Londonderry High School’s cross-country teams both kept themselves in strong competitive shape in anticipation of the Division I meets later this month by competing – and faring well – in several events last week.
Both the Lancer boys and Lady Lancers had an extremely productive day in a tri-meet at Salem High School last Tuesday, Oct. 3.
Coach Matt Smith’s LHS guys just obliterated their competition, scoring a match-best 15 points to easily outdistance the Winnacunnet High Warriors from Hampton (58) and the host Salem Blue Devils (68).
Londonderry placed no less than seven harriers among the top 10 finishers, with fantastic freshman Will Heenan crossing the line first overall in 16 minutes and 21.4 seconds.
Right behind Heenan were his teammates Ryan Young in second (16:25), Matt Griffin in third place (16:36.6), Jake Donnelly in fourth (16:45.1), Nathan Seeley in the fifth spot (16:47.1), Jeff Cieslikowski in seventh (17:06.8), and Dylan Hotter in the eighth spot (17:18.4).
In the girls’ race, the Lady Lancers’ margin of victory was considerably smaller than the boys’ had been but it was a win all the same. Londonderry finished first with a point tally of 25, Salem was second with a 31, and Winnacunnet’s Lady Warriors were way back in third with an 85.
Lady Lancers’ senior star Kalin Gregoire finished first individually in a time of 19:18, and her teammate Caitlin Boufford finished 21 seconds later in second place.
The local harriers then moved on to the Alvirne Battle of the Border in Hudson on Saturday the 7th. And the LHS boys once again showed themselves to be a force to be reckoned with by finishing a strong fourth out of some 18 teams.
The Concord High Crimson Tide finished first with a score of 30, Coe-Brown from Northwood was second (96), the Marshfield, Mass. entry ended up third (97), and the Lancers took fourth (107).
The LHS effort was paced by Heenan in 12th place (17:12), Griffin in 19th (17:27), Young in the 22nd spot (17:33), Seeley in 23rd (17:36), Donnelly in 31st place (18:02), Cieslikowski in 39th place (18:11), and Kerry Daley in 48th (18:23).
In the girls’ race, the Lady Lancers wound up a modest 11th out of 15 contingents. The locals’ effort was led by battle-tested veteran Gregoire with an excellent fifth place finish in 20:01.