Results Courtesy of Lancer Timing
What a day! While the morning got off to a cool start, arriving at the Hopkinton fairgrounds with the thermometer at the freezing mark and frost on the ground, it certainly heated up as the day went on and the competition got red hot. With high school races in the morning and middle school races in the afternoon, the course in great condition and some of the best racing in NH happening, all four course records went down.
Girls
Things got off to a fast start in this one, with Exeter’s Alexis Paterna and Hopkinton’s Maddy Lane going straight to the front, gapping the field less than 600 meters into the race. The chase pack was made up of PEA’s Harper Peters, Ava Bullock and Exeter’s Brianna Paterna, with another gap back to the Oyster River girls and a hard charging rest of the pack. The foot was on the accelerator and it seemed no one was interested in letting off either.
By the mile, reached in 5:33, Paterna and Lane were still shoulder to shoulder, and had opened a yawning gap back to Peters, Bullock and Paterna. Not only was the course record in jeopardy, it was on track to be smashed. The OR girls were in hot pursuit of the front pack with Olivia Kavanagh, Neely Roy and Madelyn Cook chasing hard. Also in this secondary pack was Mascenic’s Erin O’Shea, Hopkinton’s Maisie Emerson, Moultonborough’s Hailey Watts, Exeter’s Molly Kells, PEA’s Nora Pratt and Saint Mary Bay View’s Jackie Mattos.
During the second big loop, Lane would start to turn the screws, accelerating the downhills and opening some daylight, a meter here, a meter there, with Paterna responding to those spurts and keeping things close. The leads stretched to about seven meters with less than 500 meters to go.
The finishing straight is sneakily longer and more uphill than it might seem and Paterna knows her closing speed is hard to match and launched into her final kick upon turning the corner into the finish. However Lane had enough in the tank to hold off the hard charging Paterna, running 17:23.06 to 17:23.84.
Behind them the PEA girls had made a break from the other Paterna, with Peters fronting Bullock, then Paterna, all under 18:30. Kavanagh would finish sixth and under 19 minutes, followed by teammate Roy, for two OR and two PEA. Emerson would take eighth, with Pratt grabbing ninth and Mattos rounding out the top ten.
Having three teammates in the top ten at an invitational will generally get you the team victory, and in this instance it was true as well. PEA would take top honors, going 3-4-9-17-20, for 45, to Oyster River’s 6-7-12-18-19 for 52. Exeter would finish a close third, going 2-5-13-22-23 for 55. Hometown Hopkinton would finish fourth and a rising Winnacunnet would grab fifth.
Boys
It would be safe to say after the girls race we knew the boys would be fast, with PEA’s Bocelli Howland Vlahakis topping the start list and a bunch of who’s who of the top of each division in attendance. The question is would anyone go out with BHV? We got our answer quickly with Fall Mountain’s Elijah Bodanza electing to go hard on this one. At the 600 meter mark they had a solid gap back to a very thick chase pack that included BG’s Ethan Fischer, Londonderry’s Carson Fitzgerald, Josh Twomey, and Patrick Ramsey, Coe Brown’s Patrick Youngs, and Plymouth’s Tate Hayman. Behind this was the entirety of the rest of the Coe-Brown top seven.
At the mile mark, run in just about 4:50, BHV had separated from Bodanza by a handful of meters, with Fischer stretching away from Fitzgerald, with a small gap back to Twomey, Ramsey and Youngs, then followed by the rest of the CB crew.
Over the next two miles while BHV would continue to push, Fischer would deceptively slide up and over take Bodanza, making inroads on BHV’s lead. As they made the final circuit before the finish Fischer crept up into the slipstream of BHV and that meant it was going to be a great finishing stretch battle. And indeed it was as BHV was able to hold off a hard charging Fischer, running 15:17.46 to 15:18.02. Bodanza would hold onto third, ten seconds up on Fitzgerald and 15 seconds up on Youngs, all of them going under the 16 minute mark.
Twomey and Ramsay would follow next, leading in Hayman and Newfound’s Colin Foster coming from way back at the mile to beat out CB’s Sam Youngs, to round out the top ten.
Londonderry would have three in the top ten (4-6-7) however the cavalcade of Coe-Brown would not be stopped as they used their youth movement to sew this up, going 5-10-13-16-18 to win 62 to Londonderry’s 81 points. Oyster River would hold onto third, a strong showing after the loss of Oliver Lehman to the lineup. PEA would finish fourth with public school Exeter finishing fifth.
Results Courtesy of Lancer Timing
Middle School Girls
Another great battle raged in this one, with Lebanon’s Jillian Campbell and Brooke Nelson being marked by Hopkinton Runner’s Society’s Ruby Lu Emerson through the first lap. Emerson and Campbell would continue to go at it all the way to the finish, with Campbell out lasting Emerson 11:00.61 to 11:07.52. Nelson would be next in, followed by Milford’s Savka Skorupan and Lebanon’s Carolyn Campbell.
With three in the top five Lebanon would take this one, 38 to 72 over Hanover. Dover would finish third with 103 points.
Middle School Boys
The individual and team race was over before the end of the first short lap, with Hanover’s Edward White running roughshod over the field, winning in 10:00.44, almost a minute up on Indian River School’s Ransom Donigan. A great finishing stretch battle saw South Meadow’s Ari Pape edge out Nottingham’s Liam Newbould and outlast a hard charging Oliver Marchetti of Hanover.
Hanover would score 24 in this one (1-5-6-7-9) to beat out Dover (77) and Lebanon (127).
