Divisional State Championship Meet Hub
Wow! What a picture perfect morning for cross country yesterday at Derryfield Park! Division 2 was first in the rotation this year racing in the AM enjoying calmer winds than the afternoon races.
Girls
Results Courtesy of Lancer Timing
By Tim Cox
The girls race started as expected with Oyster River and Hanover moving immediately to the front establishing control of the race. Hanover had the numbers advantage up front early on with 6 in the top 15 led by Megan Faris, Lea Perreard, and Aria Deeb. As expected, Oyster River countered with 4 in the top 15 comprised of the Kavanagh (Haley and Olivia) and Cook (Mackenzie and Maddy) sisters. Souhegan’s Samantha Swanbon and Plymouth’s Elli Englund joined them in the front pack. By the mile Haley Kavanagh opened up a slight gap which she blew open stringing out the field over the challenging 2nd mile. Teamwise Hanover had a stranglehold on the title as they had their entire scoring 5 hovering around the top 10 as Alice Bell, and Millie Larrick joined Deeb. Faris had taken over 2nd pursuing Kavanagh with Olivia Kavanagh and Perreard in close proximity to one another. Englund the only runner at this point not in a Hanover or OR uniform, was also in this mix.
Coming off the upper loop, Kavanagh completed her quest to her first ever XC win, the D2 State Championship in 19:09! Faris would extend her lead on 3rd and would actually cut into Kavanagh’s lead to cross in second with a time of 19:24. Olivia Kavanagh with her best race of the season crossed in 3rd in 20:04 with Perreard crossing in 20:13. Englund would take 5th just 5 seconds back. Maddy Cook placed 6th in 20:29 holding off the Hanover trio of Deeb, Larrick and Bell. Lebanon’s Annalies Hanna ran a great race claiming the final top 10 slot in 20:47.
Congratulations to Hanover as they won their 2nd D2 title in 3 years accumulating only 30 points. Matter of fact, Hanover and Oyster River have swapped as D2 Champs since 2021 when Oyster River won to begin the seesaw battle. Despite being a bit hampered by sickness as Mackenzie Cook had to drop due to sickness, obviously respect to her for toeing the line for her team and trying, Oyster River still pulled off the podium finish placing second with 50 points.
Congratulations also to the qualifying teams for the MOCs as Englund’s Plymouth team placed 3rd with 111 points. Souhegan, led by Swanbon, would place 4th with 137 points, but the final auto-qualifying slot was decided be 1 mere point. After a couple years not qualifying for MOCs, Coe-Brown makes its return as they placed 5th scoring 162 points to the 163 points accrued by a gutsy strong performance by Lebanon.
Boys
Results Courtesy of Lancer Timing
By Patrick O’Brien
The boys race started with a big group up-front, with everyone looking to get into position early. Con-Val’s William Simard and Milford’s Logan Korthals would eventually go through the mile together with a gap opening up on the rest of the field. As they started to make their way up the first big climb, Korthals went down, and Simard comfortably pulled away from the rest of the field. He was able to remain consistent over the hills, and stay out front the rest of the race, crossing the line in 16:48 as the 2024 D2 XC Champion. It will be exciting to see him in the MOCs race next weekend, as he was relatively untested in this victory.
Behind him, the team battle was really shaping up. The Coe-Brown boys got out strong right away, and the race between them and Hanover was extremely close at the mile. Hanover rallied to build a slight cushion over the second mile, as Ben Groves and Ryan Faris would work together to leave everyone else behind, eventually finishing 2nd and 3rd. Coe-Brown did have an answer there, as their Freshman-Senior duo of Patrick Youngs and Luc Kerouac placed 4th and 5th.
Runners started coming in bunches behind them, with Tate Hayman of Plymouth finishing 6th, and Nandeesh Jain crossing in 7th for Hanover, once again giving them a slight edge over CBNA. Korthals took 8th, battling back admirably after seemingly tweaking something early on. Coe-Brown’s Ben Jobin had a great day placing 9th to keep it close for the Black Bears, and Souhegan’s Dallen Noorda rounded out the top 10.
The team competition would be decided shortly after, as Ben Hordequin and Alexander Collins finished 13th and 14th to seal the deal for Hanover with 39 points. Keegan Sousa and Ben Larson of Coe-Brown were not far behind, and they would finish with 53 points, a 14 point margin. This was an impressive victory for Hanover without their top runner, and also impressive racing by Coe-Brown to make the race close. Oyster River would finish in 3rd with 108 points, led by Mitchell Keesee and Oliver Lehman in 11th and 12th. Souhegan had a nice day to take 4th in 115 points, and Milford secured the last team MOC qualifying spot with 167.
