A slim two points separated the 2017 Londonderry High boys’ cross-country team from the runner-up trophy at the Division I championships in Manchester’s Derryfield Park last Saturday, Oct. 28.
But despite that fact, LHS veteran coach Matt Smith was all smiles following that event after seeing his determined charges put forth what he felt was a truly exceptional performance in finishing third behind the title-winning juggernaut from Concord High and the two-time defending state champs from Pinkerton Academy.
The youthful Concord Crimson Tide absolutely blew the field away in tallying the winning score of 28. It had its top three runners finish 1-2-3 in the race, and all seven of its harriers finished among the top 15 line-crossers.
Pinkerton also had a superb day in finishing second overall (89 points) after being projected to finish no higher than fourth. And in ending up two points behind those arch-rivals from Derry, coach Smith got a performance from his crew for which he could have only hoped previously.
“We were really hoping for second (place), but our guys couldn’t possibly have performed better than they did,” said Smith. “We ended up two points behind Pinkerton, but looking at the final results I can’t imagine where we could have gotten those two points from. Our guys performed as well as they possibly could have, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
In the girls’ D-I title race, the Pinkerton Lady Astros bagged their third consecutive state championship by finishing six points ahead of the tough Bishop Guertin Lady Cardinals. LHS coach Ed Burgess’ Lady Lancers finished out of the top seven to have their team season completed, ending up 11th out of 16 competing squads.
However, Londonderry’s Caitlin Boufford and Kaylin Gregoire both finished among the top 30 individuals to advance on their own to the state Meet of Champions in Mine Falls Park in Nashua this coming Saturday.
BOYS
With talented freshmen Will Heenan, Ryan Young, and Matt Griffin diving right into the varsity mix and showing they belong this fall, the Lancers showed themselves to be a force to reckoned with both now and in the future. And the talent and presence of that terrific young trio has pushed the Lancer veterans to greater heights as well.
In last Saturday’s championship meet, Heenan paced the LHS crew by finishing sixth overall in 16 minutes and 39 seconds.
Behind him were Nathan Seeley in 19th place (17:14), Jeff Cieslikowski in 21st (17:16.4), Young in the 22nd spot (17:16.4), Griffin in 23rd (17:18.7), Jake Donnelly in 28th place (17:27.4), and Kerry Daley in 41st (17:54.9).
GIRLS
The Lady Lancers had both Boufford (25th in 20:40.6) and Gregoire (28th in 20:51.5) finish among the top 30, but that was it for some 50 more finishing places thanks to the tough field. And coach Burgess’ bunch didn’t have a whole lot of chances to end up among the top seven squads and advance to the Meet of Champs as a team.
“There are lots of really good runners in D-I this year, so we knew making it would be really tough,” said the longtime coach.
Also competing for LHS in the big divisional race were Jasmine Brown (88th), Alex Seeley (92nd), Kaelyn Rourke (94th), Cailey McDonough (101st), and Cailin Borovicka (103rd).