New Englands Meet Hub
Meet Information
The 90th New England Cross Country Championships are Saturday at Thetford Academy in Belfast, ME. All New England states except Massachusetts will be competing. Each state is allowed 6 teams and any other individual placing in the top twenty five of their respective state meet. The girls race first at 11:30am and the boys are slated to take off at 12:15pm. NH always stands united in our friendly competition with the other New England states! So wear your NHCC shirts! Cheer for one another! We will be there snapping pics, recording races and conducting interviews!!!
In this spirit, we will have a few guests involved from other states this weekend contributing. Scott Bliss, long time coach of Champlain Valley, has penned quite the comprehensive preview. Since leaving coaching, he has is web master of a free website to truly cover Vermont High School Cross Country (sound familiar?). With his permission, his preview is posted below. Please check out his site! It genuinely reminds us of, well, us! He brings experience from a coaching career which included numerous state and New England titles as well as multiple trips to Nike Cross Nationals. Thanks Scott!
VTHSXC
By Scott Bliss
Qualifying Teams! (Speed Ratings Courtesy of Tully Runners)
Speed ratings for top 7 are from New England Qualifying Meets – Maine had to be estimated based on Festival of Champions/State Meet times
Vermont:
CVU– 179, 171, 165, 163, 144, 136 and 135
St. Johnsbury – 177, 164, 161, 160, 149, 126 and 124
New Hampshire:
Pinkerton – 173, 173, 168, 166, 165, 160 and 154
Connecticut:
Greenwich – 176, 168, 167, 164, 164, 162 and 161
Xavier – 173, 173, 166, 160, 159, 155 and 128
East Lyme – 187, 173, 166, 158, 156, 142 and 130
Rhode Island:
Bishop Hendricken – 189, 185, 176, 174, 164, 163 and 148
Maine:
Yarmouth (state champion)
Any preview of a New England’s at Thetford needs to start with the course first. It is VERY challenging to know what may happen on a course like Thetford. An easy metric to show how challenging this course can be is to use the Milesplit XC Course Rating which tells a 15:00 5ker to add :52 seconds to their time! Any mistakes that are made on this course can be multiplied because the course never really gives you a chance to fully recover. This is why it is very hard to make good predictions on any race at Thetford. Ok…there’s my excuse if anything that I say ends up being completely wrong! It is going to be interesting to see if some teams choosing not to attend the Woods Trail Invitational earlier in the season will be a mistake. The more you get to experience this course the better prepared you will be for it. This is a course you need to be engaged and focused at all times to run it well.
The boys team race looks like it could turn out to be a true New England championship race. What do I mean by that? Four of the five states have at least one team that can be considered in the mix for a top 5 spot. That is not always the case and one state can be in a position to dominate the top part of the field, but this year it looks like RI, NH, CT and VT all have teams which can be in the mix on Saturday. Bishop Hendricken(RI) and Pinkerton Academy(NH) are both ranked in the top 5 in the latest NXR Northeast Regional rankings with Hendricken ranked #2 and Pinkerton at #5. A group of CT teams should not be counted out either and they will be led by Greenwich but also in the mix should be East Lyme and Xavier. The VT contingent trying to defend their home turf will be led by CVU and St Johnsbury with both pushing for a top 5 finish.
VT #1 Bishop Hendricken has to be the favorite on paper. They won their State Championship last weekend with 30 points in dominant fashion. They are led by two high caliber runners in junior Colby Flynn (2nd 15:16) and David Hayes (3rd 15:29) who give Hendricken two very low sticks. That already has the ability to put them in drivers seat early on. Senior Fred Russell (5th 15:57) and Sophomore Shepherd Butler (8th 16:03) create a solid #3 and #4 duo being separated last weekend by a tidy 6 seconds. They close out their scoring with senior Brayden Seraichyk (13th 16:34) and sophomore Oliver Redmond (17th 16:36) coming in the #5 and #6 spot with a 3 second gap between them. The ability to run multiple duos with very close gaps makes them a tough team to deal with.
NH #1 Pinkerton also had an impressive meet last Saturday at the NH Meet of Champions and scored an impressive 49 points in a dominant win for them. Pinkerton ran an amazing :24 second gap from 1-5 in the MOC race. That tight grouping is always going to keep them in contention. They were led by senior Trainor Mailloux (7th 15:38) and Jason Robie (8th 15:39) coming in back to back with only a 1 second gap between them. Only 14 seconds later came the second wave of Pinkerton runners in junior Joseph Gustavson (12th 15:53), senior Austin Cipriano (13th 16:01) and senior Sean Hayes (14th 16:02). This tight pack is obviously a strong point for them, but the main question is can they get close enough to the Hendricken top 3 or 4 which could finish in front of their #1. It will be interesting to watch and see if they can keep the top 4 of Hendricken in touch to then use the power of their pack to propel them past the Hawks.
CT #1 Greenwich is a team that should not be slept on. In reality there are three CT teams which probably should be in the discussion. Greenwich won the CT Open by 17 points over Xavier and East Lyme with Xavier finishing 2nd on the strength of their 6th runner. That close of a race shows that any of these 3 teams can be players on any given day. Greenwich had an amazing :43 second spread from 1-7 at the Open. Yes you read that right….:43 second from 1 to 7. Depending on where the grouping ends up could be dangerous. They are led by senior Ryan Newcomb (9th 16:13), senior Benjamin Hayes (25th 16:35), sophomore Quentin Koch (29th 16:39), sophomore James Hayes (37th 16:46) and senior Michael Yardis (39th 16:49). It would be an issue to not include their 6th and 7th runners because they are so close to the end of their scoring 5, it could give them some cover if any of the top 5 are off on Saturday. They are senior Matteo Chiesara (45th 16:52) and junior Oliver Eaton (48th 16:56).
Xavier and East Lyme tied at the CT open race with Xavier squeaking by on the strength of their 6th runner, but both teams will be vying for a top 5 spot on Saturday. Xavier has another impressive 1-6 gap of :41 seconds, but their scoring starts just a little behind the top end of the other top contenders. They are led by sophomore Nolan O’Connor (13th 16:22), sophomore Holden Hines (14th 16:22), junior Peter Torello (31st 16:41), senior Xavier Laudati (50th 16:59) and senior Landon Rubano (52nd 17:03). To challenge for the top spot they will need to move this impressive grouping a little bit forward to be in the mix. East Lyme has a big low stick! Senior Sam Leone (1st 15:37) win the CT Open and has the 2nd highest speed rating of the individuals in this race. He has a very good chance at giving East Lyme a VERY low score to start their scoring off. The big question for East Lyme is if they can move their #4 and #5 up high enough for them to really be in the overall team mix.
CVU and St Johnsbury will most likely be the top VT squads which could challenge for a top 5 finish. They both will need some things to go right for them to get into this mix, but both have the ability on a given day to push their way into this conversation. CVU has been impressive all season. They are battle tested by competing out of state many times and this will be both teams’ third time running at Thetford this season. They both will have the inside knowledge of the course which could help them. CVU is led by junior Ben Holoch (1st 16:32), junior Cole Hart (4th 16:58), junior Treson McEnany (8th 17:14), junior Jack Snyder (11th 17:21) and sophomore Charlie Meisenzahl (25th 18:19). St Johnsbury was a close second to CVU at the VT State Meet and they are led by junior Joel Thornton-Sherman (2nd 16:40), junior Bryan Stocker (9th 17:18), junior John Thornton-Sherman (12th 17:26), junior Micah McDonald (13th 17:30) and junior Manny Fliegelman (21st 18:03). The issue for both teams is if they can move their 5th runner up enough spots to get them into the race for the top 5.
The boys race should be another amazing one to watch and may be too close to call before the official results are released. A number of these teams are very closely matched and it could come down to a strategic misstep of going out too hard or not hard enough which could swing this team. There are so many of the top teams runners who will be in the same finish position which will make it hard to score in your head. The mass of people coming in each second will make it harder to determine where a specific runner has finished. It will be of utmost importance for all teams to run through the line to make sure they don’t drop a needless point or two which could determine who the eventual winner is. This should be a fun one!
Boys Individuals in the mix at New England Championships by state(speed ratings are from NE Qualifier Meet):
Top Boys By State by Speed Rating
Vermont:
- Ben Holoch CVU 16:32 179
- Gage Magnuson BFA Fairfax 16:38 177
- Joel Thornton-Sherman St Johnsbury 16:40 177
- Cole Page U 32 16:51 173
- Nico Conathan-Leach Brattleboro 16:52 173
- Cole Hart CVU 16:58 171
New Hampshire:
- Sullivan Sturtz Keene 15:18 180
- Peyton Joslyn Monadnock 15:19 179
- Ethan Fischer Bishop Guertin 15:24 178
- Elijah Bodanza Fall Mountain 15:25 178
- Ben Groves Hanover 15:35 174
- Josiah Conley Concord 15:37 173
- Trainor Mailloux Pinkerton 15:38 173
- Jason Robie Pinkerton 15:39 173
Connecticut:
- Sam Leone East Lyme 15:37 187
- Tycen LaBelle Griswold 15:38 187
- Luke Cushing Amity 15:58 181
- Joseph DeLuise Oxford 16:04 178
- Julien Silva Fitch 16:06 178
- Alexander Medina Hamden 16:10 176
- Hudson Schunk Fairfield Warde 16:11 176
- Aidan Nelson Ridgefield 16:11 176
- Ryan Newcomb Greenwich 16:13 176
- Edward Kushel Fairfield Warde 16:14 175
- Jonah Schulman Hall 16:16 174
- Alex Cook E.O. Smith 16:17 174
- Nolan O’Connor Xavier 16:22 173
- Holden Hines Xavier 16:22 173
- Jack Faitsch East Lyme 16:22 173
Rhode Island:
- Sean Gray Portsmouth 15:16 190
- Colby Flynn Bishop Hendricken 15:16 189
- David Hayes Bishop Hendricken 15:29 185
- Marshall Vernon LaSalle Academy 15:30 185
- Fred Russell Bishop Hendricken 15:57 176
- Patrick Orbon Portsmouth 16:00 175
- Colby Napolitano Barrington 16:03 174
- Shepherd Butler Bishop Hendricken 16:03 174
Maine:
- Henri Rivard Marshwood 16:30
- Ellis Wood Deering 16:31
- William Morris Dirigo 16:33
- Asher Valentine Hampden Academy 16:34
- Alex Gilbert Freeport 16:35
Top 25(and ties) Boys by Speed Rating
- Sean Gray Portsmouth 190
- Colby Flynn Bishop Hendricken 189
- Sam Leone East Lyme 187
- Tycen LaBelle Griswold 187
- David Hayes Bishop Hendricken 185
- Marshall Vernon LaSalle Academy 185
- Luke Cushing Amity 181
- Sullivan Sturtz Keene 180
- Ben Holoch CVU 179
- Petyon Joslyn Monadnock 179
- Ethan Fischer Bishop Guertin 178
- Elijah Bodanza Fall Mountain 178
- Josheph DeLuise Oxford 178
- Julien Silva Fitch 178
- Gage Magnuson BFA Fairfax 177
- Joel Thornton-Sherman St Johnsbury 177
- Alexander Medina Hamden 176
- Hudson Schunk Fairfield Warde 176
- Aidan Nelson Ridgefield 176
- Ryan Newcomb Greenwich 176
- Fred Russell Bishop Henricken 176
- Patrick Orbon Portsmouth 175
- Edward Kushel Fairfield Warde 175
- Ben Groves Hanover 174
- Jonah Schulman Hall 174
- Alex Cook E.O. Smith 174
- Colby Napolitano Barrington 174
- Shepherd Butler Bishop Hendricken 174
The boys individual race has 20 boys with speed ratings of 176 or higher at their qualifying meets, which should lead to an amazing race at the front of the field. Eight of the individuals have ratings of 180 or higher and Sean Gray is the only runner with a rating of 190 or higher. The thing to always remember when trying to predict the top individuals is a number of them are on teams who are vying for the team title also. This does put these runners in a bit of a difficult situation because they do need to think about their team scoring along with their individual finish. There are probably 20 or more individuals who have a legitimate shot at an All New England spot and that is before some runner comes from out of nowhere and runs the race of their lives. This could be a very interesting race and the race tactics could play a very big part in the end result.
Sean Gray (Portsmouth RI) has to be one of the main favorites. Sean won the RI State Meet in a photo finish with Colby Flynn (Bishop Hendricken RI). These two should clearly be considered the top two favorites in this race. This is where the team runner v. individual could come into play. Colby is running for the team favorite to win the team title. Second place to Sean still equals one point for his team so how does Colby attack this race if he knows if he finishes second his team will still get that one team point. It is just one of the things which makes this race interesting. Joining this top duo should be another group of probably four runners. Sam Leone (East Lyme CT) is the CT Open champion and he edged out Tycen LaBelle (Griswold CT) for the title. Both should be right on the shoulders of the top 2 ready to make their move if the opportunity presents itself. Two more runners who should be in this pack should be David Hayes (Bishop Hendricken RI) and Marshall Vernon (LaSalle Academy RI). These two finished 3rd and 4th at the RI State Meet and were separated by one second. The top 6 favorites looks like it could be a CT and RI battle for the top spot!
Don’t count out a possible surprise from the next group of contenders though. Luke Cushing (Amity CT) continues the CT contingent and was 3rd at the CT Open. He will want to stick his nose into the mix also. We finally get to our first contenders from NH and VT. Ben Holoch (CVU VT) is the VT State Meet champion and has three years of experience on this Thetford course. Ben knows how to run the course, is a very smart racer, so he is someone to keep an eye on. Our first 2 NH competitors are Sullivan Sturtz (Keene NH) and Peyton Joslyn (Monadnock Regional NH) who went 1 and 2 at the NH MOC. They were separated by just one second, so both are legit contenders to try to push into the top group. The question will be how do the NH MOC performances translate into the hills of Thetford.
There is a huge group of runners that have speed ratings in the 176 – 178 range that means that anyone of them could challenge for a top 10 spot and definitely an All New England finish. These runners include Joseph DeLuise (Oxford CT) 4th in the CT Open, Gage Magnuson (BFA Fairfax VT) the D2 state champion and #2 in VT after the merge, Julien Silva (Fitch CT) 5th in CT Open, Ethan Fischer (Bishop Guertin NH) 3rd at NH MOC, Joel Thorton-Sherman (St Johnsbury VT) 2nd D1/3rd after merge in VT, Elijah Bodanza (Fall Mountain NH) 4th at NH MOC. These runners all have ratings of 177 or 178 and they clearly have shown that on any given day they could push for a top 10 spot.
The boys will close out the festivities at Thetford with their race starting at 12:15 pm. This race is loaded with talent and the team race should be a close one. There should be extremely tight racing and that should help to promote some impressive performances. The weather looks good for this race which should be almost perfect to promote great results. The race tactics and the challenging course should make for a very exciting and interesting race to end the day. This should be a great way to close out the New England cross country season! Good luck to all the runners!
