One local athlete will represent New Hampshire at this weekend’s New England Cross Country Championship in Ponaganset, Rhode Island.
Mascenic senior Jake Movsessian earned his spot by finishing 20th in Saturday’s New Hampshire State Meet of Champions with a new personal record time of 16:16.5 for the 5k course at Nashua’s Mine Falls Park, nearly 50 seconds faster than he ran at the division championship in Manchester a week before.
“It’s definitely easier just grabbing onto a pack, so I just ran with that pack and was able to run my race,” he said.
Movsessian went out with the top runners in the state. Even when eventual champion Patrick O’Brien separated himself, Movsessian stayed with the chase pack and competed for position and defeated last week’s Division III winner, rival James Elmour of Monadnock High School.
“He was definitely in the back of my head,” Movsessian said.
His Mascenic Regional High School Vikings placed 15th in the team competition, firmly placing themselves as one of the best in the state.
With 379 points, the team finished just behind bigger regional rivals Souhegan Coop and Hollis-Brookline, 13th and 14th, and just ahead of a city school in Nashua’s Bishop Guertin, which was 16th.
Rounding out the seven-man squad was DJ Turner (78th, 17:07), Dakota Somero (107th, 17:39), Michael Fappiano-Putre (122nd, 17:59), Jake Zina (128th, 18:10), Logan Thibeault (133rd, 18:14) and Sam Tucker (150th, 20:38).
Only Movsessian is a senior, so the rest will be back running for coach Mike Smith next year.
The only other local team that qualified for the meet was the ConVal High School girls, who placed 13th in the the field, which was one by an again dominant Souhegan team.
Claire Veverka, only a sophomore, led the Cougars with a 38th-place finish, not far from the top-25 threshold to run at New Englands. She ran 19:38 after a disappointing finish in the Division II race last week. (The secret to the turnaround? Quick oats.)
“I fell hard last week,” she said. “So I was glad to go out, run my race, get a good time.”
The rest of the ConVal squad was Schuyler Michalak (69th, 20:21), Lucy Freeman (81st, 20:51), Sawyer Cawthern (104th, 21:24), Marina McMahon (137th, 22:47), Emma Brown (145th, 23:42) and Caitlin Galea (148th, 24:09).
Also in the race were girls from Conant and Mascenic.
For Conant, Isabella Mormando was 77th in 20:44 and Claire Van Houten was 121st in 21:49.
Mascenic had Madison LaBrie (72nd, 20:28), Sam Hughson (78th, 20:44) and Sam Bilodeau (90th, 21:08).
The other big story of the day was both individual champions breaking the state, meet and course records. Oyster River’s O’Brien ran 15:03.4, and for the girls it was Exeter’s Jacqueline Gaughan running 17:14.6.
Saturday’s weather – still, cool and dry – was ideal for running and made for a perfect championship day.
For most local runners, the next step is indoor track.
Bilodeau said her goal is to break 5:20 in the 1500m run, but her teammates are taking the season off for other sports. None of the Mascenic girls are seniors, so they are optimistic about a top-5 finishing goal next year.
Veverka, who will be the state’s 28th returning runner next year and is projected in the top-two for the indoor 3000m, said she’s ready for much needed rest.
“It’s been a long season, from summer training to now,” she said. “I’m going to rest and recover so I can tear it up on the track this season.”
Movsessian has one final cross country race in red and blue in him.
He said, “I’m just going to go run and have fun.”