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The 21st Annual Battle of the Border Invitational between Massachusetts and New Hampshire will be held this Saturday, October 4, 2025. This year’s meet, at Alvirne High School in Hudson, New Hampshire, is looking like it will be one of the more competitive between NH and Mass teams. With New Englands being held at Thetford VT’s Woods Trail Course this year, several ranked teams are headed there to preview the course and will be missing from Battle this year, but we certainly understand that and wish them luck! They all will represent the 603 well we are sure (see a below this post for a glance at Woods Trail). But, this is the 4th year the NH Meet of Champions is going to be held on the BoB course at Hills House, so we still have a healthy number of ranked schools making their way to Hudson on Saturday. Further, more Mass schools are attending! True border clash this year. This is annual wrinkle with this traditional invitational is the border battle as the superior state between NH and MA is determined by placement of the top 5 teams from their respective states. NH has won the last 6 years!! Let’s Go!!
New Hampshire will be Alvirne, Bedford, Bishop Guertin (JV), Bow, Coe-Brown, Hollis/Brookline, Keene (girls), Londonderry (boys), Central, Memorial, West, Milford, Nashua South, Oyster River, Pelham, Pinkerton (girls), Portsmouth, Raymond, Salem, Spaulding, Windham, Winnacunnet
Massachusetts will be represented Boston Latin Academy, Lowell, Marshfield, Methuen, Needham, North Andover, Plymouth South, Tyngsborough, and Wakefield
Girls Race
Between the Bay State and Granite State a total of 6 state ranked schools are scheduled to compete. New Hampshire will be represented by #3 Pinkerton, #4 Oyster River, #5 Bedford and #9 Coe-Brown while Massachusetts will see #5 Needham, and #18 North Andover make the trip north of their border. The competition for top team honors should come down between Needham and Pinkerton. Needham is led by individual race favorite Greta Hammer and placed higher than Pinkerton at Manchester Invitational. Matter of fact, they beat NH#2 Exeter by 2 points. However, per their tradition, the Trailblazers raced their freshmen in the Freshman Races so their varsity was without Naomi Ebhaleme. She has been running right with Sookie Folsom, Kalisan Marzolf, Gabrielle Bedard and company. With the home state advantage, we have to give the edge to Pinkerton.
Perhaps with equal claim to “favorite” status has to be NH#4 Oyster River. Yes they did place 11th at MI50, but that was without Olivia Kavanagh. At full strength at Black Bear last week, Kavanagh, Maddy Cook, Neely Roy and the Bobcats tied Phillips Exeter which finished just 3 points better than Needham. Looks like we have a 3 team race for the top of the podium. Awesome!
Chasing the top 3 should be NH#5 Bedford. Led by Mikita Barry, an assured low stick, Bedford has truly been improving each week through solid performances by seniors Raissa Caridade, Mia Moranti and others. MA#18 North Andover and NH#9 Coe-Brown look pretty close on paper as well. Led by Julia Kroon, North Andover always races strong at BoB. Led by Annabelle Lovett and Hillary Wennberg, Coe-Brown is experiencing a bit of a resurgence ranked for the first time in a few years. Led by junior Sara Blanco, previously ranked Boston Latin should factor as well.
Individually, Hammer is the favorite. Boasting a 17:32 5k PR, she is currently undefeated this season including a big win at Manchester Invite a couple weeks ago. Last year she was 2nd at NXR Northeast qualifying for Nike Cross Nationals. Barry may have had her best race of the season last week at Black Bear where she placed second and posted an 18:50 on a tough, hilly course. The chase pack should be large and contain names like Roy, Kavanagh, Cook, Kroon, Folsom, Marzolf, Blanco, Lowell’s Ella Machado, Wakefield’s Quin Wilcox, Marshfield’s Sara Pennery, Tyngsborough’s Isabella Duarte, and Pelham’s Addison Martin. Also expect Needham to have 2 more towards the front pack with Eva Scharf and Madison Roach.
Boys
Similar to the girls team race, this looks like a 3 team battle but all Granite State teams as NH’s 3rd, 4th, and 5th ranked teams are set to race head to head. NH#3 Coe-Brown may be one of the youngest varsity squads in the state (only 1 has their driver’s license), but they are off to a strong start winning both the Manchester Invitational Small School Race and Black Bear Invitational. Moreover they have done so with impressive pack times of 19 and 42 seconds respectively. Patrick Youngs and Ben Jobin have been their consistent 1-2 punch with newcomer Gus Glaser and freshman Samuel Youngs invariably in the top 5, but in different scoring positions. Sprinkle in sophomore Ben Larson as well as freshmen Mateo Ferguson and Broden Cox and it is safe to say they all will experience the top 5 at some time or another this season.
Finishing within a stone’s throw of CBNA the last 2 weeks has been NH#4 Oyster River. Once in a similar experiential phase as their rivals, the Bobcats are now the ones with the experience and through their first 3 invitationals on challenging courses, have displayed why they are an elite NH team. Led by Oliver Lehman and Levi Clapp, they are featuring interchangeable parts as Brendan Banafato, Garrett Sellers, Siddharth Sanjay and freshman Jace Dineen continue to change scoring positions as well. All these guys had great track seasons last spring. It will be interesting to see how this translates to the flatter and faster course at Alvirne.
Looking to crash the D2 party will be NH#5 Londonderry. Led by Carson Fitzgerald, Patrick Ramsey and Josh Twomey, if the Lancers can tighten up their 1-5 spread, they will be in business. Finishing 2 spots behind Londonderry was Lowell, MA. Led by Jimmy Kelly and Samuel De Souza, who both should be battling in the front pack, Lowell could crack the top 3 as well at the Battle leading Massachusetts. But before we get ahead of ourselves, notice Boston Latin Academy is also slated to attend. They are currently ranked 18th in Mass, while Lowell is not ranked. We haven’t seen Boston Latin, but we will definitely be keeping an eye on them on Saturday. Also don’t overlook on NH#8 Nashua South. Led by Matthew Motherway, South always seems to run well at Hill House. We would caution on anyone sleeping on Salem as well. With their full complement of runners listed as competing, they will assuredly be looking to gain back their state ranking again after this weekend.
The individual race will be packed. Expect a nice strong front pack. Mass is sending a nice contingent including the aforementioned Kelly and De Souza. Kelly sports 9:28 2 mile and 4:23 mile PRs. North Andover senior Nicolas Floresquero-Llama has a new 15:59 this season via his runner-up finish at Bay State Invitational. Plymouth South’s Anthony Lyons posted a 16:39 at Marshvegas Invite good for 3rd place. Wakefield’s Devin DeBeradinis has a 16:23 from earlier in the season and a 16:03 5k PR. And finally, Marshfield junior Caleb O’Callahan sports a 16:28 from Bay State as well, but this is his first high school XC season.
Joining these 5 from the Bay State will be several Granite Staters in the front pack. Look for these names in the front pack: Londonderry’s Fitzgerald, Ramsey and Twomey; Oyster River’s Lehman and Clapp; CBNA’s Patrick Youngs, Jobin, Sam Youngs; Salem’s Lucas Gomez as well as Bedford’s Jack Mortimer, who had a great race at Black Bear. As far as who is going to win? No clear favorite here which usually means we are in for an exciting late afternoon conclusion to one of the best invites in New England.
Good luck to all!
