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A beautiful fall day greeted harriers from Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont at Thetford Academy for the New England Cross-Country Championship. The weather was a marked improvement over the fell on Friday making the course soft on the grass areas.
With the course already having 263 boys run and chewing up the course 259 girls sprinted off the starting line to tackle the 5k course with a hill named "Morty's Monster" in the second mile. As she had done all year long Orono High School sophomore Ruth White worked her way to front just before 1k and then was never challenged again as the diminutive White ran to a 22 second victory. White the Class C State Champion covered the 5k course in 18:44.8, good for a 6:01.6 mile average, a time that ranks her eighth best in course history, impressive given the condition of the course.
The Connecticut State Open champion Rachel St. Germain of Somers High School ran be herself for most of the race in second place as she tried to track down White. St. Germain ran a strong race to finish as the runner-up with her 19:07.5. Following her Vermont Division two champion Ava Thurston of Harwood Union used her experience on the course of Thetford Academy course for a third place finish in 19:30.8.
Maine Class B state champion Hadley Mahoney a sophomore from Cape Elizabeth moved up throughout the race, going from 10th at 3k up to fourth. Mahoney running in her first New England XC Championship doubted herself pre-race but put it all together once the gun went off. Her finishing time of 19:42.5 held off her main competition in Class B Cary Drake of York 19:43.9 by a little over a second. Senior Delaney Hesler of Bonny Eagle kicked her way to a sixth place finish in 19:48.3 and secured a low stick for the Scots.
Freshman Brooke Strauss of Glastonbury, CT secured the top spot for the class of 2025 with her seventh place effort in 19:50.1 while Thea Crowley a junior from George Stevens in Maine was eighth in 19:52.8. Senior Chloe Trudel of Souhegan clocked 19:54.6 for ninth place and rounding out the top ten was Alice Kredell a freshman from Champlain Valley, VT with a 19:57.1 effort.
Other Maine runners earning all New England honors was Bangor senior Megan Randall who continued her strong fall with her 14th place finish in 20:06.2, and Orono senior Nora White in 17th with her 20:13.3 finish.
Bonny Eagle secured the highest finish by a Maine Girls team in New England XC History with there runner-up finish.
New Milford of Connecticut bested twenty seven other teams in New England to win the team title with 140 points, good for a sixty-eight point margin. New Milford averaged 21:01 as team and were paced by All-New England performances of junior Sydney Kelleher in 11th and senior Madelaine Sweeney in 23rd. Bonny Eagle of Maine the Class A champions secured the best finish ever from a Maine team at the New Englands with a score of 208, they averaged 21:20 for their scoring five. The Scots were led by Delaney Hesler's 6th place finish. Glastonbury of Connecticut was third with 226, followed by Champlain Valley of Vermont with 235, and rounding out the top five was Harwood of Vermont with 248.
Class B Champion Mt Desert Island placed 20th overall with 422, with Marshwood next in 21st with 471. Bangor finished 26th with 593 while Gorham rounded out the field in 28th with 691 points.