Results – Courtesy of Speed Sport Timing
PICS soon
Preceded by beautiful fall sunset, Moonlight Madness got underway in Swanzey, NH with excellent conditions for fast running and great competition. On top of that, the atmosphere was electric, with athletes and spectators alike donning outfits consisting of glowsticks, headlamps and other festive gear, taking things up a notch over daytime races.
And the athletes ponied up, with fast times across the board. In the girls race, un-recognized in the preview, there was a great battle between defending champion Erin O’Shea of Mascenic, and unheralded Dezi Broadley of Bellows Falls Vermont. These two went at it from the gun, ripping through the mile in about 6 minutes flat with Kaitlin O’ Shea, Fall Mountain’s Jenna Fillion, Merrimack’s Melanie Bedard, Monadnock’s Emma Short, Conant’s Amelia Hill, Newfound’s Emerald Briggs and Ceili Irving, ConVal’s Whitney Adair and Moutlonborough’s Hailey Watts making up the chase pack heading out into the back parking lot hill.
Not much would change in the next mile; however, the chase pack would begin to splinter a bit, with Fillion, O’Shea, Bedard and Briggs beginning to pull away from the rest of the pursuers, again as they headed out onto the back hill and on to the finish. Upfront, Erin O’Shea and Broadley would remain locked in a tight battle until the last 600 meters or so when Broadley would open a small gap back to O’Shea. With a furious sprint to the finish, Broadley would stop the clock at 18:34. O’Shea would finish up seven seconds in arrears but 32 seconds up on her winning time from last year. Sister Kaitlin would have a great last mile, slipping up into third over Fillion, with Bedard in fifth. Briggs would finish next, moving up throughout the race, followed by teammate Irving. Adiar, Short and Watts would round out the top ten taking home the medals.
In the team race, the Merrimack army led over Newfound in the first mile, with Bedard out ahead of Briggs and Irving. Newfound’s Addie Alpers would start out hot, hanging just off the lead pack, while teammates Charlotte Kaempfer, Josie Halle and Sophie Garlick-Drake would all move up over the second half, giving the Newfound Bears the win, 51 – 60 over Merrimack. Fall Mountain, finally at full strength, would finish third with 88 points.
In the boy’s race there was no doubt the question was would Keene’s Sully Sturz win his third Moonlight Madness in a row, who would go with him and would he beat his time from the previous year. That question was answered early, when he followed right behind the lead bike and was alone from the early moment of the race. With the pace out hot, no one elected to try to run with him this time out, easily running sub 5 for the opening mile. Behind him, Monadnock’s Peyton Joslyn and Mascoma’s Gunner Currier were in a tight battle for second, following through the mile a handful of steps up on Newfound’s and “FASTERs” Colin Foster. Behind Foster, Sturz teammates would form a chase pack with Gavin Morton, Tristan Woodbury and Hyrum Pinegar, leading Mascoma’s Tervor Maheu, Monadnock’s Jacob Brunjes, Conant’s Nathan Alajajian and Fall Mountain’s Matthew Northcott.
Sully would build up a 100 meter lead by the mile and only extend that over the second loop, on his way to victory. He put the pedal to the metal with 100 meters to go, seeing the clock sub 15 and wanting to keep it that way, stopping it in 14:58, winning by almost a minute. Currier would win the battle with Joslyn, with Foster playing in no man’s land the whole way to finish fourth. The trio of Blackbirds would finish next, with the order being Morton, Woodbury and Pinegar. Alajajian would follow right behind Pinegar, with Northcott a few seconds up on Maheu to round out the top ten.
With four in the top ten, D1 Keene would easily win this one with 31 points. D3 Mascoma would move up steadily over the race, finishing second with 68 points to the Merrimack army with 88 points.
So as the evening came to a close, there were many athlete celebrations as many PRs were set on the lightning fast course. Unofficially, there were two new meet records (while it wasn’t announced, the race in its third year simply keeps getting faster) while interest continues to grow around this unique event. With more teams looking to attend, meet management intends to add a JV race to alleviate the pressure on the course. As a commentator for this meet, identifying athletes in large packs and under the lights presents quite a challenge, much like commentating at New Englands. I would like to apologize to any athlete from any team we might have misidentified. I know I misidentified two specifically, Matthew Northcott (who I called David, his brother) and Emma Short (who I called teammate Madison Day.) It’s amazing that in the twilight and under the uneven lighting, making out uniforms you are familiar with is nearly impossible, with most colors resembling some sort of dull green. We here at NHCC hope the atmosphere of the evening and rules the day, but we do ask for forgiveness for any oversight.
