VTHSXC.COM Vermont HS Cross Country Poll Results - Oct. 7, 2019
Boys Overall Top 10
Comments:
The Woods Trail Invite Oct 5th in Thetford went down on a picture perfect fall day in Vermont. A sunny, cool, windless and dry day in the middle of New England foliage season turned out to be a wild and turbulent day for the boys rankings. #1 U32 ran strongly to win over second place #3 CVU and 50 other teams from all over Vermont and New England. With #2 Essex finishing in fourth, #4 BHS in 5th place and #5 SB in sixth place the Green Mountain Boys defended their decidedly “not flat” home turf in a strong fashion. The Raiders put 5 runners under 18 minutes on the notoriously slow Thetford course and had a tightly grouped scoring pack separated by only 45 seconds. #2 Essex was decidedly short-handed running without their usual third and fifth runners this persuaded the coaches to only drop them down a single place in the rankings. Can a full strength Hornets team be beaten? The New England Championships November 10th in Manchester, CT (assuming all these teams qualify) will be the next and final time to see all of the top Vermont teams race head to head.
If the top five spots in the poll saw some reshuffling the next five positions saw a complete upheaval with #6 Woodstock and #9 Spaulding leading a D2 invasion of the rankings. In breaking into the top 10 for the first time all year both the Wasps and Crimson Tide showed impressive depth. #7 St Jay is the lone D1 school in the second half of the rankings with #8 Thetford and #10 Middlebury completing a very good week for Vermont’s mid-sized schools.
The individual race also saw a new face on top as Mill River’s Brogan Giffin outdueled Essex standout Henry Farrington to win in an impressive 16:28. Running as a one man team Giffin might be a new name to casual observers but he has been near the top of the heap of Vermont Cross and Track for a few years now with Saturday’s win making clear that he can be at the front of any race in the Northeast.
Division 1 Boys Top 5
Comments:
The boys D1 top has little change with a lot that happened during the Thetford Invite. CVU was the top finishing D1 team, but Essex remains on top of the polls with missing two key runners. Coaches are in agreement if anyone is going to top Essex in the polls they will need to do it while they are full strength. CVU runs a very impressive team race lead by 9th grader Matt Servin. They still boast the smallest gap of all the D1 teams. BHS continues to improve with tying Essex and losing out with the 6th man. SB also races with a very tight 1-5 gap and are within striking distance of several of the top ranked teams. The change this week is St Jay bumping out BFA for the 5th spot. These two teams have swapped several times this season. BFA’s top runner has been battling pneumonia.
Henry Farrington is still the odds on favorite for the D1 individual crown but had company with Evan Thornton-Sherman of St Jay over the weekend. Martisus of Essex and Summa of BHS round out the most consistent top performing D1 individuals.
Division 2 Boys Top 5
1. U32
2. Woodstock
3.Spaulding
4. Midd
5. Harwood
Comments:
Woods Trail was an exceptional day for D2. With #1 U32 winning and Woodstock and Spaulding running very impressively. Both the #2Wasps and #3Crimson Tide beat #4Middlebury for the first time all year. #5 Harwood also strengthened their case with a very fast run at the Belfast, Maine Meet of Champions. For the moment the Raiders still seem like solid favorites for the State Championship but with the rest of D2 running much faster as the season goes on the D2 race at States might be surprisingly close by the time October 26th rolls around. Prohibitive favorites have lost many times at States so U32 would be well served to keep their nose clean and to the grindstone this next month.
Division 3 Boys Top 5
Comments:
The D3 results from the Woods Trail Run in one word: Unexpected. Brogan Giffin of Mill River won the boys race, beating Henry Farrington of Essex by 3 seconds with a time of 16:25. Henry was previously undefeated this season vs. Vermont athletes. In the team standings, #1Thetford represented their home course well, finishing 11th overall, and the top D3 team. They take over the top spot convincingly, with the next D3 team, #2 Craftsbury, finishing 28th. #3 Peoples and #4 Bellows Falls both raced short-handed, so take their 32 and 35th finishes with a grain of salt. #5 Stowe looks to be in trouble, as all of their athletes toed the line Saturday at Thetford and they could not beat the depleted squads of Peoples and Bellows Falls. Stowe finished 37th overall.
VTHSXC.COM Vermont HS Cross Country Poll Results - Oct. 7, 2019
Girls Overall Top 10
Comments:
Well…..Thetford threw the rankings into some big shakeups!!! The one constant is with CVU staying at #1 led by Alicia Veronneau finishing second by…..05 of a second! Not very often a cross country race comes down to a photo finish. Alice Larson finished in 9th and Jasmine Nails in 16th and was the only team to have more than 2 people in the top 16. U-32 jumps up to #2 after a strong 5th place team finish. They were propelled by a strong 1-3 showing by May Lamb(27), Shams Ferver(32) and Lana Page(35). They were separated by only 16 seconds which is an impressive performance. Harwood moves up to #3 after finishing 3rd in an invitational in Maine and it’s a bit hard to know if they should be higher but they weren’t at Thetford and were running on a MUCH faster course in Maine. They were led by Ava Thurston running a VT #2 time of 18:16 to finish 3rd overall. To make things a bit murkier in the merged results Harwood actually won the meet if you add in one of their girls who ran in the freshman race. Burlington moves to #4 after finishing 7th at Thetford. Burlington was led by their top duo of Isabel Vivanco in 14th and Emma Barker in 31st. Essex drops to #5 after an 8th place finish at Thetford. Natalie Preston continued her great season to lead Essex by finishing in 19th place. BFA St Albans holds strong at #6 after their 12th place finish barely edging out our #7 team St Johnsbury who was 13th and only 3 points behind BFA. Middlebury stays in the top 10 after their 16th place finish at Thetford. Colchester moves into the top 10 after a 17th place finish at Thetford. South Burlington rounds out the top 10 with an 18th place finish at Thetford.
Division 1 Girls Top 5
Comments:
After the top 10 having some massive changes the D1 top 5 stays pretty stable with two little changes. CVU remains at #1 after winning the Woods Trail Invitational at Thetford in a state meet preview. The big difference come state meet time will be significantly less people and less displacement. CVU ran well with their top 6 in the top 50 to be the only team at the meet to accomplish that. Burlington leap frogs Essex again. This battle will not get figured out until the very last week of the season! Burlington bested Essex at Thetford by 19 points so they move back into the #2 spot with Essex moving back to #3 but this battle seriously is too tight to call. In the second REALLY close battle BFA St Albans is #4 after besting St Johnsbury, our #5, at Thetford by a measly 3 points! This is another battle that might not get settled until everyone’s next trip to Thetford in a little less than 3 weeks.
Division 2 Girls Top 5
Comments:
Harwood on top one week, U32 the next. The eternal rivals swapped spots this week based on U32’s strong run at Woods Trail that saw the Raiders finish as the second Vermont team. Only problem is that Harwood was racing (fast!) in Maine and may actually be the second best team in Vermont. Hard to say? In larger meets with greater numbers of fast runners Ava Thurston’s low stick will certainly be the difference. The problem is that D2 States will be an intimate affair. Thurston will likely win by a minute or more but only register a 1-3 point difference over U32’s top runner May Lamb. Over the last decade Harwood has won practically all these head to head team battles at the State Meet so the smart money is likely on the Highlanders but this one could be very close! No changes in the rest of the top five with #3 Midd, #4 Burr and Burton and #5 Lamoille all holding their positions.
Barring a mishap Ava Thurston (18:16!! in Maine this past Sat) will be the prohibitive favorite for the individual championship on October 26.
Division 3 Girls Top 5
Comments:
The Woods Trail Run look to have tightened up the race for the D3 crown, at least below the #1 spot, which still belongs firmly to Bellows Falls. #2 Rice was close to them this week, but the smart money is still on the Terriers. Much like on the boys side, #3 Thetford was able to put forth a strong effort at their home course, and they get their highest ranking of the season as a result. #4 Sharon was also able to surprise the field, and they find themselves ranked for the first time this year. Bumped from the number three spot for the first time this season, #5 Northfield was consistent at Thetford this weekend, with the tightest grouping of athletes from any D3 school.