Pinkerton Academy’s boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams ended their 2015 seasons in superb fashion last weekend by both snaring top-five finishes at the New England High School Cross-Country Championships at Thetford Academy in Vermont.
The three-time defending New Hampshire Division I champion Astro boys were the runner-up team in their hotly-contested Saturday, Nov. 14 race, and the 2015 D-I champion Lady Astros ended up a sterling fourth out of 30 teams in their tough race that day.
The LaSalle Academy male and female harriers from Rhode Island swept the New England team championships.
BOYS
Longtime Pinkerton coach Mike Clark’s Long Red Line contingent – which followed up its recent, third straight D-I title win by also finishing first in the state Meet of Champions several weeks ago – ended up some 20 points behind LaSalle (76 points) with a score of 96.
Senior star Nick Sevilla finished an impressive fourth overall in a time of 16 minutes and 17 seconds to pace the PA charge.
Sevilla was followed by Noah Davis in 14th place (16:42), Jeff Reddy in 21st (16:48), Tom Hanlon in the 42nd spot (17:06), Calvin Graves in 72nd (17:27), Pat Bastek in the 87th position (17:34), and Sam Lanternier in 90th place (17:35).
A crowd of 257 runners finished the boys’ race that day.
GIRLS
Veteran mentor and former PA running stalwart Amy Bernard saw her Pinkerton Trailblazers wind up an excellent fourth in the region with yet another strong effort at the New Englands.
In the wake of their superb, title-winning effort at the D-I championships, the academy girls took second at the state Meet of Champs several weeks ago and headed to the regionals feeling good.
In the top-five team effort in Vermont, the ‘Blazers had freshman standout Jordan Vaillancourt pace the performance by finishing 27th overall in 19:53. She was just the third freshman across the finish line at that point.
The skilled ninth grader was followed by teammates Maison D’Amelio in 29th place (19:57), Morgan Sansing in 37th (20:08), Ciara April in the 43rd spot (20:13), Ariel Vaillancourt in 53rd (20:22), Taylor Lacey in the 94th position (20:59), and Sara Muller in 170th place (21:57) out of 250 finishers.
