MANCHESTER — Trevor Siegel has his own motto for running cross country: Run first, die later. He talks to himself whenever his eyes start to wander on the course, saying, “Trevor, run your own race and take it one step at a time.”
On a dry and well-groomed 5-kilometer course at Derryfield Park, Siegel ran his own race on Saturday morning. He was able to stay in a pack with his Hanover High teammates and use a strong finish to his advantage.
Siegel claimed 14th place with a time of 16 minutes, 55 seconds, to guide the Marauders to a third-place finish with 130 points at the NHIAA Division II state meet. The top-six result sends Hanover to Saturday’s Meet of Champions at Mines Falls in Nashua.
Coe-Brown edged out Oyster River for first place with 21 points, putting all five scoring runners in the top 10.
“I’ll push myself to try to get to them (other racers),” Siegel said. “I don’t care if they’re slowing down, speeding up. All I care about is just how well I’m doing, what my body is saying and if I can push myself beyond those limits.”
While Siegel shined with his top-20 finish, his teammates followed closely behind. Matthew Bonner (17:22) and Daniel Frost (17:23) stuck together and were 26th and 27th, respectively. Daniel Bandler (17:36) and Mack Levy (17:36) were 31st and 32nd.
Outside of team scoring, Hanover’s Ian Nolon cracked the top 40 with a time of 17:53 for 39th place. Diego Aspinwall paced himself with a 5:51 mile and an overall time of 18:12 in 47th.
Last year’s meet at Derryfield wasn’t picturesque like Saturday. Instead of the well-groomed hills and dry grass, last October featured slippery hills and waterlogged grass that runners sunk in.
“The challenges were hoping that it wasn’t like last year,” Hanover coach Eric Picconi said. “Last year was muddy and soupy, so this was basically perfect conditions. It was really on us to do our best today instead of wrestling with the course.”
Added Siegel: “It was one of the greatest moments in my life when our bus pulled in and we saw that it was dry.”
The Marauders girls squad finished sixth with 176 points, just making the cut for the MOC. They were led by Chrissy Aman, who led all runners at one point in the race, eventually settling into 11th place in 20:43. Souhegan won the meet with the top three runners.
Charlotte Tagupa followed behind Aman in 34th in 21:38. Caroline Loescher (21:45) cracked the top 40 with a seven-minute mile, good enough for 37th place. Bridget Meehan (21:57) and Riley Roach (22:03) finished 46th and 48th, respectively, to close out scoring for Hanover.
Aman’s goal headed into the meet was to finish in the top 25. A senior, she’s known to just chase down runners in front of her. “She is one tough cookie mentally,” Marauders coach Dorcas DenHartog said. “She is intelligent in terms of running. She’s gonna give it her all and she’s not gonna race in the backseat. That’s just not her style.”
The Derryfield course features plenty of hills, and can be mentally exhausting. When Hanover visits Mines Falls, it will be a much different race.
Instead of a tactical challenge, the Marauders know that it will be a sprint to the finish, and times will be significantly lower. That’s what the next week of practice will be geared toward.
“It is just fast, fast, fast,” Picconi said. “You get out fast and for us that’s a challenge, but they’re hungry for those fast times. I think next week it’s them racing against the clock and hoping that everything falls into place.”
Notes: Lebanon’s boys and girls were in the D-II race, too. The Raider boys squad finished 13th with a team score of 367 and were led by Cody Davis (17:08) in 19th place. The girls were one spot short of the Meet of Champions cut in seventh place with 246 points. Zoe Chinn (20:47) paced Lebanon in 13th. … The Meet of Champions girls portion starts at 2:30 p.m. and the boys follow at 3:20 p.m. … The Souhegan girls cross country championship is its third in the last four years. Sophomore Chloe Trudel won the race in 18:42. … Coe-Brown’s Luke Tkaczyk won the boys race with a time of 16:06. … Dirk Andrew topped the 19th-place Mascoma boys by taking 27th in the D-III race (18:08). … The Royal girls were 13th as a team in D-III. Alayna Miller (23:42) was a team-best 51st. … Newport sent two runners. Katrina Pickering was 67th (24:14) among the D-III girls, and Quinter Johnson was 185th (26:30) with the D-III boys.
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.