Top Athletes: Henry Jacobsen, Parker Charter; Nathan Henshaw, Parker Charter; Jett Johnson, Parker Charter; Benjamin Harwood, Lenox Memorial; Conor Stach, Parker Charter
Outlook: The favorite for individual honors is Jacobsen, the defending champion. The Parker Charter senior, who was a runner-up as a tenth-grader, won the 2023 race with a 15-second victory over teammate Caleb Hatevig, who graduated this past June. Jacobsen followed that performance by taking fourth overall at the Meet of Champions. He had a 5K best of 15:33.3, an effort that placed him fifth overall at the Bob Glennon Twilight Invitational. Henshaw (sixth, 17:04.08), Johnson (seventh, 17:04.15), Harwood (eighth, 17:07.43), Stach (tenth, 17:23.06) and Leone (11th, 17:24.93) were all among the top finishers at last year’s meet and should be in the mix this year. Keep an eye on Johnson. As a seventh-grader, he made quite an impact for the Panthers. He was their No. 3 finishers at the MOC (19th, 16:55.7) and raced to a PR of 16:33.2 at Twilight.
Teamwise, defending 3C and MOC titlist Parker Charter appears primed to repeat the magic this fall. The Panthers lost just one runner from last year’s team that scored 26 points at the 3C meet, a comfortable 69 points ahead of second-place Lenox. Bromfield, Lenox and Mount Greylock are among teams that should be battling for the other top positions.
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