Battle of the Border Meet Hub!
Full Results – Courtesy of Last Time Out
The 20th Battle of the Border Invitational blazed the trails of Hill House at Alvirne High School on a picture perfect, slightly warm, fall day. Hats off to Alvirne High School, their coaching staff and athletic department, for once again staging an incredible event. And although some of the top runners cautiously rested (right time of the season to do that if one must) and a couple top teams were not at full strength, the competition once again was fierce with of course the Granite State defeating the Bay State for border supremacy for the 6th consecutive year :).
GIRLS RACE
Entering the race, as has been the case this entire season, Bedford’s Mikita Barry took control from the gun. She did have a shadow in the form of Haley Kavanagh of Oyster River over the first half of the race. Barry would stride away to win rather easily over the remainder of the course posting a blazing time of 17:36. To her credit, Kavanagh strided to a very fast time of 18:16. The real battle was behind these two. While the field was a bit strung out, the top 10 were certainly within striking distance of one another. By half way, BG’s Anna Fondakowski was solidly in third with Oyster River’s Maddy Cook and Haley Bezanson as well as Pinkerton’s Sookie Folsom, Marshfield’s Eleanor Angeles-Whitfield, Alvirne’s Anna Simpson, Newton South’s Izzy Monaghan and Pinkerton’s Kalison Marzolf.
Of note, Oyster River were without 2 of their top 5, so what was previously thought to be another easy win was just the opposite as Pinkerton is rounding into great form as indicated by their pack running prowess on display Saturday. Going into the final mile, it was still too close to call, as the team battle was a single digit difference. While Oyster River had 3 in the top 5-6, Pinkerton had their first 5 ahead of OR’s 5th. So it would come down to the math. In the end, Fondakowski would hold on to 3rd crossing in 19:02 holding off a hard charging Bezanson and Folsom. Cook would be 6th in 19:10 with Angeles-Whitfield 7th in 19:15. Host school hero Simpson would place a strong 8th in 19:21, seven seconds before Olivia Kavanagh. That gave OR 4 in the top 10, but Pinkerton then countered with Marzolf in 10th and Gabrielle Bedard in 11th finishing in 19:34 and 19:43 respectively.
Oyster River’s upfront strength proved to be the difference maker as they did win by only 7 points over Pinkerton 49-56. Impressive runs by both squads as Pinkerton certainly established themselves as the best of Division 1. North Andover would place 3rd with 130 points while Bedford would tally 164 points for 4th. Once again led by senior Sayde White as well as freshmen Stella Dutton and Eleanora Gelsey Drees, Londonderry continued their strong season rounding out the top 5 with 189 points.
BOYS RACE
With no Matthew Giardina, the prevailing question was who would take control of the head of the pack in the boys race. Around the initial field loop, no one really answered the call as there was a huge pack entering the woods. Once on the trails, Concord’s Josiah Conley, ConVal’s Will Simard and Marshfield’s Graham Heinrich began to separate themselves from the field eventually going through the mile in 5:04 or so. Battling behind them in the chase pack was Milford’s Logan Korthals, Oyster River’s Mitchell Keesee, South’s Daniel Byrne, Bishop Guertin’s Carson and Ethan Fischer, Coe-Brown’s Patrick Youngs and Luc Kerouac, as well as Pinkerton’s Oscar D’Amelio, Trainor Mailloux, and Sean Hayes.
Over the second half of the race, and the final woods loop, both Conley and Pinkerton ran away with it pun intended. Conley unleashed a super fast final mile as he broke the proverbial tape in 15:11, twenty seconds up on Simard who outdueled Heinrich 15:31 to 15:36. Pinkerton’s D’Amelio held off a hard charging Korthals for 4th 15:45 to 15:46. His teammates Mailloux and Hayes placed 6th and 7th respectively laying their early claim for the team title. BG’s Fischer brothers would come across with Carson 8th and Ethan 9th both right at 16:00. They were just a step ahead of Kessee who completed the top 10 crossing in 16:02.
With 3 in the top 10 and 5 in the top 25 courtesy of Austin Cipriano’s 21st and Joseph Gustavon’s 24th, Pinkerton tallied only 50 points to win by over eighty points. Led by Byrne’s 11th place finish, Nashua South was second with 133 points just 10 points up on the Brody Chisholm led Salem. Led by Youngs’ 13th place, Coe-Brown was another 10 points back for 4th with Oyster River rounding out the top 5 with 169 points.
