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The 91st New England Cross Country Championships are Saturday in Belfast, ME. All New England states except Massachusetts will be competing. Each state is allowed 6 teams and any other individual placing in the top twenty five of their respective state meet. The boys race first at 11:30am and the girls are slated to take off at 12:15pm. NH always stands united in our friendly competition with the other New England states! So wear your NHCC shirts! Cheer for one another! We will be there snapping pics, recording races and conducting interviews!!!
In this spirit, we will have a few guests involved from other states this weekend contributing. Scott Bliss, long time coach of Champlain Valley, has penned quite the comprehensive preview. Since leaving coaching, he is web master of a free website to truly cover Vermont High School Cross Country (sound familiar?). With his permission, his preview is posted below. Please check out his site! It genuinely reminds us of, well, us! He brings experience from a coaching career which included numerous state and New England titles as well as multiple trips to Nike Cross Nationals. Thanks Scott!
VTHSXC
By Scott Bliss
Girls Team Preview
In the 9 New England Championships since 2016 (there wasn’t a race in 2020) CVU VT has won 6 of the 9 team championships and is the 3 time defending champion this year. Could their run of dominance be ending this year? That is the question that will be answered this Saturday in Belfast, ME. There are a number of teams that will be looking to end their run and even though there are not as many teams in the mix as on the boys side the few that are could make this race interesting.
There are three teams that stand out as the probable favorites for this championship. Cumberland RI, Exeter NH and LaSalle Academy RI. Beyond these three, there are a few that will be hoping that they can have their day and pull off a major upset. We do again have a little bit of a course factor in this race. Unlike Thetford with the hills and challenging course Belfast has the issue of the start and first 400+ meters. The start area is short and small and it fairly quickly funnels into a sharp 180 degree turn. All of the pack will still be together at this point in the course and it can create some issues. Fingers are crossed that the weather does not come into play because that could also make this issue an even bigger problem. Beyond the start situation the course should be pretty fast and provide some opportunities for the best of New England to run some pretty fast times.
The favorite coming into this race will most likely be Cumberland RI. They were runnerups last year to CVU and would love to put an end to their Redhawk reign. They are coming off of a dominant performance in the RI State Championship last weekend. They scored an impressive 40 points and averaged 18:53 on the Ponaganset course. They bring their experience from last season into the 2026 championship race and are led by a newcomer in 9th grader Caylee Kurbec (18:33). Junior Cecelia Ludwig (18:36) provides them with a very solid 1-2 duo. Their next 3 may be as important as the top 2 because they are separated by only :12. Natalie Crawford soph (18:58), Gabriella Stoothoff sr (19:09) and Anna Bianchi sr (19:10) are a major part of the only girls team that has a 1-5 spread of under 1 minute. Their 1-5 spread is a tight :37. The next closest contender is LaSalle Academy with a spread of 1:37. They clearly have the team makeup to win their 2nd New England title in team history.
Exeter NH will be lurking to try and snatch it away though. Exeter has high octane firepower at the top end of their squad and has the track pedigree to shine on the flatter and faster course in Belfast. They are led by national level runner Alexis Paterna sr (17:15). She has battled all year long with the girls individual favorite and defending champion Maddy Lane and should be a very low number for Exeter. This is one of the main contrasting pieces to the two teams. Cumberland comes in close together and Exeter has the two top guns who give them the very low sticks before the rest of the team comes in after them. The second big gun is Brianna Paterna sr(17:47). She has been getting closer and closer to her sister as the season has gone on and that is only something that makes their team stronger. Izzie Bremer sr (18:59), Molly Kells sr (19:26), Lena McRae jr (19:41), Ashleigh MacEachern jr (19:41) and Austin Williams sr (19:47) round out their seven. The 21 second spread from 4-7 does give them some wiggle room for any of those 4 to step up and have a day to close out their scoring as soon as possible. That will be the question. Can they get their 5th in soon enough to offset the tight pack of Cumberland?
LaSalle Academy RI, a long-time New England power, is most likely the other team with a real shot at the championship. They were second last weekend to Cumberland by 31 points so they would need some things to break their way but that is why we run the races. They are led by RI state champion Alyssa Parenteau sr (18:16). She is followed by a pack that is separated by 37 seconds in Layne Stevens jr (19:17), Kenya Depina jr (19:26), Satya Mohan sr (19:44) and Carolina Terlato sr (19:54). To have a shot they will need to move that pack of 4 up and hope for some slippage from the Cumberland pack.
Glastonbury CT will be powered by Lauren Parrett jr who is the state champion in 17:47. She is going to be in the mix for the individual championship and will instantly give them a pretty low number to start their team scoring off. They are a pretty young team and will need to make a step forward if they want to compete with the other 3 teams above them. Madeline Lamb fr (19:57), Brooke Kestler fr (20:20), Emilia Aguilar jr (20:39) and Emily Benker soph (20:42) made up their next 4 at the State Open. Glastonbury did run at the Open without normal #2 Carolyn Kamp jr (19:42 at Divisions) and with her back in the mix that should move them closer to the top 3.
The next group of teams will be battling for a top 5 spot and hoping to take advantage of the day and maybe move on to the team podium. Essex VT knocked off CVU for the state championship this season ending the 4 year run of CVU. They are led by Adrianna Bibeau soph, Emily Dall sr, Ruth Knox sr, Kaelyn McNamara sr and Claire Brothers soph. They should be battling Hanover NH and CVU for the final top 5 spot.
Hanover NH finished 2nd to Exeter in the NH MOC by 25 points. They are paced by senior Aria Deeb (18:25), Alice Bell sr (18:53), Mia Sverrild jr (19:25), Ari Hirschler sr (19:35) and Olive Hanissian fr (20:09). CVU VT is the three time defending champion and graduated 6 of their top 7 from last year’s team. They have been getting closer and closer to Essex throughout the season and it will be interesting to see how the young team performs on the New England stage. They are led by Eden Leckey soph, Madeleine Deyo jr, Olivia Neilson jr, Rachel Williams soph and senior Justyna Amblo. They lost a close one to Essex by 3 points at the state championship so they will be looking to over take them this weekend.
This is the first time in a number of years where it is hard to know exactly what the girls race is going to look like. Cumberland should be the favorite and has beaten a majority of these teams already this season at the Manchester Invitational but there is some unknown. Exeter could really thrive on the faster course and they clearly have the best top 2 of any of the teams. LaSalle is sitting there looking for any opening to jump into and pull the upset. It should be an entertaining race and then the battle will be on for the remaining top 5 spots. This should be a fun one!
Girls Individual Preview
It is not very often that we have the top 3 returning individuals from the year before back and they are most likely the top 3 favorites again! This could be an amazing race. Maddy Lane (Hopkinton NH), Alexis Paterna (Exeter NH) and Lauren Parrett (Glastonbury CT) finished in that order last year and betting money would say that some combination of these three will finish top 3 again this year. It has been a great year watching Lane and Paterna battle it out and having course records fall almost weekly because of it. Now they get to add Parrett into the mix along with a handful of others and we have the makings of a great showdown.
Maddy Lane dominated the NH Meet of Champions last weekend running 16:48 and earlier the season won the prestigious Woodbridge cross country race in California. Alexis Paterna was second to Lane last weekend running 17:15 and has beaten Lane this year so it is possible! Lauren Parrett won the Connecticut State Open running 17:47 on the challenging Whickham Park course last week. All three of them have speed ratings that are in the top 25 in the country, so they are all national level ability. It will be interesting to see how the course comes into play in this race. All three have good speed, so it could be a great show if they hook up together and grind it out. This could be an epic race.
Right behind them and I do mean right behind them should be a couple of locals. Nora Schmidt (Portland ME) and Georgia Moon (Falmouth ME) went 1st and 2nd in the Maine State Championship. Schmidt was the overall winner running 18:00 and Moon was second in 18:05. They both will be in the mix and trying to defend their home course at the same time.
This next group consists of two state champions and three runners who were All New England last year. Sophie Passalaqua (Greenwich CT/18:28) was 7th last year at Thetford and was 2nd last week to Parrett in the CT Open. She will be looking to make it two top tens in the last two years. Acadia Enman (MMU VT) is the Vermont State champion and has had an impressive season. She was 2nd to Paterna at the Manchester Invitational earlier this season and finished 10th last year at Thetford. Rounding out this group is Brianna Paterna (Exeter NH/17:47) who was 3rd at the NH MOC but in a blazing time. Brianna was 19th last year at Thetford so she is looking to improve on that and move into the top 10. And finally in this group is another state champion. Alyssa Parenteau (LaSalle RI/18:16) is the 2026 RI girls state champion and she is looking to improve on her 33rd place last year at Thetford.
This is how competitive it gets at the New England championships. This next group of six runners could all battle for a top 10 position but they are in the fourth group that I am highlighting. This group consists of Kendall Bowen (GMVS VT), Addison Elliott (Hampden Academy ME), Emma Morrissey (South Kingstown RI), Harper Shirley (Manchester CT), Jill Campbell (Lebanon NH) and Carly Gill (Barrington RI). Bowen was the unlucky 26th spot last year and missed All New England by one spot. She has had a very good season this year and was closing down Enman in the VT State championship race at the finish line. Campbell has had an amazing first season at Lebanon and will be looking to keep that momentum going. Gill has had a solid debut season this year in her first year running cross country. All six of these runners have the ability to get themselves somewhere into the top 10 area.
The girls race is loaded with talent. This race has the makings of a real battle….unless Lane decides to run away with it! That is always a possibility and if that happens then the battle will be amazing behind her. The course should keep things close for a long time and that will bring some people into the mix that might not be expected to be up in the top group. The other factor that could come into play is the team championship also. Lane is not involved in the team race, so Paterna does not need to beat her to receive the lowest team point. She may need to not take too many chances to not hurt her team’s chances because every point will be important. These are just some of the little things inside the race that could help determine the outcome a little. This should be an exciting race and there could be some blazing times because of the huge level of talent in the race. This should be a fun one to watch. Hopefully the weather will hold out and that the course will be in great shape for an amazing race. Good luck to everyone racing and have the best day that you can have!
