As a die hard fan of high school cross country, holy moly what a season! The fact I no longer am the head coach of one of the 85 programs which contests high school cross country in NH allows me to be a fan of all of it. I mean, this season I even donned the previously hated green and white of Hopkinton, excited to see what this year’s version of the Hawks from Contooky could do. Never mind the transition of Lexi Paterna from track to cross country. How would last year’s returning champions fare? And who would become this season’s up and comers? With the (official) season just ended, we got some exciting answers for sure. And truth be told, it’s been a FAN-tastic journey!
For anyone new to this blog, as a former long time D3 coach, I’ll accept my implicit bias for D3 kids. If that bothers you and you want to decry fairness, jump on a google doc and let YOUR fingers do the talking. And while I’m likely to be D3 centric, it’s safe to say there were incredible performances over the entire NH scene. I’m going to highlight some of those I felt were incredibly special.
So seeing as I said I was leaning in on Division 3, why not get started right there. If you’re going to talk top performances in D3, you probably better start with Maddy Lane. Let’s take a look at her resume (so far): 3x Division 3 champion, 2x runner up at MOCs, countless big invitational victories, and now, the New England championship as a junior. And what a race between her and Alexis Paterna for that New England championship. They battled at the Hopkinton XC Festival where Lane outran Paterna, each won their divisional titles, ran head to head at MOCs with Paterna coming out on top, and then a scant 11/100th of a second separating them at Thetford. Man oh man. Lane ascends to be among the top NH performers ever to win a coveted NE title and there are more knowledgeable historians who understand in full what that list looks like. All I know is it’s something special to ever garner a NE title and Ms. Lane will get a chance to make it two.
I would be remiss not to highlight another really cool connection for Maddy Lane and her NE win at Thetford. Twenty seven years ago the NE meet was won by a Vermont runner named Erin Sullivan, who went onto a great career at Stanford. As some of you might be figuring out in those 27 years Ms. Sullivan may have obtained a different last name as well, and as now everyone is figuring it out, that last name is Lane. How cool is that for these two to now share the same honor as New England champion. What a fitting way for this season to go! Is this the first mother and daughter to be New England Champions?
While basking in the glow of what Maddy has achieved, I think if you asked her what pushes her towards greatness, close to the top of that list would be Paterna. While NH’s #9 last year, and I might not have seen it coming, we all got to watch Lexi not just move up through the ranks, but simply assert herself among the upper echelon of NH greats. This was not a down year by any means in girls cross country in NH, on the contrary. In her division she had returning D1 champ and MOC champ in Mikita Barry, who last year at MOCs beat Paterna by over a minute. Did anyone really see Paterna turning the tables on Barry (and the rest of the field) at MOCS this year?
I’d like to tip my hat to Barry as well. It’s hard to continuously ride the crest of the wave and I witnessed something similar in an athlete of mine in Jacy Christiansen back in 2010. Winning her second D3 championship and second to Hanover’s Heidi Caldwell at MOCs, Jacy qualified and ran at NXN that season, also qualifying for nationals in indoor and outdoor. However her 2010 run wasn’t quite as special, runnerup at divisionals and 8th at MOCs. She ended up 16th at NEs and then went onto a great career on full scholarship to Liberty, running as their #1 her junior and senior years. It can be tough to encounter setbacks of this sort, but in the long run the athlete is better off and becomes more resilient in the long run, and that’s what matters.
I’d also like to shout out two runners who don’t get the attention our NE champion and runner-up do, as they are overshadowed by those aforementioned individuals. I can’t think of two better wingmen (wingwomen?) than Maisie Emerson and Brianna Paterna. To be honest I think these athletes might enjoy the little bit of anonymity having powerful frontrunners in front of you might provide, but these two girls stepped up big, when it mattered, to guide their teams while steering a bit from the back. While most people are watching the front of the race, I like to see who’s doing the grunt work without the limelight to excite them. Watching these two all season has been fun for me as well.
And while I’m talking about individuals I’d like to give a couple shoutouts to two girls I’ve been watching over the last few seasons, Maria Tilley of Gilford and Erin O’Shea of Mascenic. These two have had sort of opposite careers with Tilley working the early years in anonymity while O’Shea was the frontrunner from the time she was a freshman. Tilley led Gilford’s 2024 squad to a runner-up finish in D3s last year, finishing in 8th place. Her sophomore and freshman years, she finished 31st and 30th respectively. This year she finished second only to Maddy Lane; also finishing 11th at MOCs, punching her ticket to NEs for the first time. I saw her coming last spring and it’s been a pleasure watching her develop over these last four years.
O’Shea, like any athlete who is good from the get go, has the strain of delivering on that expectation over the next three years. As a freshman, she finished fifth in D3, 48th at MOCs. Her sophomore year she was 9th at D3s, leading her team to the title, and 42nd at MOCs. Her junior year she was 2nd behind Lane at D3s, 18th at MOCs making her first trip to New Englands. This year she was 5th at D3s, 17th at MOCs and saved her best for last as she finished 61st at New Englands. I was coaching her those first two years, and when someone who has been coaching for a quarter century leaves a program. you often wonder what the outfall might be. It seems O’Shea has had it all under control the whole time.
And speaking of control, how about that Hanover girls squad? It was a delight watching them operate over the Divisional and Meet of Champions this year. Anyone who has watched the broadcast of D2s knows I was dumbstruck at the precision evisceration those ladies performed over not only the other teams in the division, but the entire division itself. Hanover won 25 to 52 over a very good Oyster River, going 1-4-5-6-9-10-13, leaving only 6 other spots in the top 13. If that sounds crazy how about this? If you scored Hanover AGAINST the entire field they still win 25 to 31. The next week they showed they were a team to reckon with at the national level, scoring 40 to Oyster River’s 100. While having a bit of an off day, they finished third at New Englands, only behind nationally ranked CVU and Cumberland. Very impressive ladies indeed.
And not to forget the boys, like last year, Division 3 was chock full of top runners. In 2024 (I’m going to speculate) we saw the highest number of individual qualifiers to New Englands from D3, with seven finishing 8-12-13-14-17-22-25; half of the individual qualifiers. This year, while not so many, there were five but finishing 2-4-9-17-25. So 5 of 12 individual qualifiers and 2 New England All Stars with Elijah Bodanza just missing out in 26th. Not a bad run for the D3 boys.
And while we’re on Mr. Bodanza, how fun was it watching Elijah this fall? He brought it every race and was undefeated through mid season. You never know how things are going to go when there is a coaching change, and Bodanza didn’t just change coaches, he moved to an entirely different district. As the returning champ, all eyes were on him and it was going to be interesting to see what he would do. I tapped him as the person to beat and someone would need to wrestle the championship away from him. And while that did happen, it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort. Bodanza ran 16:23, almost twenty seconds faster than last year, but ended up second. I was interested to see what Meet of Champions would bring.
I wasn’t disappointed. I do not believe I’ve seen a better four person battle for the top spot in the state and maybe never at all (though the Anthony Merra/Matt Paulson along with Jeremy Brassard/Tim Fafard battles were pretty good.) Bodanza made a great surge from the pack with about 1000 meters to go and was leading around the final turn. Unfortunately he ran out of gas giving it his all. He was able to remain on his feet crossing in fourth in one of the gutsiest races I’ve been able to witness. So happy to see he was able to rebound for New Englands.
Who was his foil? Peyton Joslyn of Monadnock. Joslyn showed he was a contender at his home meet, Moonlight Madness where he took down two time defending champion Sully Sturtz in an eye popping 14:44. I felt Joslyn could take down Bodanza for the D3 championship, but I thought his best bet would be to sit in Bodanza’s back pocket and use his speed to kick away over the final 200 meters. Thankfully either Joslyn doesn’t read what I write, or takes that as inspiration, as he did not heed my words and went straight to the front, running alone from the gun. Bodanza certainly shadowed him but in the end was never able to make inroads on Joslyn, who won comfortably in the second fastest time of the day. Joslyn would use that speed the following week, trailing off the back of the front pack through 4000 meters to secure runnerup at MOCs, only behind Sturtz. He would use that speed at New Englands to finish 8th, 3 spots and 9 seconds behind Sturtz.
What about Sully! Winner of D1s last year, runner-up at MOCs to Matthew Giardina who graduated, and top finisher last year at New Englands. Sturtz got off to a slow start on the season and endured some upsets off his junior year results. Thankfully Sturtz understands the long game, and while he lost D1s to Ethan Fischer, he came back at MOCs, pushing things up front along with Bodanza and pulling out the win. He would grab top honors again at New Englands by finishing fifth.
I don’t want to leave out Fischer. Last year he showed us he was the real deal, finishing 7th at MOCs as a freshman, to help the team finish first! This year as a sophomore, he won D1s and was third at MOCs. Quite a season for a sophomore. Do not sleep on Fischer in 2026.
Speaking of teams, what a strong showing by Pinkerton this season. Without any one front runner, the trio of Sean Hayes, Oscar D’Amelio and Trainor Mailloux were interchangeable much of the season, leading a strong group which had a 38 second spread at D1s and a 25 second spread at MOCs! With their top five in the top 14, it was almost reminiscent of ConVal in 2007 where they placed five in the top fifteen but had the meet winner in Alex McGrath. Their pack time at New Englands was only 32 seconds, with only Greenwich sporting a 27 second spread, but also finishing almost 130 points behind the Astros.
Not to be left out is the D2 battle between Hanover and Coe-Brown. Hanover was ranked higher all season long, but Coe-Brown was young and improving week to week. At Divisionals, Hanover squeaked out a one point win over CB, with both teams scoring less than half of third place. CB’s youth movement, AKA their three freshmen stepped up big, being the top three for the team for the first time, finishing 4-6-7. The following week at MOCs, Hanover was able to get CB again, as the freshman trio struggled a bit at Alvirne, finishing third. However this past weekend, Coe Brown was able to turn the tables when it mattered most, not only finishing ahead of Hanover by a bunch, but finishing in fourth overall. I think I might be able to live with 3rd at MOCs and 4th at New Englands, without a senior in their top seven. Think on that.
Getting back to my beloved Division 3. As the guy who writes the previews, I had my eye on three teams this fall. Hopkinton had the numbers and a solid leader in Max Goupil, and indications were that they were the team to beat. Word on the street was Portsmouth Christian, led by #2 returner Christian Barnes were hitting on all cylinders and had the pieces to make a run at the championship, and that’s saying something for a school that sits firmly in Division 4. And now that I no longer coach in the division, I am sometimes privy to additional information and had heard that over in Swanzey Clint Joslyn was working to put the pieces together at Monadnock to make a run at the championships as well. He may or may not have kept his athletes out of the Manchester Invitational on purpose, recognizing with a young squad just starting to find their groove there could be more downside than up.
That seemed to be true. Monadnock announced they were looking to upset the apple cart at Moonlight Madness, where they laid waste to all other teams not named Hanover or Keene. The team average was 16:27, helped out by Joslyn’s 14:44. They were looking to ride this momentum into Divisionals.
They certainly did. Relying on two freshmen in the scoring five, the Huskies went 1-9-13-17-23 to score 63 points to Hopkinton’s 90 and PA’s 114. But they weren’t done. At MOCs they ran even better, finishing 7th, 19 points out of a team trip to New Englands. Not an easy task when all the schools in front of you have more than 150 more students than you or in one case, more than six times the student population. As a D3 guy, I tip my hat to the boys from Monadnock of a fantastic year. (Hopkinton girls are in a similar situation, with the largest school ahead of them more than 10x bigger, however we’ve gotten used to them being giant killers.)
The last thing I’d like to highlight is the Hopkinton XC Festival. I got to commentate there as well as the MS State championships. I have to say the Hopkinton Runner’s Society was simply lights out in every category, course conditions, set up, management and any other facet of hosting a cross country championship. On Saturday they hosted the NCAA Division 2 Regional Championship, and next Friday NCAA Division 1 is up with Division 3 to follow on Saturday. I’ve rearranged my schedule to be able to be there on Saturday where two of my former runners will be competing and I’m trying to figure out how to take a zoom call on my phone from the parking lot on Friday so I can see D1s. Zach Emerson and crew know how to put on a great race, one of importance, and I hope to see big time high school meets move onto this course in the future. All the talking points are in favor of the fairgrounds being not just a great venue, but the best option for high school cross country.
There was certainly more out there one could highlight. Like I said, it was a banner year for the high school cross country superfan. I enjoyed the battle between Exeter girls and Pinkerton in D1s, was impressed by both Hanover squads all season (and it seems for seasons to come), and what the Keene boys were able to put together without their true #2. But being at the end of my fourth page of prose I think I’m going to finish this up. Like I said, if I missed your favorite moment, the website is always looking for more content.
I’ll see you out there.
