!
On the girls’ side the prevailing thought prior the this meet is similar to the boys regarding which schools have the strongest JV squads. Scanning JV results teams like Bedford and Pinkerton come directly to mind with teams like Dover, Portsmouth, Keene and North looking to factor in.
From the outset a Green Wave of a pack took control with a tight pack time, as Dover made their intentions known by making their presence felt. With 2 potential low sticks in the top 5, Bedford would seem to be the other contenders as Samantha Ducharme and Julia Malnar were rolling in the top 5 through 2 miles. North’s Charlotte Wilson took control of the race in the woods section and was gradually pulling away by 2 miles with Exeter’s Madeline Ralabate giving chase followed by Ducharme and Malnar. Exeter’s Isabelle Madden was 5th at this moment. These five had essentially broken from the pack. The chase pack through 2 miles was led by Dover’s Janelle Poulin, Pinkerton’s Mia Eckerman, Bedford’s Grace Boll, Portsmouth’s Sienna Metcalf, Dover’s Isabella Bronson, Lily Fiorenza, and Lily Glode as well as Bedford’s Caollainn Rayne and Pinkerton’s Violet Lenzi. At this point it seemed Dover was clinging to a slight lead over Bedford.
Over the final mile the battle for team supremacy would play out! North’s Wilson would extend her lead to win by 30 seconds in 20:56. Bedford’s Ducharme and Malnar was 2nd and 3rd respectively with Exeter’s Ralabate 6 seconds behind for 4th. Poulin would begin Dover’s scoring placing 5th ahead of Madden. Bedford would counter with their 3rd scorer, Boll placing 7th in 21:59. Portsmouth’s Metcalf perhaps had one of the faster final miles moving up to 8th with Dover’s Bronson 9th and Pinkerton’s Eckerman rounding out the top 10.
Placing 3 in the top 10 would essentially seal the deal for Bedford as they went on to win the title 36-44 with a game Dover garnering runner-up honors with 44 points. Pinkerton was 3rd with 95 points while Portsmouth would edge Keene for 4th 137-140. North was just 3 points behind them with 143 points. Congrats to all!
