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The Black Bear Invitational has traditionally provided one of the best midseason measuring sticks on the New Hampshire Cross Country calendar, and 2026 looks particularly strong. The field brings together many of the state’s top Division I, II and III programs along with Phillips Academy and Phillips Exeter Academy. More importantly, we now have a few weeks of actual racing to work with. The wild card will certainly be the weather with a little rain and some wind in the forecast. 🙂
Girls Varsity
Due to a late addition to the field, we have a pretty awesome rematch between NH’s top 2 ranked teams, Exeter and Hanover. Based on what we saw at Manchester, we have 2 teams with 2 slightly different approaches. #1 Exeter brings exceptional front-end strength, while Hanover has demonstrated an ability to flood the finish line with scorers. Of course the Blue Hawks are led by Alexis Paterna who will assuredly put a #1 on the board, while Brianna Paterna is capable of another very low finish. Izzie Bremer is another who has demonstrated her own prowess on the hills and trails and has already demonstrated sub-20 level ability this fall. They are supported by Molly Kells, Ashleigh MacEachern, Lena McRae and Austin Williams. With experience, the scoring on the back end will get tighter to benefit from the assured low sticks of the Paterna sisters.
NH#2 Hanover counters with perhaps the best pack in the race. Their top runner Aria Deeb is strong at the helm. She was outstanding at Manchester, placing sixth overall in 18:54 and finishing as the second New Hampshire runner behind Alexis Paterna. She is one of nine Hanover runners entered, along with Alice Bell, Ari Hirschler, Margaret Hourdequin, Edie Rojansky, Lucia Santos, Grace Stewart, Mia Sverrild and Lily Van Citters. Notice Alice Bell in the line-up. She did not race last week, and this veteran makes Hanover even better. Per the pack point – Hanover finished fifth against an outstanding Large School field and their second through fifth runners were separated by just 18 seconds.
NH #7 Bedford also brings considerable depth and are trending. The Bulldogs were sixth at Nashua North and tenth in the much stronger Manchester Large School field. At Manchester, Nora Buxton, Riley Moushegian, Kate Barwell, Julia Malnar and Grace Boll all finished between 21:16 and 22:07, a spread of only 51 seconds. All five are entered Saturday as part of Bedford’s nine-runner group.
Concord led by Mahalie Burdette is coming off an impressive Manchester performance. Burdette finished 14th in the Large School race in 19:35, leading NH#8 Concord. She heads a deep Crimson Tide entry that also includes Vivian Bowman, Nia Caron, Corinne Conley, Quinn Doherty, Maeve Durmer, Grace Henry, Hana Moeckel and Jillian Price.
NH#9 Alvirne, led by Olivia Cartagena is another name to circle. At Nashua North, emerged as one of the early surprises of the season, placing fourth with 107 points. Cartagena, Saleena Ramboer (who just crushed the freshman race at MI) and Charlianna Downey all finished among the top 18. The Broncos’ success has been built around Cartagena, Ramboer and Downey giving them three runners relatively close to the front. If their fourth and fifth runners can close the gap, Alvirne can make things uncomfortable for the bigger favorites.
What makes NH#4 Hopkinton especially interesting is who is not on the current Black Bear entry list. Neither Maddy Lane, who just won the prestigious Woodbridge Invitational in California, nor Maisie Emerson, who finished third at Manchester in 19:46.9, are among the listed Hopkinton entries. Look for Rose Afflerbach to lead the Hawks’ charge this weekend. Afflerbach finished 11th out of 242 runners in the Small School race at Manchester, clocking 20:48.6. That came after she had already finished in the top ten at the Bobcat Invitational earlier this month.
Host Coe-Brown brings a very different formula. The previously ranked Black Bears don’t necessarily have the individual frontrunner, but they showed at Manchester exactly what makes them dangerous. Hilary Wennberg finished 34th in 21:52, followed by Enahlinda Curry in 44th (22:14), Eloise Hill in 49th (22:22), Lily Travis in 55th (22:27) and Riley Trested in 59th (22:43). That is classic pack running. Throw in venerable veteran Annabelle Lovett and the Black Bears will be rolling.
Winnacunnet is another team worth watching after finishing fifth at Nashua North. They are led by junior Sofia Parisi. Parisi ran 20:05.2 to finish seventh at Nashua North, leading Winnacunnet to fifth place. Freshmen Pamela Valhouli and Rowan Condon were also impressive there, finishing 27th and 28th in 21:14.7 and 21:15.5. Parisi gives the Warriors their low number, while Condon, Valhouli and Isabella Stringer have already contributed to a strong young group.
And there is a wildcard: the two Phillips programs. Phillips Academy has nine runners entered, while Phillips Exeter has nine of its own. One major impact should be Harper Peters as she leads PEA and will certainly be battling for a top spot.
The individual race starts with Exeter’s Alexis Paterna. Her 17:56 at Derryfield was yet another statement performance, and after what she has done through the first month of the season, she enters Black Bear as the athlete who has set the standard for this particular field. After breaking the meet record at Manchester Invitational, the current meet record (18:09: Rebecca Durham 2017) at Black Bear is certainly on watch. Look for PEA’s Peters, Hanover’s Deeb and Exeter’s Brianna Paterna to lead the pursuit.
Behind them, things get crowded quickly. Concord’s Burdette, Alvirne’s Cartagena, Winnacunnet’s Parisi, Hopkinton’s Afflerbach and Sanborn’s Sophie Thurlow have all produced performances this season that put them squarely in the top-ten discussion. Then there is a second wave which includes runners from Exeter, Hanover, Alvirne, Bedford and the host Black Bears capable of breaking into that group.
With the fun forecasted weather it seems we are in for a classic NH Cross Country race!
Boys Varsity
The team competition will be interesting for sure as it is the week after Manchester Invitational.
NH#1 Hanover demonstrated at Manchester that it can run with just about anyone in New England. But this isn’t the same Hanover lineup. While they are still led by one of New England’s top runners Ben Groves and veteran teammate Oliver Collins, the remainder of their dynamic scoring are not among the entry lists. Hanover is still very deep though, so expect them to still compete for a podium spot. Get used to these names: Jesse Bardach, Rocky Bardach, Max Brown, Ben Grady and Rohan Novosad.
Being their home invitational, NH #3 Coe-Brown, meanwhile, has essentially loaded up. At Manchester the Black Bears finished an impressive fifth out of 29 scoring teams in the Large School race. Samuel Youngs was 19th, Gus Glaser 27th, Broden Cox 30th, Mateo Ferguson 47th and Ben Jobin 48th. The especially encouraging part was Ferguson and Jobin finishing together, giving Coe-Brown a tight fourth-fifth combination. Add usual front runner Patrick Youngs back into that equation as well as fellow junior Ben Larson and the Coe-Brown lineup becomes even more impressive with a great deal of potential.
NH#5 Exeter is another team capable of becoming a factor. The Blue Hawks finished eighth in the loaded Manchester Large School race and bring Xavier Garcia de Paredes, Wyatt Maglin, Noah Melendy, Colby Orleans, Logen Poteet, Jackson Tooker and Henry Willett to Northwood.
They share their town with Phillips Exeter Academy who boasts the pre race favorite in Bocelli Howland Vlahakis. Phillips Exeter could also make some noise. Its seven-man entry includes Spencer Clemans, Owen Cosgrove, Marcus Kiehl, William Miller, Ved Reddy and James Travis. Some familiar names there who can certainly run, race and compete. They will be competing hard to win for sure.
NH#7 Hopkinton deserves attention. The Hawks finished third in the Small School race at Manchester, and earlier in the season they placed five runners in the top ten at the Coach Korkoulis Invitational: Max Goupil first, Liam Tripod third, James Lavers fourth, Finnegan Kovar sixth and Michael Crosby ninth. That is exactly the kind of pack running that can translate well to Black Bear. That and Goupil rolled to a 16:51 last week. He will be battling in that top pack giving Hopkinton a valuable low stick.
NH#10 Bedford will make their annual trip to Northwood as well. Led by Luke Parker, who broke 17:00 last week at Manch, Bedford has a solid team which on any given day, could make waves.
Any discussion of the individual race has to begin with Hanover’s Groves and PEA’s Howland-Vlahakis.
Entering the season, Groves had established himself as one of New Hampshire’s top runners. He has already furthered cemented that assessment. At Manchester, he finished second overall among New Hampshire runners—and second in the Large School race—in 16:03, trailing only Bishop Guertin’s Ethan Fischer, who ran 15:56. Groves was part of the lead group from the beginning and remained with Fischer and Champlain Valley’s Benjamin Holoch through two miles before Fischer separated late. He has won several state championships, so he simply knows how to win.
Howland-Vlahakis is the defending champ. He rolled to 15:46 last year for the win and if you know anything about the Coe-Brown course, that is incredibly fast; one of the fastest ever. He is simply national class and will not give an inch. Regardless of weather, this is shaping up to be a good one on one battle.
Several other names will occupy that chase pack. Two of the fastest from Manchester last week are Coe-Brown’s Sam Youngs and Hopkinton’s Goupil. They both ran 16:51 in separate races. Youngs knows the course and ran 9:25 last spring. Last year he ran 17:08 at Black Bear, expect him to be much faster this year. Goupil has quietly put together an excellent opening month. He won the Coach Korkoulis Invitational to start the season, then showed he can compete in a much deeper field with his performance at Manchester.
The host Black Bears should crowd that front chase pack. After the week off last week, expect Patrick Youngs to be ready to roll Saturday. He is a 4:21 miler and sub 15:30 guy on the track. The Youngs brothers could give the home crowd two athletes very close to the front.
Expect a crowd around the top 10. Coe-Brown has a potentially dangerous pack. Cox has continued to develop along with teammates Glaser, Ferguson, Larson and Jobin. Expect them all around the top 10 or so. Also expect PEA team members to to join them. Names like Clemans, Cosgrove, Kiehl and Miller will certainly battle with CBNA in the top 15. Collins of Hanover as well as Parker of Bedford will certainly join that party along with potentially Andover’s Cameron Butler. This is going to be a great one with a few drops of rain and a slight breeze!
Good luck to all!
