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With a slew of invitationals around New Englands taking place this weekend, the 2024 Black Bear Invitational may have lacked some of the traditional rivalries, but the competition of cross country certainly was showcased. On a near perfect day for racing in the woods, harriers from 27 different middle and high schools took to the challenging, rolling course at Coe-Brown. As with any invitational, expectations were met with a few surprises popping up as well.
Girls Varsity Race
As expected here, pre race favorite Hopkinton’s Madeleine Lane took the lead from the gun with Dover’s Anique Poulin shadowing her. By 800 or so meters into the course, Lane and Poulin had broken away with PEA’s Ava Bullock and Phillips Academy’s Amelia Alvazzi giving chase. Of course the always fun chase pack of PEA’s Leta Griffith, Marley McMahon, Phillips Academy’s Anya Budzinski, Alvirne’s Anna Simpson, Hopkinton’s Shaylee Murdough, Bow’s Hannah Pawlowiski and Merrimack’s Melanie Bedard, and Fall Mountain’s Jenna Fillion began trading moves over the first half of the race.
By halfway, Lane’s hardwork began to pay off as she opened up a gap over Poulin. Alvazzi had pulled away from Bullock and the chase pack had splintered, typical of this point on the challenging course. Lane would extend her lead over the second half to win in 18:49 and Poulin would also have a strong 2nd half to cross in 19:14 for second. Alvazzi would stay strong for 3rd in 19:38 with PEA’s top 3 Bullock, Griffith and McMahon taking places 4-6. Alvirne’s Simpson was an impressive 7th in 20:17 with Hopkinton’s Murdough 8th, Phillips’s Budzinski 9th and Pawlowski of Bow rounding out the top 10 in 20:48 a couple ticks ahead of Merrimack’s Bedard.
With 3 in the top 5, PEA took this one with 44 points. PEA’s Independent school rival Phillips Academy claimed second with 70 points. NH#5 Hopkinton took 3rd with 98 points and this again is without their number 3 runner, who should be back next week. NH #10 Dover was 4th in 115 points with Alvirne placing an impressive 5th with 151 points.
Boys Varsity
The boys race was a 2 for 1 special, with 2 races within the one. The first race was Phillips Academy’s Tam Gavenas v. the clock for the course record and the 2nd race was PEA v. Coe-Brown for the team title. Gavenas, currently the #8 individual in the nation, won the Manchester Invitational last week in a jaw dropping 15:24 on the reconfigured course. He wasted no time from the outset as he was chasing the course record of 15:29 (PEA’s Byron Grevious 2022, now at Stanford). He was quickly on pace as he went through the fastest mile of the course, the 1st mile in 4:47. He kept the pedal down the entire way crossing in 15:27 breaking the record. Yes records are made to be broken. We are just not sure how long it will take to break this one. And keep in mind, he did this solo, very much like a time trial.
Because of Gavenas’s pursuit of the record, the field was strung out from the start. He was free and away by 800 in. That left an unorganized chase pack which included PEA’s Bocelli Howland-Vlahakis, William Covert, Nathi Lomax, as well as Kearsarge’s Daniel Dalbec, CBNA’s Luc Kerouac, Alvirne’s Brent Dunning, CBNA’s Landon Graveline, Ben Larson and Patrick Youngs. At this point, PEA certainly had the early team lead.
By a little after the mile, PEA still had 2 in the top 3, but CBNA had moved up with Kerouac and Youngs taking over 4th and 5th with Dunning, PEA’s Lomax and CBNA’s Larson part of that pack. The next pack also saw CBNA and PEA as the majority so at this point, Coe-Brown was drawing closer. By half way, CBNA had pulled ahead slightly in the team race as both their packs had moved ahead of PEA’s, but PEA would not break. Not much had changed to just before the 2 mile, but it was clear the team race would be decided by single digits as PEA had their top 2 in the top 3; tough to overcome that!
In the end, PEA’s Howland-Vlahakis and Covert would stick with 2nd and 3rd in 16:28 and 16:41 respectively. CBNA would counter with Youngs in 4th (17:06) and Kerouac in 6th (17:16) as well as Ben Jobin in 9th (17:26) and Ben Larson in 11th (17:27). Tough to overcome this, but PEA didn’t back down as Lomax took 12th and Dashiell Seals 15th. CBNA sealed the deal as their 5th scorer Landon Graveline and 6th man Quinn Froberg took 18th and 19th. And with that CBNA would win their first team title at their home invitational since 2019 by 7 points, 45-52 over PEA. Phillips Academy took 3rd with 71 points, NH#10 Alvirne took 4th with 102 points, and Bow would round out the top 5 teams with 163 points.
Also finishing in the top 10 as individuals was Alvirne’s Dunning 5th (17:11), Kearsarge’s Dalbec 7th (17:17), Sanborn’s Jake Pitre 8th (17:22) and Portsmouth Christian’s Christian Barnes was 10th in 17:27.
Middle School Races
Herdonfield’s Harper Peters won this one for the 2nd consecutive year. She crossed in 12:27. Oyster River Middle’s Kayla Kavanagh was second in 12:47 with Dover’s Evalee James crossing right on her heels in 12:49. Heronfield would win this one with 48 points to Dover’s 61. The boys race was much closer as Barrington’s Mateo Ferguson, Northwood’s Broden Cox and Deerfield’s Sam Youngs would battle over the entire course. With a blistering kick, Ferguson would claim this one in 10:53 a half step ahead of Cox who also recorded a time of 10:53. Youngs would be 3rd in 11:05. With 3 in the top 10, Oyster River would take this one with 56 points just ahead of Dover’s 67 points.
