By Dyrace Maxfield
The 51st edition of the Capital Area Cross Country Championships gets underway today, Thursday, October 15th hosted by Merrimack Valley High School. This year’s course has been remeasured and altered to allow the finish to race across the infield of the MV track.
The girls team battle will come down to pack times for 3 perennial top Capital Area teams. Hopkinton should be favored with Maddy Lane likely securing the 1st place overall and teammates Maisie Emerson and Rose Afflerbach both capable of top 10 finishes as well. Hopkinton recently placed ahead of Concord at the Hopkinton Distance Festival last weekend.
Concord also boasts a strong pack time led by Mahalie Burdette, with her next 5 teammates all capable of sub-22-minute finishes.
St. Paul’s will be in the mix as well with Knowles Johnson leading the way. Johnson recently posted an 18:59 at the Deerfield Academy 5k. St. Paul’s placed all their top-5 girls under 22-minutes in that race as well.
The battle for top-12 individual honors will be a good one. Maddy Lane will be looking to take down another course record this season. After Lane, it will be a great race for second with Emerson, Johnson, Burdette all having run under 19:05 this season. Hopkinton’s Afflerbach, MV’s Isabel Geddes, St. Paul’s C.C. Goss, and Interlake’s Elsa Bartlett have all broken 20 minutes this year as well.
On the boys’ side for the team title, Hopkinton and St. Paul’s will face off in an exciting rematch from this year’s Small School Race at the Manchester Invitational. In that race Hopkinton was 3rd with a team average time of 17:52, while St. Paul’s was 4th with a team average of 17:57. Concord looks to have the edge on third place, finishing well ahead of MV and Bow at Hopkinton this past weekend. While Merrimack Valley and Bow will battle it out for fourth and fifth position and Division II bragging rights.
Looking for individual honors at the Capital Area Invitational will be Hopkinton’s Max Goupil who ran an impressive 15:52 this past weekend, as well as teammate James Lavers (16:35). Goupil and Lavers will have their hands full racing a trio of St. Paul’s runners, Owen Gerenc, Linus Krenkel, and Langston Williams who ran 16:01, 16:03, and16:06 respectively this past weekend at Deerfield Academy.
