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Girls
By Amy Sanborn
Lancer Timing’s Results
As we arrived at Derryfield Park on Saturday morning it was 60 degrees and the temperature was climbing and the sun was bright. In all my years of coaching and running myself, I never remember having a Divisional meet in the 70s, so this was going to be a new experience. Honestly, I was glad we were first since unseasonably hot temperatures would make the afternoon races a completely different experience than ours.
The gun went off and the mass of girls headed up the hill. By the 600m mark there was still a huge group of girls all together including Dover, 3 from Pinkerton, 2 from Bedford and one from Keene. However, there was no separation this early and the rest of the field stuck closely on their heels. As they rounded the tree at the bottom of the field, Keene and Dover were leading the pack.
By the mile there was a pack of about ten girls. Dover’s Anique Poulin leading the group but all of the big guns expected to be fighting for the top five still in the lead pack. Pinkerton’s top five were out hard and looking for a big win. Bedford’s 3 and 4 were hanging back a bit early.
Top of the first hill the field was still tightly bunched. Three Pinkerton girls Contessa Silva, Isabelle Groulx and Sookie Folsum were in the front along with two girls from Bedford: Kelseigh O’Neil and Fiona Lee. Poulin from Dover and Laura White from Nashua North were tight on their heels. Pinkerton’s top five were in the top twenty by the top of the first hill, making them the team favorite, while Bedford was holding on for second .
At the two mile the top group had shrunk to five with Bedford’s O’Neill and Lee out front followed closely by Pinkerton’s top three of Groulx, Folsum and Silva. White of North, Poulin of Dover, Winnacunnet’s Charlotte Koutalidis, BG’s Anna Fondakowki and Exeter’s Eli Cross were in the top ten but separating themselves from the lead pack. Next group around the turn was Salem’s Lily Thomas, Merrimack’s Melanie Bedard, Pinkerton’s Kalisan Marzolf and Portsmouth’s Mia Scherr. Then there was a gap before the next group of girls came up the hill.
As they came around the field with about 800 meters Pinkerton had five girls in before Bedford’s third so barring any major catastrophe Pinkerton would be taking the title. However, the fight for second was still on. Dover, Concord and Exeter were still in it for the runner up spot and we would have to wait for the finish line to see how it shakes out.
Individually Bedford went 1-2 with Kelseigh O’Neil ending up D1 State Champion and Fiona Lee 12 seconds back for second. Then the Pinkerton trio came in with Silva, Groulx and Folsum. White from Nashua North hung on for 6th while the freshman Eli Cross from Exeter ended with 7th. Fondakowski of BG, Poulin of Dover and Koutalidis of Winnacunnet rounded out the top ten. As for the team title, Pinkerton had their scoring five in the top 18 so easily took home the title. Bedford barely held on for second, needing to go to the tie-breaker over Dover. Exeter was only two points back, making second, third and fourth all within 2 points of each other. Back just 14 points from them was Concord, then sixth was Nashua North and the final D1 qualifier was Bishop Guertin. Congrats to all!
Boys
By Ian French
Lancer Timing Results
D1 looked like it was going to be a battle of behemoths Nashua South, Pinkerton and Salem so how did it play out?
Bishop Guertin’s Matt Giardina took off running from the gun and challenged all comers to battle him for the Division I title. Sully Sturtz from Keene and Jacob Redman of Bedford both answered the call and quickly attached themselves to the leader who early on set themselves apart from the rest of the race. A chase pack started to form with South’s top guy’s Dante Castellanos and Daniel Byrne, Salem’s Brodie Chisholm and Concord’s Josiah Conley all looking to hang with the leaders for as long as possible. It looked like the surprising late October heat was going to play a role because by the top of the first hill Giardina was already pulling away with Sturtz hanging on as best he could and Redman starting to slip off the front two. Nashua South though looked like they had aggressively seized the reigns of the team championship with their entire top seven ahead of Pinkerton’s second guy. Maybe the Astros started conservatively and the Panthers would feel the heat of their first mile come back to haunt them during the grueling second mile?
By the top of McIntyre, the race had changed a bit. Finn Christensen Kraft had moved up into the chase pack after a slower start and some of the South runners had slipped back from their early charge, but they were still handily in control of the team race with Castellanos and Byrne in particular looking like they were both going to find their way to excellent top five placements. A battle was definitely brewing between Pinkerton and Salem at this point and it was hard to tell who was going to come out ahead at the end.
As a general note, the thermometer might have read 72 degrees, but you could tell from the faces of the runners at the top of the hill, the heat was absolutely playing a role. Everyone always looks tired at the top of that hill but you could tell today there was an extra little bit of wear on the runners so hats off to everyone who feels like they took it to the last mile.
As they rounded the field, no one was challenging Giardina for the championship this year. Despite an outstanding effort by Sturtz, Giardina continued to pull away in the final section of the race and would defend his title of Division I individual champion. Sturtz continued his excellent sophomore campaign taking second and the South pair of Castellanos and Byrne took an impressive three and four running a strong race in all its phases. Christensen-Kraft may have started conservatively, but certainly didn’t finish that way making his way up to fifth by passing the six place Conley with only about 200 meters left in the race. Redman faded back but still put in an excellent effort to ultimately take seventh place with Exeter’s Gavin Malark having one of his best races of the season on the right day to move into the eighth spot. Rounding out the top ten, Brodie Chisholm and Carson Fischer both held strong to take ninth and tenth.
On the team side, it turned out South’s aggressive strategy would play out well and while their 3-5 faded back a bit from their initial positions, they held together well and kept their top five all in the top twenty giving them an excellent 51 points for the convincing win. Pinkerton and Salem had a solid battle going and while recently Salem seemed to have the advantage Pinkerton managed to take a close win today beating Salem by 13 points 101 to 114. Bedford continued their excellent season to take fourth with 134 while maybe the shock of the D1 race was Londonderry. They found themselves in fifth nipping Bishop Guertin by a tiny eight point margin 146-154. Finally, Keene showed their race at CVC was no fluke, scoring 170 and grabbing the last spot at Meet of Champions.
Congratulations to all the runners who competed today and hopefully see many of you next weekend at Meet of Champions!
