Manchester West’s Julia Robitaille came up just a few seconds short from another cross country title on Saturday in Nashua, finishing second in the 2017 NHIAA Cross Country Meet of Champions in Mine Falls Park.
A junior at West, Robitaille finished with a time of 17:05.6, 14 seconds behind winner Jacqueline Gaughan of Exeter.
Her time on Saturday was almost a minute better than her title-winning finish at the Division II Championship a week earlier at Derryfield Park.
Julia’s sister Corinne finished in 12th place with a time of 18:24.6.
Other Manchester finishers on the girls’ side included several participants from Manchester Central: Katelyn Pepin (18:40.7, 22nd place), Keegan Pepin (19:20.2, 39th place), Emma Krantz (21:00.0, 97th place), Carley Crain (21:12.3, 106th place), Alexandra Topic (21:13.3, 108th place), Rylee Ducharme (21:51.1, 120th place), and Taylor Rogers (22:25.2, 130th place).
Katelyn Pepin and the Robitaille sisters now head to the New England Cross Country Championships on Nov. 11 in Belfast, Maine.
On the boys’ side, the top finisher from a Manchester school was Danny Donovan of Trinity (16:55.0, 73rd place). Derryfield’s Caleb Richmond (17:00.2, 79th place) and Matt Michaud (17:27.8, 95th place) also participated.
