Nationally ranked CVU girls roll to New England XC running title
Vermont champions in perfect fashion. New England champs in a rout.
Two weeks after compiling a perfect team score at the Division I state meet, the Champlain Valley Union High School girls stormed to victory at the 88th New England cross-country running championships at Belfast, Maine, on Saturday.
The nationally ranked Redhawks posted 97 points to easily out-distance New Hampshire schools Oyster River (130) and Pinkerton (190).
It's CVU's seventh New England title, all since 2003.
Junior Alice Kredell, the two-time D-I champion, led the way for CVU and was Vermont's top finisher with a 10th-place showing, touring the 5K course in 18 minutes, 13.11 seconds.
Feature: 'The higher the stakes, the faster they run': CVU girls XC team chasing big goals
Following Kredell for CVU's top-five runners, Estella Laird took 18th overall (18:31.10), Lydia Donahue placed 37th (18:52.52), Audrey Neilson was 40th (18:53.90) and Charlotte Crum nabbed 53rd (19:07.64) out of 251 runners who completed the course.
Annalise Wood and Noe Jenni, CVU's sixth and seventh runners, placed 106th (20:06.24) and 109th (20:07.04), respectively.
Between CVU and Oyster River, the race was close through four runners for each squad, but Neilson finished 19 scoring spots ahead of Oyster River's No. 5 runner to seal the Redhawks first New England title since claiming the second of back-to-back crowns in 2019.
In the boys competition, St. Johnsbury was the top Vermont squad, placing ninth (303), while U-32 took 11th (323). Ridgefield of Connecticut claimed the boys title with a 57 team score.
Individually, SJA’s Emmett Johnson was the first Vermont boy to clip the line, racing to ninth with a time of 15:50.43. U-32’s Cyrus Hansen placed 12th in 15:53.76 and BFA-St. Albans’ Porter Hurteau also earned a top-25 finish (23rd in 16:05.84).
The Redhawk girls will attempt to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals during Northeast Regionals at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, New York, on Nov. 25.
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Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: New England cross-country running championships: CVU girls win title
