MANCHESTER – Winning is something to which Maddy Lane is accustomed. She’s won state titles and New England titles; she won an elite meet in California earlier in the season. She’s headed to Harvard to run NCAA Division I cross country next year.
But despite all of that, Saturday’s run at Derryfield Park, her last one in a Hopkinton uniform, was still special.
As expected, Lane jumped out to an early lead and cruised to her fourth NHIAA Division III cross country title at Derryfield Park on Saturday, running a personal-best time of 18 minutes, 9.5 seconds for that course.
She became just the fourth runner in NHIAA history to win a fourth title and the first to do so since Gretchen Wernig won five titles for Gilford in 1991-95. Dover’s Cathy Schiro (1980-84) and Hanover’s Cara Aley (1991-94) are the only others who have achieved that feat.
Lane’s win also helped secure Hopkinton’s third straight D-III team championship, the Hawks’ seventh in the last nine years.
“Honestly, I think coming into today I was a little emotional because I was really sad that it’s my last state meet,” Lane said. “My goal was to go out and have fun with it. I tried to do it as a workout, run the first two miles controlled and rip the last mile.
“This is the fastest that I’ve run on this course by a pretty good margin, so I’m super excited about that. I wasn’t expecting that. I’m really happy with how things went. I just wanted to run well for the team.”
Lane won the race by 1:40, with Profile eighth grader Sylvie Brown finishing second in 19:40 and Hopkinton junior Maisie Emerson placing third in 19:46.
That 1-3 punch of Lane and Emerson was just the beginning of a slew of strong finishes for the Hawks, resulting in a ridiculously low score of 27 points, the best tally Hopkinton has achieved in this nine-year dynasty.
“Today they came through as usual, with Maisie up there in the top three,” said Hopkinton’s Rob Rothe, who is in his 11th year as head coach. “Maddy went out comfortably hard for her. She’s definitely saving up a little bit (for Meet of Champions, New Englands and Nike X Nationals), thinking ahead for the weeks to come, which is smart.”
Sophomores Elli Gregory (10th, 22:07) and Hannah Clarner (14th, 22:34) and senior Rose Afflerbach (19th, 22:47) ran well as scoring runners, while freshmen Mabel Dustin (26th, 23:29) and Ella Lundquist (29th, 23:39) displaced top runners on other teams to expand Hopkinton’s lead even further.
It wasn’t a perfect day throughout the lineup. But when you’re as deep and talented as the Hawks are, that hardly mattered.
“We’ve always had a very solid top three with Maisie, Maddy and Rose up there,” Rothe said. “Both Hannah and Elli had been moving up toward that. We’ve been trying to close that gap and have them move up there. They’ve been slowly doing that throughout the season. (Mabel and Ella) have also really started to climb. The depth is definitely there, and they know they can rely on each other.”
“Everyone gave it their all today; it’s a tough course,” Emerson added. “At this point it’s not racing the clock, it’s racing for places and trying to have fun while you do it. The team has gotten another year to develop. We didn’t graduate any of our scorers from last year, so we’ve had a full year to get faster and everyone really stepped up today.”
Hopkinton’s outstanding results didn’t stop at the end of the girls’ race. The Hawk boys picked up where the Hawk girls left off, winning their team crown, albeit in a slightly less dominant fashion with 44 points.
Junior Max Goupil joined Fall Mountain senior Elijah Bodanza and Newfound senior Collin Foster in the lead pack, which pulled away from the rest of the field through 800 meters of the 5,000-meter race. The trio separated over the second mile, which heads up the McIntyre ski hill, but Goupil kept the other two in his sights.
Bodanza, who won the 2024 title running for Hillsboro-Deering, picked up a second one with a time of 16:43.9, with Foster (16:55) placing second and Goupil (17:05) finishing third.
“It wasn’t the best race individually, but I’m really proud of what our team did,” Goupil said. “Everyone’s really worked hard over the years. We’ve improved a lot. I want to thank our coaches.”
Hopkinton senior James Lavers (17:28) and sophomore Liam Tripod (17:33) finished fifth and sixth to significantly cut down the Hawks’ team score.
“For Liam, definitely a breakout race,” Rothe said. “He’s been closing that gap toward James. But for the two of them to get together and run together that far up in the front, that was something we haven’t had in the past. The others weren’t far behind. The spread has been tight with the boys.”
Juniors Finnegan Kovar (12th, 18:01), Jax Marshall (24th, 18:31) and Michael Crosby (37th, 19:15) and senior Jacques McCrillis (40th, 19:31) comprised the rest of the champion squad.
Hopkinton, Mascoma (111), Campbell (120) and Trinity (130) were the top four girls teams and will compete at next weekend’s Meet of Champions, which are being held at the Hopkinton Fairgrounds for the first time.
Hillsboro-Deering senior Sarah McGranaghan (15th, 22:37) and Winnisquam sophomore Eloise Abbott (18th, 22:46) qualified individually thanks to top-25 finishes.
Portsmouth Christian (88), Conant (109) and Profile (190) rounded out the top four teams in the boys’ D-III standings to advance.
Winnisquam junior Cullen Desrochers (15th, 18:15) also advanced and led the 10th-place Bears, the only other area boys’ team with the minimum five runners for a team score. Lazar Arbutina (57th, 19:53), Ryan Courtney (62nd, 20:14), Owen Bakis (74th, 20:38) and Lucas Durphey (81st, 20:51) scored for Winnisquam.
Belmont’s Brodie Henry (29th, 18:56) and Sean Andrews (67th, 20:22), Bishop Brady’s Lee Mitchell (53rd, 19:49) and H-D’s Matthew Skersey (89th, 21:15) were the other top area boys’ individuals.
Belmont (11th, 235) and Winnisquam (12th, 236) were the other local scoring teams on the girls’ side. Jenna Laramie (47th, 25:37), Lyla McSheffrey (79th, 27:31), Zoe Perlet (81st, 27:35), Violet Smith (87th, 29:03) and Neala Murphy (92nd, 29:42) led Belmont. Anna Guerra (83rd, 28:15), Natalie Wolfe (95th, 30:17), Penelope McSweeney (97th, 30:20) and Ariana Maxwell (106th, 35:24) scored for Winnisquam.
Annabelle Waldvogel (71st, 26:48) was the top runner for Bishop Brady.