After overpowering opponents on its home course early last week, the Londonderry High cross-country contingents moved on to Nashua last weekend and took on even bigger and tougher fields of opponents.
Both the Lancer males and Lady Lancers had a productive day in their home meets against Alvirne of Hudson and Dover Tuesday, Sept. 12.
The LHS guys notched a team score of 21 to easily best the Dover Green Wave (59) and the Alvirne High Broncos from Hudson (60).
The victorious hosts had seven of the top 10 finishers, with Jake Donnelly (time of 17 minutes and 22 seconds), Kerry Daley (17:27), Will Heenan (17:33), and Ryan Young (17:41) taking the second through fifth places.
Londonderry also took seventh through ninth thanks to the fine work of Nathan Seeley (17:53), Matt Griffin (17:56), and Jeff Cieslikowski (18:03).
The Lady Lancer girls tallied a team score of 27 that day to easily best Dover (45) and Alvirne (48).
The home team’s effort was spearheaded by race-winner Kalin Gregoire (19:42), Caitlyn Boufford (fourth place in 21:40), and Alex Seeley (sixth in 22:34).
The local harriers then took to the road on Saturday, Sept. 16 to attend the annual Nashua North/ South Invitational at South High in the Gate City.
The boys did yeoman work for coach Matt Smith, finishing ahead of Pinkerton in third – with a score of 76 – and just behind Concord (28) and Nashua North (66) in a 10-team competition.
The Lancers were led by freshmen Heenan (16:56.7) and Young (16:59.9) in the 11th and 12th spots respectively. Seeley nabbed 16th place (17:19), Daley was 18th (17:20.5), Donnelly took 22nd place (17:40.9), and Cieslikowski ended up 24th (17:42.4).
In the girls’ meet, the Lady Lancers placed seventh out of the 10 squads, with the reigning New England champs from Champlain Valley in Vermont taking first.
The LHS girls were led by Gregoire in seventh place (19:43.4), Boufford in 29th (21:12.1), Seeley in the 45th spot (22:25.5), Kaelyn Rourke in 58th (23:16.8), and Jasmine Brown in spot number 61 (23:31.2).
The two Londonderry crews will return to competitive action this coming Saturday the 23rd in storied Derryfield Park at the annual Manchester Invitational, which is usually a great test for area cross-country contingents each autumn.