Similar to the girls large school race, a chase pack formed and showcased the real competitive racing. The large pack was comprised of Josiah Conley (Concord), Ben Groves (Hanover), Ethan Fischer and Michael Studer (Bishop Guertin), Lucas Gomez (Salem), St. Johnsbury’s Bryan Stocker and Joel Thornton-Sherman (St. Johnsbury), Benjamin Holoch (Champlain Valley), Ben Warfield (U-32), and Pinkerton’s Oscar D’Amelio. By the 2 mile, at the high point of Derryfield, the pack had whittled down and was now comprised of Conley, Holoch, and Warfield with Groves, D’Amelio and Fischer a few strides back. In the end, Conley made a decisive surge to claim second in 16:25. Groves outleaned Holoch as they both were credited with 16:37. Warfield was right behind those 2 in 5th and D’Amelio claimed 6th in 16:50. Fischer glided into 7th in 16:56 holding off a hard charging Alejandro Juro of Manchester CT. Hanover’s Isaac McNaughton had one of the best final miles as he placed 9th in 17:00 and North Andover’s Nicolas Floresquero-Llamas rounded out the top 10 in 17:04.
As previewed, NH#1, Pinkerton won comfortably. Even without one of their top 5 (Jason Robbie sick), their win was textbook — place one athlete inside the top 10 (D’Amelio), then follow it up with a tightly bunched core of scorers between 11th and 39th. Their top 5 had a 52 second pack time and is incredibly interchangeable. This week, Sean Hayes (11th) was 2nd man then it was Joseph Gustavson in 12th followed by Trainor Mailloux (16th) and Austin Cipriano (39th). That low compression score of 85 points secured the team title. Led by Holoch, they placed four runners inside the top 30, Champlain Valley claimed second. North Andover, MA emerged as the surprise podium team placing 3rd with 193 points. Hanover was right there in 4th behind Groves and McNaughton with 205 points.
