By Dave Irving
This Thursday runners from all over the Capitol Region will head to Merrimack Valley for the 45th running of the Capital Area Championships. Both the boys and girls races feature some intriguing story lines, both individually and for the teams.
The boys race will be the first to go off at 4:15 (after the combined junior varsity race). While it would seem that Concord is a huge favorite as the only team ranked in the top ten in the state, St. Paul’s is makings it’s return to Capital Area for the first time since 2019. And while Concord easily handled St. Paul’s the past few times they’ve competed, the sting of back-to-back one point losses to the Concord private school in 2014 and 2015 is a reminder of their potential. And it does seem they have a formidable team, defeating 5th ranked Keene at a recent meet…by one point. After these two it’s a pretty big gap to the third place team. At this point the favorite to earn a podium finish is Newfound, but Bow, Gilford, and host Merrimack Valley have all been running well recently.
Individually, without knowing too much about the St. Paul’s boys, Patrick Gandini should be able to close out his Capital Area career as a two-time winner. With last year’s win only 11 seconds off the course record and the weather looking ideal, he
could also stamp his name atop the record books. Looking to earn a top-10 medal will be a St. Paul’s triumvirate of Alonzo Walton, Jamie Campbell, and Johnny Dase; Concord’s super-frosh Josiah Conley, Hopkinton’s Ben Daniels, and Plymouth’s Leo Ebner.
On the girls side, Hopkinton is the favorite to end Concord’s 10 year win streak, back to 2011 when Hopkinton stood on top of the podium. It’s looking to be a great race, however, with Hopkinton currently (under?)ranked at 7th and Bow and Concord tied at 10th in the state. It would be a huge upset for any other team to crack the top three, but Plymouth and John Stark would probably be the most likely to do it,
Individually it shouldn’t be quite so tight, with Bow’s Susanna Zahn the big favorite. Could the 18:22 course record be in jeopardy? Plymouth’s Addison Englund will be a podium favorite, along with Kearsarge’s Molly Ellison, and Hopkinton’s Hannah Bennett. Look for Bennett’s teammate Shaylee Murdough, Englund’s sister Elli, and Concord’s Molly Nyhan to compete for top ten honors.
