The Mascenic girls’ cross-country team finally got their day in the sun Saturday, striding their way to a second-place finish at the NHIAA Division III championship race at Manchester’s Derryfield Park and finally pinning down that elusive trip to the Meet of Champions.
Viking head coach Mike Smith’s team has been agonizingly close over the years, finishing just outside the qualifying top-five several times and even landing fifth in 2020 – the one year that COVID restrictions cut the qualifiers down to the top four.
“They’ve been so snakebitten so many times that they just don’t expect that they should be where they are,” Smith said. “I think this year proved that that’s exactly what it should have been. We ran fantastic. We didn’t have great races, but we didn’t have bad races and, and for Division III girls, that’s what you need. You need to have good races and that’ll put you in the running.”
Hopkinton’s team title was all but a foregone conclusion this fall, though Mascenic and Conant both had a shot at it; the Hawks fulfilled that projection handily Saturday, winning with a team 66 to the Vikings’ 82 and the Orioles’ 85.
The Vikings were strong up and down the roster with returning runners this season, but it was a pair of newcomers that helped carry them to new heights, as freshmen Kaitlin and Erin O’Shea came in and took over Mascenic’s top two positions for nearly the entire fall. The pair finished back-to-back in the top 10, with Erin in fifth (20:31) and Kaitlin in sixth (20:36).
“[It feels] amazing,” Erin said after the Vikings took their celebratory team photo under the Derryfield Park finish.
The two are identical twins; even coach Smith relies on bib numbers and shoe colors (Kaitlin in pink, Erin in purple) to tell them apart, and they stick together on the course, too.
“I just tried to stay with Erin and tried my hardest,” Kaitlin said after the race. “It helps me know where I’m going to be. If I’m not with her, I know I’m not going do as well as I would if I was next to her.”
The freshman twins burst onto the scene in a big way, but coach Smith pointed out that joining a solid foundation of experienced runners aided them in their unusual early success.
“You don’t normally have freshmen that can come in and contribute that way. simply because it’s so new, and I think they were able to benefit from the rest of the girls being pretty good.”
Those girls had a good day Saturday to clinch the runner-up position. Junior Skye Lambert had a great race, finishing 19th in 21:52 to earn an individual medal and keep the Vikings’ score low. Junior Emma Schaumloffel wasn’t far behind, finishing 25th in 22:18; junior Amelia Smith was the final scorer (33rd, 22:24), just ahead of the team’s only senior, Brielle Shippee, who finished 35th in 22:53 and added a point to Conant’s score by passing Oriole sophomore Neve Mormando along the way.
“I’m super happy for them,” coach Smith said. “This is four or five years in the making, really, so pretty, pretty stoked.”
With the 20 or so years of Mascenic dominance on the boys’ side riding on their shoulders, this year’s Viking boys felt the weight of expectations. Despite taking fifth as a team Saturday and qualifying for MOCs, the boys were disappointed in themselves. It’s not the first time a Mascenic team has come up short of self-imposed expectations – just two years ago, the boys were shocked to finish second after three straight championships – but it’s all a matter of perspective.
“Fith is still pretty good,” Smith said. “There are lots of teams out there that would love to finish in that fifth spot and squeak out a trip to Meet Of Champions…It’s a tough comparison when you are comparing against what the kids have done in the past, because they’ve done some pretty good stuff.”
Senior Drew Traffie (seventh, 17:36) was Mascenic’s top runner, with sophomore Derek Somero (41st, 18:54), sophomore Logan Lucas (46th, 19:04), senior Ryan O’Shea (56th, 19:26) and sophomore Jacob Crawford (59th, 19:31) rounding out the scoring five.
Conant got an excellent race out of sophomore Bella Nero (eighth, 20:42) in the girls’ race and another out of sophomore Nathan Alajajian (28th, 18:31) in the boys’ race, which meant both of the Orioles’ top finishers are adaptive athletes. Nero is visually impaired and ran the course with guide runner and Conant alum Andrea Watkins; Alajajian was born with a bilateral upper body deficiency.
“They are arguably probably the two best adaptive athletes for their age categories in the state, if not in New England,” Conant coach Bill Edson said. “And they both are lining up on the field with able-bodied people and competing like there’s no difference. They’re just amazing athletes. It’s just been an amazing thing to coach them and be a part of that.”
Conant’s girls’ team finished third overall for the second straight season and qualified for the Meet of Champions. Behind Nero was senior Kylie Aho (12th, 21:08), sophomore Amber Gnoza (17th, 21:26), freshman Amelia Hill (18th, 21:26) and sophomore Neve Mormando (36th, 22:59), with senior Lainey Holombo in 44th and junior Amarah Lapinsky 51st.
“I’m really proud of them,” Edson said. “It was a battle and they ultimately showed up and they fought right to the end. I’m very proud of them. Our younger athletes are showing potential for next year, and we’ll come right back into it next year in kind of the same place, I think. So the legacy is in good hands going forward.”
Conant’s boys’ team graduated several top runners and continued to split time as dual soccer and cross-country athletes, so few on the team beyond Alajajian have put in championship-caliber mileage during their training period. Still, they finished 10th as a team despite several running in just their fourth-ever high school race.
“They don’t have the miles or the base of the other kids do, and they’re just in there fighting,” Edson said. “It’s their athleticism that’s pushed them. They practiced with us, but they don’t have the mileage because their primary focus was soccer. That was the arrangement. I wasn’t going to take away their passion.”
Conant’s scoring five were Alajajian, senior Jacob Sawyer (43rd, 18:57), junior Jordan Nagle (50th, 19:15), sophomore Isaiah Nero (79th, 20:03) and sophomore Ben Sawyer (90th, 20:35); junior Austen Richard was right behind in 91st (20:36).
Wilton-Lyndeborough’s fledgling team also competed in the DIII girls’ race, with eighth-grader Emily Hazelton (79th), seventh-grader Lydia Vanderhoof (96th), junior Kayan Miller (120th), seventh-grader Natalia Faye (127th) and sophomore Naomi Bozarth (130th) finishing for the Warriors.
Portsmouth Christian senior Brianna Malone won the girls’ race for the second straight year in 19:15. Gilford senior Patrick Gandini won the boys’ race for the third straight year in 15:28. Trinity won the boys’ team competition for their first title since 1957.
The Cougars got onto the Derryfield course earlier in the morning as the frost was still evaporating off the grass. With some members out sick, ConVal came in shorthanded, and top boys’ runner William Simard was injured mid-race.
“Both teams felt the loss of some key racers due to sickness and injury,” head coach Spencer Fetrow said.
The ConVal girls finished 13th as a team, with freshman Whitney Adair (61st, 24:17), junior Elizabeth Petrov (72nd, 25:01), senior Makenna Proctor (81st, 26:02), freshman Sarah Mackie (90th, 27:46), freshman Sarah Brace (97th) and freshman Brielle Proctor (99th) finishing the race.
The boys finished 18th, with freshman Mason Deschenes (81st, 19:54), junior Nathan Klonel (84th, 20:08), senior Nathaniel Mao (95th, 20:52), freshman DJ Stevens (108th, 21:37) and junior Jake Alonso (111th, 21:49) crossing the line for the Cougars.