Cross Country

Lebanon’s Campbell wins Woods Trail Run

Lebanon’s Jill Campbell had another outstanding effort Saturday, winning the Woods Trail Run at Thetford Academy and leading the Raiders to a fourth-place finish among 30 teams from around New England.

Campbell, a freshman, finished the five-kilometer top-seeded race in 19 minutes, 9 seconds, just two seconds ahead of Acadia Enman of Mount Mansfield Union. The Raiders’ Brooke Nelson was seventh and Carolyn Campbell came in 28th, with senior Ollie Hanna 40th and Victoria Pomeroy 41st.

The races for both the girls and boys were split into five seeded groups based on recorded times. Those with the fastest times were in the first seed. Overall, there were 334 runners among the girls and a field of 500 for the boys. The Raider girls finished with 105 points, missing second place by just three points.

Lebanon coach Kevin Lozeau said his young team had quite a day and was able to hang with perennially strong programs.

“Jill ran a phenomenal race,” Lozeau said, adding that her winning time would have placed her eighth at last year’s New England Championships.

“Brooke also ran well on the tough terrain, and the other girls in our scoring five did an excellent job moving up over the race to finish in great positions,” Lozeau said on Sunday in a text. “For such a young team, they are really proving that they are capable of following race plans and trusting their abilities.”

Thetford’s Peter Horan was 15th overall among the boys, followed by teammate Zac Amber (16th) and Ollie Emery (27th). Thetford finished eighth out of 34 teams.

Panthers coach Joseph Deffner noted it was a perfect fall day and the team performed well with “a lot of PRs on the day, which is kind of what we focus on in this race,” as it serves the teams well preparing for in the upcoming league and state championships.

“So we were pleased with how the day went and were especially thrilled with how the boys in seed 1 performed,” Deffner said in an email. “Peter Horan set a PR and what we believe is a school record for our course at 17:07. Zac Amber also set a PR at 17:20, and Ollie Emery did likewise, going under 18:00 (at 17:55) for the first time in his career.”

Other finishes from Upper Valley teams included Sylvia Johnson (Hartford. 21st), Mary Sluka (Woodstock, 39th), Olivia Dube (Windsor, 63rd) Pippa Shaw (Woodstock, 66th) and Meredith Sloop (Thetford, 102nd).

The Lebanon boys were 11th overall led by Curran Poole (61st), Alistair Smith (72nd), Brent Paige (77th) and Ian Kiefer (88th). Woodstock’s Nicholas Cellini was 50th.

Lozeau said the Lebanon boys had a strong showing despite Kiefer fighting illness. “The younger guys are really starting to close the gap to our top runners,” he said.

Hartford coach Dan Talbot noted some of his team’s highlights including Elijah Ofstadt winning the seed 2 race and finishing 35th overall with a personal best of 18:06.

“Our 2-5 runners (Leo Snyder-Hamalainen (78th) Elliot Brooks (102nd), Scott McSherry (105th) and Jaidin Bennett (106th)) all ran well and finished within 23 seconds of each other,” Talbot said in an email.

Sam Ofstadt, Ollie Munn-Campusano, Cooper Warren and Douglas Kussius also all set new personal bests for Hartford, Talbot said.

“For the girls, Sylvia Johnson finished 21st overall and was the third Vermont Division II runner,” Talbot noted. “Sylvia has been working extremely hard and continues to improve in what was her best race of the season. Overall a lot of great performances team-wide.”

Boys team scores: Champlain Valley 51, Barrington (R.I.) 83, U-32 145, St, Johnsbury 187, BFA-St. Albans 201, Montpelier 214, Burlington 245, Thetford 252, Souhegan 256, Mount Mansfield 300; Lebanon 11th, 372; Hartford 12th, 373; Woodstock 26th, 730.

Girls team scores: Essex 88, Champlain Valley 102, Barrington (R.I.) 104, Lebanon 105, U-32 163, BFA-St. Albans (196), Stowe 257, Middlebury 268, South Burlington 271, Souhegan 280; Woodstock 15th, 382; Hartford 20th, 628 (20th); Windsor 21st, 631; Thetford 23rd, 679.