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Live Results – Thanks Granite State Race Services
By Lucas Fisher
The 19th Annual Black Bear Invitational is back! This year’s event is shaping up to be one of the most competitive invitationals on the schedule. There will be ranked teams, independent schools, and teams who aspire to be ranked traveling to Northwood to take on the rolling yet challenging Coe-Brown course. Black Bear starts off with the future of NHCC with highly competitive middle school races starting at 9:00am. All are welcome to spend your Saturday watching some of the best XC runners in the state on a course with no pavement!
Girls
The favorites for this race for the 2nd year in row has to be Philips Exeter coming off a 4th place finish in the MI50 Large school race led by their 1-2 punch from Harper Peters and Ava Bullock. However, this is where it will get interesting because (#4) Oyster River (who will be running at full strength this upcoming weekend with the addition of Olivia Kavanagh), (#5) Bedford, and (#7) Hopkinton will be chasing PEA for a podium finish. Mikita Barry will be leading the way for Bedford as well as Madelyn Cook of Oyster River. Plus, you cannot count out Hopkinton with Madeleine Lane leading NH by almost 1 minute according to Black Bear entries. All four teams are going to be right in the mix to hear their team called for the podium.
Do not be surprised if you see the host school and newly ranked team, (#9) Coe-Brown as well as (#10) Winnacunnet in the top 5 as they finished 9th and 10th according to the merger.
Individually, Lane is the expected favorite this weekend with the fastest time from MI50 with an 18:53. Look for Bedford’s Barry to challenge Lane up front. After those two, keep an eye out for Plymouth’s Ellie Englund and Oyster River’s Cook and Neely Roy to lead the chase pack which should include Souhegan’s Samantha Swanbon and Brynn Siska, Pelham’s Addison Martin, Gilford’s Maria Tilley, and Bedford’s Mia Moranti.
Boys
The boys race is going to be one of the more competitive races in the invitational history including 4 ranked schools as well as Philips Exeter. The favorites for this weekend is the host school, (#3) Coe-Brown. The Bears led by sophomore Patrick Youngs and junior Benjamin Jobin are coming off a team title in the MI50 Small School race with an efficient team spread of :19 seconds which was NH’s best.
Right behind them are their friendly Route 4 Rivals (#4) Oyster River led by Levi Clapp and Oliver Lehman. Also in the mix for the Black Bear team title is (#6) Bishop Guertin with Ethan Fischer and Philips Exeter with Bocelli Howland Vlahakis.
Individually, Howland-Vlahakis is the favorite after completing a dominating race at MI50 winning by over :45 seconds. Fischer of BG alongside Oyster River’s Clapp and Lehman will be Bocelli’s biggest challenge to take the individual title. After those three, the chase pack should include PCA’s Christian Barnes, Plymouth’s Tate Hayman, Hopkinton’s Max Goupil, Bedford’s Jack Mortimer, as well as Coe-Brown’s Youngs, Jobin, Gus Glaser and Benjamin Larson. As always there will be videoing, snapping pics, and interviewing! Good Luck to all!
