Wynne & Purrier tops in individual races, Rhode Island sweeps team title with Bishop Hendricken winning the boys & Barrington the girls titles
Henry Wynne of Staples Connecticut used his strong kick to win the boys NE title covering the challenging, and muddy course in 16:12 to edge Cumberland, RI's Trevor crawley by 2 seconds. On the girls side defending champion Elle Purrier of Richford, vT defending her title as she covered the 5k in 18:42 to wun easily over fellow Vermonter Taylor Spillane of Champlain Valley. The highly favored Boys of Bishop Hendricken took the title with 85 points while LaSalle Academy also of Rhode Island was the runner-up. On the girls side Barrington, RI dominated the race with 75 points, Coe-Brown Academy of NH was the runner-up
Race Videos: Girls Race (MaineTrackXC) | Boys Race (MaineTrackXC) | Boys Race Video (Greg Emerson) | Girls Race Video (Greg Emerson)
Photos- Awards (MaineTrackXC) | Photos by Moosechili | Photos by Doane5 | Photos by Kevin Morris
Interviews: Henry Wynne | Trevor Crawley | Silas Eastman | Elle Purrier | Taylor Spillane
Awards: Bishop Hendricken Boys | LaSalle Academy Boys
Boys Meet Recap
With 300m to go in the New England Championship race, Henry Wynne of Staples, CT was on his way to victory as he had just conquered the pain cave.
Then came the notorious slick left hand turn at the the bottom of the downhill before turning for home. Wynne the CT All-State champion slipped and fell to the ground.
Despite the fall, he was able to get back on his feet quick, and didn’t lose much ground. Looking back after the race, Henry said “I lost maybe 2 second, and with my speed knew I would have a strong kick.
And he did just that, using his 4:11 mile speed he tracked down Crawley using his speed, and kicked home for the victory. He covered the slick 5k course in a strong 16:12 to edge Crawley by 2 seconds.
Crawley had to settle for the runner-up spot, and was disappointed with not pulling out the win. “Last year I was like 50th, so being 2nd this year is good” Crawley said. Asked if he would have done anything different, he responded “Maybe take the 2nd mile harder, and break away, but I did pretty much everything I wanted too.”
Silas Eastman of Fryeburg,ME one of the pre-meet favorites never was in the lead pack throughout out the race but did work his way up after being back in the pack after the first mile. Eastman worked his way to 5th after the pain cave, but like the race winner fell going around the sharp left hand turn. He got up, and kicked home hard. His efforts netted him a 3rd place finish, as he got the better of Jake Feinstein of Newtown, CT by
.06 with a well timed lean. This marked the 3rd time the senior has earned All-NE honors.
Feinstein of Newtown ran a tough race as he was 4th heading into the final stages, the senior clocked 16:26.14, right behind him was the surprise of the day, Josef Holt-Andrews of Telstar HS in Maine. Holt-Andrews got some revenge over the other guys in Maine that have been ahead of him all season, as he got out well in the first mile, and ran with the race leaders for most of the race. The junior will be the top returner for the 2013 race.
Vermont State champion Marc Brandmeyer of Mt. Anthony Union was 6th, the senior used his strength and experience with running hilly courses to navigate the layout at Twin Brook. Brandmeyer was ran 16:29.
Rocky Hill, CT’s Joseph Crafa was next to cross in 7th (16:33), while Malcom Plunkett of South Burlington was 8th (16:37)
Fairfield Prep’s Christian Alvarado, a junior placed 9th (16:37) with another Vermonter Daniel Grosvenor of Montpelier rounding out the top 10 (16:38)
Bishop Hendricken entered the meet as the heavy team favorite and they didn’t disappoint. The Hawks tallied 85 points to easily outdistance rival LaSalle Academy, RI by 42 points. Souhegan, NH the NH Meet of Champions winner grabbed the final podium spot with 222 points, edging rival Bedford by just 2 points.
Hendricken repeated as the NE Champions with junior Colin Tierney leading the way in 14th place (16:46), he was joined on the All-NE team by senior Tyler Henseler, who placed 25th (16:56). Following closely behind Henseler was senior Connor Doyle in 28th (17:01), sophomore Michael Potter ran well in 35th (17:06). Senior Alex Doherty rounded out the scoring 5 in 59th (17:26)
LaSalle was led by sophomore Jake Grundy’s 18th place finish, Grundy was the top sophomore in the field. Senior Michael Stephens also ran well in 29th (17:02) as did fellow senior Adam Rego 40th (17:10)
Souhegan first runner Jason Bender finished 49th (17:18) which normally might be bad news for a team, but Souhegan packed them in after that with spots 66th, 73rd, 80th, &101st.
New Milford was the top Connecticut team in 6th, while South Burlington placed 9th to lead the Vermont teams, host state Maine’s top team was Cape Elizabeth in 22nd.
Girls Meet Recap
The starting line was moved to a different spot to avoid some of the mud and wet at the start, despite the move the fields were still slick, and there were more than a few runners down on the ground throughout the course of the race.
In the girls race defending champion Elle Purrier of Richford, VT got out well with Waterville’s Bethanie Brown running stride for stride with her. Brown would take the lead heading into the 800m, the duo had opened up a 7-8 seconds lead over the chase pack at this point.
In the chase pack at 800m was Brianna Lenehan of Norwich Free, CT, Taylor Spillane of Champlain Valley, VT & LaSalle Academy’s Sherdian Wilbur.
By the mile the lead had balloned to 15 seconds with Brown still leading but Purrier was in her slipstream running just a stride behind as they navigated the slick grass exiting the woods after mile 1. While the duo battled back in the chase pack there was a new face as Barrington, RI freshman Emma McMillan, the RI State champion had worked her way up to 3rd, Wilbur & Spillane remained in 4th & 5th.
Behind them it was Sabrina Olsen of Thomaston, CT, Lenehan, Erzsebet Nagy of Lawrence HS, Alexa Pelletier, the NH MOC champion & Elizabeth Conway of Manchester Central, NH.
Purrier took the lead in 2 mile, and would open up a 7 second gap at the 2 mile mark as the senior was looking good to repeat as NE champ. Brown was still running strong in 2nd. Spillane worked her way up to 3rd and was moving well, her gap to Brown was around 14 seconds. Conway used a strong 2nd mile to move up to 4th with fellow NH runner Pelletier running 2 strides behind in 5th with a mile to go. McMillian was hanging on in 6th, while Nagy was looking ready for a fast last mile in 7th. The final pack was another 8 seconds behind with Wilbur, Olsen, & Lenehan.
The final mile would be a cakewalk as the strength of Elle Purrier was on display as she crushed the rest of field with a 18:42. Her winning margin 21 seconds over fellow Vermonter Taylor Spillane (19:03). When asked which win meant more last year’s or this, she responded with “This year mean more as it’s my last year, it’s an emotional time.”
Spillane, who was 4th a year ago, was pleased with her race. “I didn’t have a race plan, just wanted to go out and run today” she would say after the race. It worked as the senior earned the runner-up finish,
While just a freshman Emma McMillan got the low stick her team needed, as McMillian moved from 6th to 3rd over the final mile. Her time of 19:07 was the top freshman time by 25 seconds on the day.
Elizabeth Conway avenged her loss to Alexa Pelletier at the NH MOC as the senior edged her by 1 spot today. Conway was 4th (19:09) while Pelletier of Winnacunnet, NH was 5th in 18:11.
North Kingstown’s Aisha McAdams had another big day at the NE champs, the seniors has had her share of ups and downs, but today was a big up as McAdams moved from 12th place with a mile to go all the way up to 6th (19:16)
The early pace setter, Bethanie Brown struggled over the final mile dropping from 2nd to 7th. She became dehydrated throughout the race, and had nothing left in her legs, and was dizzy to point of losing her vision in the final stages of the race. Still she was the top Maine runner on the day
Autumn Eastman of Champlain Valley also finished strong as she went from 11th to 8th over the final mile. Her 8th place finish gave her team 2 of the top 8 overall. Eastman’s time was 19:22. She was also the top junior in the field
The CT State champ Brianna Lenehan held on in the final mile to finish 9th, moving up one spot. She would hold off Sheridan Wilbur by a slim margin 19:30.06 to 19:30.98.
Barrington, RI entered the NE Championship meet as one of the team favorites. After coming off a dominating win in the RI State meet they were looking for more hardware today.
They came ready as they had a strong start and never faltered as they rolled to an impressive win. They tallied just 75 to finish 57 points in front of the runner-up NH MOC champions Coe-Brown Academy.
They were led up front by McMillan, but also got a great run from Abigail Livingston who placed 15th to earn All-NE honors. They would add a 3rd member to the All-NE team as Megan Verner-Crist nabbed the 25th spot.
Behind the 3 All-NE runners, and the 40th place of Fiona Paine, and 50th place of Julianna Portelli they had all 5 scorers in top 50 overall.
Coe-Brown had the highest finish in school history with the runner-up finish. The Bears were led by freshman Elisabeth Danis who placed 17th. They also had freshman Brooke Laskowsky in 37th & Hannah Parker in 43rd
Champlain Valley the defending champions earned another podium spot as they placed 3rd. Champlain was the only team with 2 runners in the top 10, as Spillane& Eastman placed 2nd & 8th
LaSalle Academy placed 4th with 185, while Ridgefield, CT rounded out the top 5 with 218.
National Elite Performances
Boys Top 25 All-New England Winners
1 Henry Wynne 12 Staples-CT 16:12.86 1 2 Trevor Crawley 12 Cumberland HS - RI 16:14.21 2 3 Silas Eastman 12 Fryeburg 16:26.09 4 Jake Feinstein 12 Newtown-CT 16:26.14 3 5 Josef Holt-Andrews 11 Telstar - Me 16:28.47 6 Marc Brandmeyer 12 Mt Anthony U 16:29.75 4 7 Joseph Crafa 12 Rocky Hill-CT 16:33.23 8 Malcolm Plunkett 12 South Burlin 16:37.34 5 9 Christian Alvarado 11 Fairfield Prep-CT 16:37.53 10 Daniel Grosvenor 12 Montpelier - Vt 16:38.16 11 Trevor Hopper 11 Ridgefield-CT 16:39.19 12 Jack Pierce 12 Merriconeag 16:43.54 13 Bryce Kelley 12 Chariho HS - RI 16:44.85 6 14 Colin Tierney 11 BishopHendricken 16:46.16 7 15 Jake Kilcoyne 12 Chariho HS - RI 16:48.92 8 16 Logan Fulton 12 Joel Barlow-CT 16:49.28 17 Dan Curts 11 Ellsworth - Me 16:49.88 18 Jake Grundy 10 La Salle 16:51.72 9 19 Jeremy Brassard 11 Coe-Brown - NH 16:52.77 20 Mitchell Russo 12 Newtown-CT 16:53.45 10 21 Neal Hulstein 12 Ellington-CT 16:53.58 22 Mickey Kozak 11 Danbury-CT 16:54.41 23 Sam Daly 12 Bedford - NH 16:54.61 11 24 Kevin Sullivan 12 Lewis Mills-CT 16:55.09 25 Tyler Henseler 12 BishopHendricken 16:56.35 12
Boys Top 6 Teams
1 Bishop Hendricken HS - RI 85 7 12 14 19 33 50 111
Total Time: 1:25:18.04
Average: 17:03.61
2 La Salle Academy - RI 127 9 15 20 41 42 43 97
Total Time: 1:26:12.01
Average: 17:14.41
3 Souhegan - NH 222 25 38 44 49 66 84 93
Total Time: 1:27:58.64
Average: 17:35.73
4 Bedford - NH 224 11 32 39 59 83 131 137
Total Time: 1:27:46.03
Average: 17:33.21
5 New Milford-CT 263 16 21 57 69 100 121 143
Total Time: 1:28:12.73
Average: 17:38.55
6 Newtown-CT 266 3 10 47 81 125 161 188
Total Time: 1:27:33.64
Average: 17:30.73
Girls Top 25 All-New England Winners
1 Elle Purrier 12 Richford - Vt 18:42.44 2 Taylor Spillane 12 Champlain Va 19:03.11 1 3 Emma McMillan 9 Barrington Hs-Ri 19:07.13 2 4 Elizabeth Conway 12 Manchester C 19:09.01 3 5 Alexa Pelletier 12 Winnacunnet - NH 19:11.53 6 Aisha McAdams 12 North Kingstown 19:16.20 4 7 Bethanie Brown 12 Waterville - Me 19:18.60 8 Autumn Eastman 11 Champlain Va 19:22.68 5 9 Brianna Lenehan 12 Norwich Free 19:30.06 10 Sheridan Wilbur 10 La Salle 19:30.98 6 11 Hannah Debalsi 9 Staples-CT 19:32.37 12 Sabrina Olsen 11 Thomaston-CT 19:34.88 13 Kirstin Sandreuter 11 Greely - Me 19:40.78 14 Jackie Burr 11 Westerly HS - RI 19:41.90 15 Abigail Livingston 11 Barrington Hs-Ri 19:44.96 7 16 Quinn Bornstein 11 St Johnsbury 19:45.06 8 17 Elisabeth Danis 09 Coe-Brown - NH 19:47.04 9 18 Laura Hergenrother 11 Ridgefield-CT 19:47.74 10 19 Anne Johnston 10 Darien-CT 19:48.53 11 20 Gabrielle Richichi 10 New Fairfield-CT 19:50.88 21 Margaret McCaffrey 10 East Greenwich 19:52.13 22 Emma Newton 11 Hollis/Brook 19:53.23 12 23 Amy Laverty 9 Cumberland HS - RI 19:57.38 13 24 Brittany Bowman 11 Camden Hills - Me 19:58.11 14 25 Megan Verner-Crist 11 Barrington Hs-Ri 19:58.18 15
Girls Top 6 Teams
1 Barrington Hs-Ri 75 2 7 15 24 27 61 90
Total Time: 1:39:26.32
Average: 19:53.27
2 Coe-Brown - NH 132 9 22 25 32 44 57 86
Total Time: 1:41:41.43
Average: 20:20.29
3 Champlain Valley Union-Vt 176 1 5 51 55 64 106 137
Total Time: 1:41:42.07
Average: 20:20.42
4 La Salle Academy - RI 185 6 37 43 49 50 71 72
Total Time: 1:43:00.86
Average: 20:36.18
5 Ridgefield-CT 218 10 23 29 63 93 123 154
Total Time: 1:43:17.21
Average: 20:39.45
6 Glastonbury-CT 278 30 38 54 65 91 99 138
Total Time: 1:45:14.00
Average: 21:02.80