Both the Pinkerton Academy boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams ended up with substantial reasons to be proud of themselves as they made the lengthy ride home from the New England Interscholastic Cross-Country Championships in Connecticut last weekend.
Coach Mike Clark’s Long Red Line boys’ team finished a strong eighth out of 30 competing teams at the Saturday, Nov. 8 competition – which was held in Wickham Park in Manchester, Conn. – and coach Amy Bernard’s Trailblazer girls ended up 11th out of 30 female contingents at that event.
BOYS
Clark’s now two-time defending Division I champion Astros hoped to give the LaSalle Academy squad from Rhode Island a run for the team title at the 2014 event. But LaSalle just rolled to the crown, while the Pinkerton bunch had to be happy with finishing first out of all New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont squads.
Nick Sevilla paced the Astro effort by finishing 26th out of 264 finishers with his time of 16 minutes and 24 seconds. Second for PA was Tom Hanlon, who was 43rd overall in 16:37.
Austin Smith also was in the top 100 (91st), and the Astros’ other finishers included Owen Clark (111th), Sam Lanternier (130th), Nate Rees (153rd), and Nick Pietrocarlo (177th).
GIRLS
Junior star Morgan Sansing capped off her 2014 season by finishing 12th overall (18:53), which garnered her All-New England honors. Sansing was the fourth New Hampshire girl across the finish line.
Next for PA with another stellar performance was Ariel Vaillancourt, who finished in 35th place (19:30) and as the seventh Granite State female across the finish line.
Third for the Trailblazers and in the top 25 overall among New Hampshire runners was Samantha Mangano, and Taylor Lacey and Sarah Muller completed the scoring performance for the local crew.
