The 20th Battle of the Border Invitational blazed the trails of Hill House at Alvirne High School on a picture perfect, slightly warm, fall day. Hats off to Alvirne High School, their coaching staff and athletic department, for once again staging an incredible event. And although some of the top runners cautiously rested (right time of the season to do that if one must) and a couple top teams were not at full strength, the competition once again was fierce with of course the Granite State defeating the Bay State for border supremacy for the 6th consecutive year :).
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Boys Race
With no Matthew Giardina, the prevailing question was who would take control of the head of the pack in the boys race. Around the initial field loop, no one really answered the call as there was a huge pack entering the woods. Once on the trails, Concord’s Josiah Conley, ConVal’s Will Simard and Marshfield’s Graham Heinrich began to separate themselves from the field eventually going through the mile in 5:04 or so. Battling behind them in the chase pack was Milford’s Logan Korthals, Oyster River’s Mitchell Keesee, South’s Daniel Byrne, Bishop Guertin’s Carson and Ethan Fischer, Coe-Brown’s Patrick Youngs and Luc Kerouac, as well as Pinkerton’s Oscar D’Amelio, Trainor Mailloux, and Sean Hayes.
Over the second half of the race, and the final woods loop, both Conley and Pinkerton ran away with it pun intended. Conley unleashed a super fast final mile as he broke the proverbial tape in 15:11, twenty seconds up on Simard who outdueled Heinrich 15:31 to 15:36. Pinkerton’s D’Amelio held off a hard charging Korthals for 4th 15:45 to 15:46. His teammates Mailloux and Hayes placed 6th and 7th respectively laying their early claim for the team title. BG’s Fischer brothers would come across with Carson 8th and Ethan 9th both right at 16:00. They were just a step ahead of Kessee who completed the top 10 crossing in 16:02.
With 3 in the top 10 and 5 in the top 25 courtesy of Austin Cipriano’s 21st and Joseph Gustavon’s 24th, Pinkerton tallied only 50 points to win by over eighty points. Led by Byrne’s 11th place finish, Nashua South was second with 133 points just 10 points up on the Brody Chisholm led Salem. Led by Youngs’ 13th place, Coe-Brown was another 10 points back for 4th with Oyster River rounding out the top 5 with 169 points.
