First test. Success.
Three-time defending girls’ state champion Cumberland High got a chance to face some of the top regional competition of the season at Saturday’s Manchester Invitationals. Looking to get some valuable insight into the talent of this year’s squad, head coach Kerrie Carpenter got just what she was looking for.
Tackling the ultra-challenging five-kilometer terrain of Derryfield Park in New Hampshire, the Clippers finished an impressive second overall against New England’s finest, scoring a low 87 points, just 25 behind top Massachusetts entry Lexington.
Cumberland averaged a crisp 19 minutes, 55 seconds among its scorers, with a gap of just 1:08 between its No. 1 and No. 5 runners. Leading the way for the Clippers was junior Cecelia Ludwig, who was 10th overall at 19:28. Close behind was promising freshman Caylee Kurbec in 19:31. Completing the scoring were sophomore Natalie Crawford (19th, 19:57), senior Gabby Stoothoff (20th, 19:50) and senior Anna Bianchi (27th, 20:36).
“We have had a lot of moving parts this season in terms of rosters on both my girls’ and boys’ teams, and it was a relief to finally have the chance to evaluate where we all are in this moment,” said Carpenter late Sunday afternoon. “I am thrilled with our performance. We had our radar up for our individual performances with very specific goals throughout the race course to improve over last year here, and we executed.”
Saturday’s performance was encouraging for the Clippers, given their recent history at Manchester. In 2024, they were fourth overall. In last year’s event, Cumberland tied for second with Hanover at 100 points, but was awarded third based on the sixth-runner tiebreaker.
After a dual meet on Tuesday, the Clippers will be testing their mettle once again against some of the region’s top schools at the annual Bowdoin XC Classic, which is held at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., site of Nike Cross Regionals Northeast (NXR-Northeast).
Click the links below to check out how all our teams performed at Saturday’s meet, and for photos of all the races, courtesy our State Running Team in New Hampshire (nh.staterunning.net).
