The folks in charge of the annual Paul LeTarte Cross-Country Invitational in New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Valley should probably give some serious thought to just retiring their championship and naming the Pinkerton Academy Astro boys’ cross-country team the permanent champion of that event. Coach Mike Clark’s PA boys – known far and wide as The Long Red Line – snagged their eighth consecutive
LeTarte Invitational championship last weekend on the Great Glen Trails in that scenic section of the Granite State. And they did so in incredibly impressive fashion.
The Astros claimed the top five individual spots and six of the top 10 in winning the title yet again with a microscopic tally of 15 points. The Merrimack Valley males were a very distant second with 78. Pinkerton standout Phil Parent paced the whole crowd in the race, winning it in a time of 17 minutes and eight seconds. He was followed directly by teammates Owen Clark in second (17:35), Tom Hanlon in third (17:38), Connor Kwiecien in fourth place (17:49), and Joe Poggi in the fifth spot (17:52). The academy team’s Nick Pietrocarlo also ended up in the top 10, finishing 10th in a time of 18:03 as PA placed an exclamation point on its effort.