New England cross-country running championships: U-32 boys claim team crown at Thetford
The U-32 High School boys cross-country team had a season-long goal of winning the New England championship.
Mission accomplished.
The Raiders placed a trio of runners in the top 30 to claim the team prize at the 86th running of the regional meet held at Thetford Academy on Saturday.
U-32 is the first boys team to capture the New England title since Essex in 1987.
States coverage: Burlington girls halt CVU's title streak, St. Johnsbury boys win tiebreaker
Brothers Carson Beard and Austin Beard finished 18th and 19th, respectively, with times of 16:58.11 and 17:01.36, to headline U-32's outfit. Ollie Hansen (17:13.71) took 28th overall while Cyrus Hansen (17:47.10) was 72nd and Sargent Burns (18:07.13) raced to 97th to complete U-32's top-five scoring.
U-32, the six-time reigning Division II champion in Vermont, totaled 139 points to out-pace runner-up La Salle (162) and Ridgefield.
St. Johnsbury's Evan Thornton-Sherman was Vermont's top individual finisher. Thornton-Sherman toured the 5K course in 16:26.36 to earn a fourth-place medal, helping SJA to 13th in the team standings.
On the girls side, Harwood senior Ava Thurston stormed to third place with a time of 19:30.79. Champlain Valley freshman Alice Kredell was the next Vermont finisher, earning 10th in 19:57.04, while BFA-St. Albans' Loghan Hughes took 15th (20:09.04) and Burlington's Rebecca Cunningham nabbed 19th (20:21.18).
In the girls team standings, CVU finished fourth and Harwood took fifth with 235 and 248 points, respectively. Burlington, the D-I champion, was seventh. New Milford of Connecticut was the team winner with a 140 score.
The CVU girls were the last Vermont team to win New Englands when they secured the second of back-to-back titles in 2019.
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This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: U-32 boys claim crown at New England XC running championships