The SMS boys and Boynton girls won their respective divisions at the Tri-County Championships in Nashua over the weekend, while JRMS looked good at the NH Middle School Championships at Londonderry.
Led by Max Cail (2nd, 11:59.26), the SMS boys cruised to the Division III championship. Also scoring for SMS were:
Oliver Wilson (5th, 12:28.45)
Kell McMahon (8th, 12:36.88)
Xan White (13th, 13:15.95)
Josiah Conley (16th, 13:21.61)
The SMS girls placed fourth, with a scoring five of:
Ellie Smith (3rd, 14:12.74)
Jennifer Hopkins (18th, 15:57.61)
Lyla Somero (24th, 16:22.62)
Sydney Borges (27th, 16:29.04)
Seanna Leonard (33rd, 16:55.84)
In Division IV, it was the Boynton girls in first place, with Skye Lambert first overall in 13:47.
Also scoring for the Boynton girls:
Pandora Tilton (5th, 14:12.19)
Erin O’Shea (6th, 14:23.54)
Kaitlin O’Shea (9th, 14:51.86)
Jordan Myshrall (12th, 15:01.03)
The Boynton boys finished third, paced by Logan Lucas (2nd, 12:38.37).
Also scoring for the Bulldogs:
Payton Vaillancourt (5th, 13:05.89)
Jacob Crawford (13th, 13:51.79)
Dylan Callahan (16th, 14:06.10)
Dylan Buttrick (22nd, 14:46.88)
The JRMS teams raced at the NH Middle School Championships, where the Cardinal girls – who placed 10th the previous two years – landed in seventh, behind star 8th-grader Amarah Lapinsky, who consistently led JRMS through great competitions all the season. On Saturday, she showed that she saved her best effort for her last race as a Cardinal.
With a field of 130 runners on the two-mile Londonderry course, Lapinsky got off to a rather slow start. Her three-year coach, Kevin McCusker, estimated that she was running in about 40th place, a quarter mile into the event.
The next time her coach would see her, near the halfway point, she had sliced and diced her way into the top 20.
Lapinsky wasn’t done, yet. She pushed hard, tapping into her great endurance, to move all the way into a 12th place finish, the highest JRMS individual finish in recent years. She averaged just under 7:10 per mile with her final time being 14:19.84.
With Lapinsky providing such great leadership, her team was sure to feel the benefits. Seventh-grader Neve Mormando had a fine race and captured 30th place in 15:18.09. Amber Gnoza, also a 7th grader, was three places back in 15:20.48.
Amelia Hill, who’d been injured and made a comeback just one meet before the finals, was JRMS’s fourth finisher (62nd, 16:34). Kaylee Truong rounded out the scoring (17th, 17:13.30).
The JRMS boys placed 16th as a team, with John Morrilly leading the boys across the finish line with his 31st place finish and a fine time of 13:36.70. Consistent second-place team runner, Austen Richard, placed 65th with a time of 14:39.41.
After a steady couple months of improvement, Trayton Chapman capped off his great first cross-country season with a 94th place finish in a time of 15:29.50. Newcomer Kadin Rinaldi placed 107th in the field of 150, with his time of 16:03.34. Mason Karpinski (121st, 16:35.34) was JRMS’s final scorer.