BIB Assignments
For all meet information, pics, results, interviews from past years and this year! Check out our Battle of the Border Meet Hub!
The 19th Annual Battle of the Border Invitational between Massachusetts and New Hampshire will be held this Saturday, October 7, 2023. This year’s meet, at Alvirne High School in Hudson, New Hampshire, is looking like it will be the most competitive, perhaps ever, among NH teams. This is the 2nd year the NH Meet of Champions is going to be held on the BoB course, so that may be why 9 of NH’s top 10 boys ranked teams are attending along with 7 of the top 10 girls teams. The 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 5 years!! Let’s Go!!
Representing New Hampshire will be Alvirne, Bedford, Bishop Guertin, Campbell, Coe-Brown, Concord, Con-Val, Dover, Hanover, Londonderry, Central, Memorial, West, Milford, Nashua South, Oyster River, Pelham, Pinkerton, Portsmouth, Salem, Trinity, Windham, Winnacunnet. *Souhegan is a late entry.
Massachusetts will be represented by Haverhill, Innovation, Needham, Newton South, North Andover, and Tyngsborough.
With the top 7 NH teams scheduled to compete along with MA #7 Needham which placed 4th in the Manchester Invitational 2 weeks ago beating Pinkerton and Bedford in the process, this race should be just as competitive as an MOC. The 2 top Division 2 teams in Oyster River and Hanover v. the 2 top Division1 teams in Pinkerton and Bedford. Throw in Needham, and any one of 5 teams could win. All have the low-sticks (OR’s Mackenzie Cook, Hanover’s Leah Perreard, Pinkerton’s Contessa Silva, Bedford’s Fiona Lee) as well as the supporting casts to take this one. The chase pack of teams include Dover, Winnacunnet, Concord and quite possibly Newton South. If Dover is at full strength, expect them to be closer to the top 5 for sure. With the weather forecast go the mudders of the world, some surprises are sure to occur as well within the team battles.
Individually expect Hanover’s Perreard to rip out from the start. She has been on a tear all season, especially with an 18:11 at Manch followed by her Black Bear Invite victory this past weekend. Using MI48 as a metric, perhaps the lone chaser may be Needham’s Greta Hammer who won the Manch Large School Race in 18:28. The chase pack should be rather large with Oyster River’s Mackenzie Cook, Hanover’s Lila Muirhead, Pinkerton’s Silva and Sookie Folsom, Bedford’s Fiona Lee, Winnacunnet’s Charlotte Koutalidis, Dover’s Anique Poulin.
Last year under near perfect conditions, the BoB saw Coe-Brown dominate with Aidan Cox running the fastest XC race on NH soil covering the course in 14:32. This year with the forecasted rains, fast times may not be in the cards; however, high level, close competition certainly is as 9 of NH’s Top 10 ranked teams are scheduled to compete (*NH#6 Souhegan has been a late entry. Now we have all 10 of the Top 10 Ranked NH schools!!! Let’s Go!!). This fact makes this the mini MOC of the season. Nashua South, this year’s apparent top team, is the clear favorite. Led by Dante Castellano and Daniel Byrne, expect South to group up and continue to establish themselves as the team to beat. They seem to be the total team with power up front and the pack to support their efforts. While they may have the 2 low sticks, look for NH#2 Hanover to have an even tighter pack. Led by their 1 low stick, Lucian Gleiser, they have found success this season by simply getting their top 5 in before many other school’s. How far up the line that pack finishes may determine this outcome.
Number 3 Salem has been the surprise of this season. Last year they certainly showed potential, and this season they are seemingly fulfilling said potential. Led by sophomore Brodie Chisholm, look for Salem to run tough as they have all season. The Long Red Line of Pinkerton seems to be the epitome of a pack running team and are led by ever-improving Finn Christensen-Kraft. As the season progresses, watch for their scoring 5 to continue to move up the ranks and it could start this weekend.
Chasing these teams may begin with NH #5 Bedford, led by Jacob Redman. Don’t look now but Coe-Brown seems to be finding their way as they finished surprisingly close to Hanover at last weekend’s Black Bear. HOKA Athlete of the Week Jamie Lano is one of only 2 returners from last year’s juggernaut of a squad, which means the rest are young and inexperienced. Well they seem to be rounding into form. Expect Bishop Guertin led by Matthew Giardina and Carson Fischer as well as #9 Londonderry and #10 Oyster River to be quite competitive as well.
Individually, fresh off his win up at the Festival of Champions in Belfast, Maine, Bishop Guertin’s Giardina is the favorite here. He dropped a 15:27 on a similar quick course last weekend. He has yet to be beat by a Granite Stater. The aforementioned Lano looks to have the momentum off his big improvement at the CBNA course last weekend. He fearlessly tracked two of the best runners in the nation last week. And then of course you have the rest of the talented runners of NHCC. Expect Redman, Castellano, Gleiser, Christensen-Kraft, Byrne and Concord’s Josiah Conley to be in that front pack as well.
NHCC will be there snapping pics, recording races, posting on Instagram live! We will also be selling NHCC tees with proceeds going to support the website! Thanks to all for the support!
Good luck to all! Especially those from the 603! Let’s Go!
