HERE WE GO!!! The 49th Manchester Invitational! You ready??? We are!!! Loaded races both with a
number of state ranked teams and some of the best individuals in the nation! Of note, the course has been altered due to construction and to ensure proper length. Special thanks to John Mortimer and Millennium Running as well as the City of Manchester for making this happen!
Visit our MI49 Meet Hub as our center for everything Manchester Invitational over the past several years!!! We have race videos, interviews, articles, photos! It will also be THE place for this year’s NewHampshireCrossCountry’s coverage!
Use the link below as Millennium Running will have live results and splits!!! All event info including course maps, box info, etc can also be found on their website.
Millennium Running’s Live Results
Girls Small School @ 12:00
With many of the top smaller schools opting for the large school varsity race, (OR #1 and Hanover #2) we will get to see an in state showdown between NH #5 Hopkinton and NH #9 Plymouth. Last year Division 3 Champion, Mascenic, finished fifth overall in the small school race. But last year Oyster River and Hanover competed down, as the size of their school is within the classification. Considering how good they are on the regional scene, both school’s have opted for the bigger classification, testing the waters among the Northeast’s best.
Also last year, third and fourth places went to Harwood of Vermont and North Shore of Massachusetts, with just Harwood back again this year. Which leads me to believe that Hopkinton has a shot at a top two finish and potentially that top spot.
Please don’t see this as a slight. Hopkinton boasts a team of mostly returners and the addition of a fantastic freshman. As someone who had their eye on the Hawks last season, I’d have to say Hopkinton has leveled up, much in the same way Oyster River and Hanover have. If they knock off the rest of the field, the victory will be well deserved.
Fronted by D3 distance champion Maddy Lane, the 9th place Hawks of 2023 are definitely better than last year, as they may have been finding their footing so to speak. With D3 All Star Shaylee Murdough rolling in as a close second, it seems their spread has closed over last year and they’re ready to spread their wings. With Reese Bove, Amelia Walsh and freshman Maisie Emerson (daughter of FPU coach Zach and Kim), I expect Hopkinton to be the best D3 team and likely the top NH team overall. They are my dark horse to take the whole thing.
Another team to keep an eye on is Souhegan (NH#6.) Led by Samantha Swanbon, the Sabres have been looking to find their stride amongst the NH elite. Manchester will be a good first test for the crew from Amherst. Swanbon is joined by Sarah Bryson and Anna Brammer Depuy and if these cats can bring their pack time down, they might put some pressure on Hopkinton.
One might have thought Plymouth (NH#9) would have a down year, having lost two of their top five to graduation, but the Bobcats from the North seem to be back better than ever. Fronted by Elli Englund, with some strong pack running behind her in Ella Ronci, Clare Gervez, Reagan Sutherland, and Abigail Furlan, the Bobcats look like the next best team from NH. With any luck they might be able to claw their way into a top two spot.
Looking specifically at NH teams, Newmarket might be the next in line after Hopkinton and Plymouth. Having spent the first week or so ranked in the top ten, the Mules have been working on finding their way in the wake of heavyweight D3 harrier Alanna Hagen matriculating out. However they are in the capable hands of Eilis McKenna and Magnolia Redmond, and if they can get their pack time down they could be dangerous as they move into the second half of the season. Manch will give us some good insight into their maturation.
A couple other NH schools looking to kick off the second half of the season are Hollis Brookline and Goffstown. Led by Quinn Hardy and Kara Tschida respectively, these squads are looking to make inroads into the D2 conversation and hopefully a ticket to Meet of Champions at the end of October.
Not to be overlooked, but certainly outside the general periphery, we have three NH private schools competing on Saturday as well. We used to race against St. Paul’s School at the Dan Brae golf course in a race put on by Sant Bani and Scott Clark and they were very well coached, often battling with Coe Brown. I anticipate they might upset my in-the-head rankings. Also the Dublin School. I don’t know much about their cross country program, but I do know they have a prosperous nordic program and sometimes those go hand in hand (think Hopkinton.) And finally we have Claremont Christian Academy, a school I’ve heard of in my professional life but hadn’t realized offered cross country as part of their athletics.
Outside NH, one would have to tip their hat to Harwood of Vermont. The top returning team, Harwood of Waterbury has been turning out New England candidates, both individually and team wise, for as long as I can remember. The black and gold’s top returner is Celia Wing, having finished 24th overall, and return four of their top six. If there’s a team to take the title from Hopkinton, I expect it to be Harwood. Or perhaps Cheverus of Maine as they are currently ranked #10 in Maine.
Vermont has the greatest team participation outside of NH, with teams from BFA-St. Albans, Burlington, Lamoille, Thetford and Montpelier, with a number of these having strong in-state programs over the years. Massachusetts has the next best participation, with teams from Austin Prep, Malden Catholic, Algonquin and Excel Academy participating. Connecticut is sending East Lyme, Haddam-Killingworth, Griswold and Rham, while Maine is also sending York and North Yarmouth. York has a solid program and could be in the hunt for the top spot, but I just don’t have enough information on the Fergus Cullen coached team. It’s safe to say there could easily be a sleeper in the crowd, unbeknownst to me, and realistically, while I’ve called Hopkinton for the win, it’s much more likely, statistically speaking, some team from the field creates an upset. That’s why we run the race.
Individually, the top returner is Hopkinton’s Lane, followed by Englund of Plymouth, Kaitlyn Lumbra of BFA, Swanbon of Souhegan, Ava Hayden of Thetford Academy and Tschida of Goffstown. Looking to challenge for a top ten spot would be Mascenic’s Kaitlin and Erin O’Shea, Lebanon’s Olivia and Annaies Hanna, and Wing and Heidi Haraldsen of Harwood.
–Mike Smith
Boys Small School @ 12:30
Similar in the boys race, we have two ranked teams looking to battle. Coe-Brown (NH #7) and Oyster River (NH#8) will be competing in the small school race, with Hanover (NH#1) electing to race “up” on Saturday. This should make for a good battle with 2 teams separated by mere miles. Fronted by Luc Kerouac, members of the Coe-Brown Black Bears might not be household names, but make no mistake, the Northwood boys know how to get things done. Supporting Kerouac is freshman stud Patrick Youngs, along with teammates Ben Larson, Ben Jobin, Landon Graveline and Quinn Froberg. They most recently put six in the top seven at CB Homecoming. While you might not know the names, you will recognize the uniform.
Oyster River, led by Oliver Lehman and Levi Clapp, will need to close the gap between their 4 and 5 if they are to move up through the ranks and knock off Coe-Brown. The squad finished third at Bobcat, behind D1 Londonderry, and Belmont Hills from out of state. They will need to improve their pack time of 2:19 from two weeks ago, and if they do I expect they’ll be nipping at the heels of the Bears.
Behind them from NH I expect to see Mascoma Valley step out from the shadows and show why they might be the top team in D3. Like most teams in D3, holding together your scoring five is always the focus, but the Royals have a top ten guy in Gunner Currier, along with a solid supporting cast in Karl Russell, Trevor Maheu, Brody Albanese and Karson Rogers. While the Royals might not be ready to tussle with CB, they certainly will be aiming for the podium.
After these two teams, the make up of the next six NH teams is similar, with some strong talent up front but their end of season ranking will come down to having someone else step up and bringing that pack time down. From the Bobcat Invitational, Bow is led by Wyatt Worcester, Hollis Brookline is led by John Masiello, Newmarket is led by Jaron Labranche, Lebanon is led by Ian Keiffer, Hopkinton is led by Max Goupil, and St Thomas Aquinas is led by Oliver Schartner. If any of these teams can string it together, they will be your next NH team.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, because we have some private schools playing in Manchester as well. As mentioned before, St. Pauls had had a particularly strong program for some time, and certainly stand a chance at putting the pressure on Coe-Brown and Oyster River. Again, mentioned before, Dublin has a strong nordic program which often translates into a strong cross program.
However the most likely challenger to Coe-Brown is Haddam-Killingworth, as they return five of their top seven from last year where they finished 3rd but are the top returning team. Led by Jack Cozean and Daniel McCourt, H-K might be in the driver’s seat.
Finishing fourth last year, BFA-St. Albans also returns a solid crew, led by Jacoby Soter and Teddy Tremblay. Having lost more to graduation, the Vermont crew will have had to made more gains to end up at the top. Same state Thetford Academy might make a push as well as the next returning team fronted by Brady Sloop.
In addition to BFA and Thetford, Harwood and Lamoille will be making the trip to Derryfield Park. Joining H-K from Connecticut will be Griswold. From Massachusetts, Algonquin, Austin Prep, Catholic Memorial, Excel Academy, Foxborough, Malden Catholic and Walpole will be making the journey northward. And the lone entry from the pine tree state will be North Yarmouth.
The top returning individual in the small school race is Monadnock’s Peyton Joslyn, having finished in seventh. Not far behind was BFA’s Soter, Sanborn’s Jacob Pitre and Milford’s Logan Korthals. Next in was ConVal’s Will Simard, but after winning the 3200 last spring, I’d expect he’ll be right up there at the front. Another one to expect at the front will be Mascoma’s Currier, this being his first Manch Invite. Looking to round out the top ten will be H-K’s Cozean and McCourt, Kearsarge’s Dan Dalbec, BFA’s Tremblay, and CB’s Kerouac.
-Mike Smith
Girls Large School @ 1:00pm
Last year it seemed as if the state ranked schools from all states participating spread themselves between the large and small school races. Matter of fact there were 8 schools ranked in the top 10 of their respective states in the 2023 Large School Race and it was exciting. Well, with the top 2 small schools of NH, Oyster River and Hanover, taking a swing at the large school division, along with some others, the number of ranked schools has ballooned to 13 in 2024! The race is loaded! Get you popcorn ready!
Let’s begin with the 2-time defending champs Champlain Valley of Vermont. They are currently ranked not only tops in Vermont but also #2 in the Northeast. With their line-up headed by top returner Alice Kredell, CVU is certainly the favorites. However, hot on their heels should be NH#1 Oyster River led by Mackenzie Cook and Haley Kavanagh. With Neely Roy, Haley Bezanson and Maddy Cook, the Bobcats return their entire top 5 and find themselves currently ranked #4 in the Northeast. So yeah, we are in for a treat with 2 of the best teams in the whole Northeast region set to roll on Saturday.
NH#2 Hanover will be looking to of course crack the top 2 as well. Led by the 3-headed monster Leah Perreard, Lila Muirhead, and Megan Faris, Hanover has the upfront firepower necessary to contend on Saturday. CT#1 Glastonbury has always performed well at Derryfield. Expect no different from them on Saturday. VT#2 Essex rounds out the top 2 ranked state schools making the trip on Saturday. And this would normally be enough, but there’s more!
NH#3 Exeter, led by Eli Cross, has all the makings of being a top team not only in NH but also New England. They begin their fact finding mission Saturday. Fresh off their win at the Nashua North Invitational, Pinkerton (NH#4) is led by Sookie Folsom and full of veteran harriers. Really looking to test themselves should be newly ranked Londonderry (NH#7). The young pack running team led by senior Sayde White are just learning the ropes so-to-speak. These types of teams are exciting to watch over the course of the season as the potential is yet to be determined, but their pack will have to start strong to give themselves a shot. New XC runner Mikita Barry leads her NH #8 Bedford team on Saturday while Laura White leads her NH#10 Nashua North team.
Outside of NH, Vermont offers three more of their ranked schools. We get to welcome VT#3 U32 for the 2nd consecutive week. Led by individual contender Ginger Long, U32 finished 2nd to Pinkerton last week at North. VT#4 and VT#5 Mount Mansfield and South Burlington will also be making their annual trip to Derryfield. What would be interesting is scoring the NH v. VT battle (we will probably do that:)).
Individually, undefeated Barry of Bedford is probably the most intriguing question. Judging by her
performance at the ultra hilly Bobcat Invite, she will not shy way from the hills of Derryfield. Expect Oyster River’s Mackenzie Cook and Kavanagh to be right with her from the get go this time around. And of course Hanover’s Perreard simply loves Derryfield. Keep in mind, she has the fastest returning time from last year.
Now these are all super talented and accomplished runners, but we have to consider outside the state as well. Glastonbury’s Brooke Strauss has some of the most impressive track credentials in addition to her long XC resume, so she has to be the favorite. Another Nutmeg Stater who should be mentioned includes Manchester’s Harper Shirley. Vermont boasts the top returner from last year’s Large School race with CVU’s Kredell as well as U-32’s Long. Also in the chase pack could be Hanover’s Muirhead, Dover’s Anique Poulin, Exeter’s Cross, North’s White, and OR’s Roy, Bezanson and the younger Cook.
-Tim Cox
Boys Large School @ 1:30
The large school race at the Manchester Invitational is usually the most competitive race New Hampshire will see in a given cross country season. Teams show up from all over New England to come and battle it out for dominance on the ski hill. Who should you look out for this year? Let’s dig into the data and see who our winner might be!
Estimating Manchester is especially challenging because of the number of out of state teams that come in. Let’s look at the teams coming from each state that are worth keeping an eye on starting with Massachusetts. Mass has several excellent teams coming in with the strongest looking like Brookline and Phillips Andover. Brookline was a national rankings level team last year but unfortunately did not run that squad at Manchester so I’m questioning if we’re going to see their best seven. If they do, they have two runners in Lysander Duffield and Altamo Aschkenasy who have already put in low 16s performances this fall. Phillips Andover comes in with one of the best runners in the country and Massachusetts’ Gatorade Runner of the Year, Tam Gavenas, who has to be the runner to beat in the race. Additionally, Andover only lost one member of their varsity squad from last year’s race so they should be well positioned to fight for the team championship.
Vermont has most of their top ten teams coming into the race and a few of them should be in the mix for Saturday’s top spot. St. Johnsbury (VT#1) has three returners who should have a shot at top ten finishes with Andrew Thornton-Sherman, Emmett Johnson, and Isaac Lenzini giving them a huge advantage up front. Champlain Valley (Vt#2) had some excellent early season times at the Burlington Invitational including a race winner in sophomore Benjamin Holoch. Hard to tell if they have the depth to take down St Johnsbury. Should be fun to see these top Vermont teams battle it out.
From Connecticut, Loomis Chaffe has looked strong in the early season and their top runner Alex Fisher has already clocked a mid 15 minute 5K at the Wilton invitational where he took second and the team took fourth place overall. Glastonbury also raced well at the meet coming in a few places behind them where their top runner Crawford Cauthen was in the top ten.
The top team from Rhode Island this year appears to be Cumberland but it’s a little hard to get a read on how good they are based off of some easy wins in duel meets this fall. Their top runner Samuel Henderson is a top five returner to this meet and should help the team get off to a great start. We’ll have to see who they have to back him up.
Now, you’re all here to know about the New Hampshire teams and they’re likely going to be led by their top ranked school, Hanover. Hanover is making the leap up from the small school division this year and it’s definitely well deserved. This is going to be their first really competitive 5K of the season, so it’s a little bit tough to know exactly how good they are; however, at the Souhegan Relays they had the necessary depth to sweep the varsity race despite racing against Salem (NH#3) and South (NH#6). Their top returner Andrew Valentino took second at the Gilford Early Bird X-C Invitational a few weeks ago where Ben Groves and Nandeesh Jain also were in the top six. It will be interesting to see how they compare with the other top ten schools in the large school race.
Pinkerton will come in riding high after shaking up the rankings last weekend at Nashua. Top runner Sean Hayes seems to have had a large jump since last year and should be eying a top ten finish and newcomer Oscar D’Amelio is probably hoping for the same after placing in the top five at Nashua. If third man Trainor Mailloux can close the gap on those two, and they continue to show off some early season depth, we could see Pinkerton in the top NH spot after this weekend.
Salem has also been off to a great start with second place finishes at both the Souhegan Relays and North Invitational. Their top three of Brody Chisholm, Elliot Chisholm, and Lucas Gomez finished right on top of one another at North going 11-12-13 and the more people you add to a race the more valuable that kind of pack finishing becomes. The larger race size could play to Salem’s strength and help them by Pinkerton and Hanover.
If there’s a wild card in the race bigger than NH#4 Bishop Guertin, then I haven’t seen it. BG took three of the top seven spots at Nashua with Matthew Giardina, Carson Fischer, and Ethan Fischer going 1-6-7 making it look like they may have had the meet handily won. The Cardinals are going to need their fifth to move up if they want to take that top NH spot this weekend.
Londonderry (NH#5) has had a great start to their season and have already moved up one spot in the rankings. Carson Fitzgerald and Josh Twomey clearly came into this season ready to make a mark with Fitzgerland taking a win at the Bobcat Invitational and Twomey not far behind. Freshman Patrick Ramsey has made a big impact as the third man and really given the Lancers the jolt they needed to start moving up the rankings. If Ramsey is in the freshman race Saturday it might hurt their overall score, but they should still perform well.
Nashua South (NH#6) hasn’t had the start to the season we expected but this could easily be the weekend we see the Panthers turn it around. Daniel and Andrew Byrne will likely be eying the top ten if they’re racing like we’ve seen in the past and Ryan DuVarney has also had a solid start to his season placing in the top twenty at the North Invitational. Nashua came into this season as the number one ranked team in the state and don’t be surprised if it starts to come back together this weekend.
Alvirne (NH#10) jumped their way into the state rankings after some great early season races at Bobcat and Nashua. Their top runner Brent Dunning took fifth at Bobcat and will likely be running for a top twenty five position in the race. Sam Matson has also had some great early season races and will likely try to stay with his teammate on Saturday.
Just outside the rankings last week was Bedford and I bet top runners Jack Mortimer and Ethan Pulsifer are looking to get them back into that top ten conversation. Also, watch out for Phillips Exeter who appear to be opening their season this weekend but have two top twenty returners in Owen Welch and William Covert and are coming off of a team win last year.
Overall, I think St. Johnsbury is the team to beat. They have an incredible top three returning to the meet and after taking second last year to Phillips Exeter they’ll really want to take that top spot.
The individual side is really a two man race between Phillips Andover’s Tam Gavenas and Bishop Guertin’s Matt Giardina. It’s a rare day that Giardina isn’t the pick to win, but Gavenas is coming off of a third place finish at Footlocker NATIONALS last year and is the number one returner from that meet. Dyestat has him ranked as the eighth best runner in the country. Would be great to see Giardina have an excellent day and keep it close, potentially vaulting him into the national conversation.
Several New Hampshire runners should have a shot at a top five finish with the most likely guy being Josiah Conley of Concord who’s been great through the first two meets of the season only losing to Giardina and Keene’s Sully Strutz who we won’t see this weekend. Pinkerton’s Hayes and D’Amelio have a chance to show that Nashua wasn’t a one off and we may see them try to keep it closer with Conley this weekend. I’d also watch for BG’s Carson and Ethan Fischer who were both excellent at North.
Good luck to everyone racing!
–Ian French
