The Granite State’s scholastic cross country campaign enters its championship season Saturday with a full slate of divisional title meets slated for Manchester’s Derryfield Park.

The statewide showdown, the first of two on consecutive weekends, couldn’t come soon enough for Division II’s Coe-Brown Northwood Academy girls’ team.

The Black Bears, who run the 5k Derryfield hills and trails at 11:30 a.m., have been New Hampshire’s top-ranked girls’ team since Labor Day, and are itching to claim divisional laurels for the third straight year.

On Saturday, Nov. 3, the annual Meet of Champions will take place at Mine Falls in Nashua, and though no official single state team champion is declared, Coe-Brown bested every state rival in 2011 by at least 42 points.

The Black Bears’ scoring runners include sophomore Hannah Parker, who was second in this race last year and fourth at the Meet of Champions, and junior Jessie Carney, who garnered top-10 finishes at both 2011 championship-season events.

Bolstering the Black Bears’ effort is ninth-grader Elisabeth Danis. The varsity newcomer helped Coe-Brown win the recent 41-team Woods Trail Run in Thetford, Vt., with her eighth-place finish, two positions behind Carney and one behind Parker.

Hanover, Hollis/Brookline and Souhegan of Amherst contest for D-II silver.

Challenging the CBNA girls for individual honors will be current Meet of Champions gold medalist Courtney Hawkins of Milford and Sami Hicks of Laconia, who returns from an injury-plagued 2011.

Saturday’s competition begins with the Division III girls and boys on the Derryfield green at 10 and 10:40 a.m., respectively, followed the D-II girls and boys at 11:30 a.m. and 12:10 p.m., and finally the D-I girls and boys at 1 and 1:40 p.m. each.

The Hopkinton girls have a five-year lock on the D-III championship plaque and could easily make it six in a row. They kicked off the season exactly where they left off, winning the Early Bird Invitational by placing all five of their scoring runners among the race’s top 15 finishers.

The division’ individual champion, Casey Hecox of Manchester’s Derryfield School, seeks her second consecutive title.

The Bow boys are the two-time defending D-III champions and 2011 divisional titlist Andrew Weckstein paces the Falcons.

Coe-Brown’s Jeremy Brassard has emerged as one of the premier boys harriers in the state and will head the D-II field.

Durham’s Oyster River is the two-time defending champion, and Souhegan has constantly secured podium finishes in this season’s major events. The D-II team battle between the Bobcats and the Sabers (not to forget Penacook’s Merrimack Valley) may be the closest of the day.

Manchester Central’s girls had a three-year championship skein snapped last season by Nashua’s Bishop Guertin, but the Little Green boast reigning D-I champion Elizabeth Conway and a team that excels in title competition. BG, Londonderry, Bedford, Winnacunnet of Hampton and Pinkerton of Derry all vie for race hardware as well in this coin-flip race.

A season of dual meets and select invitationals has failed to produce one outstanding D-I boys’ team. Rather, Winnacunnet, Pinkerton, Bedford, Londonderry, Bishop Guertin, Salem and Nashua South have all shown strength and any could emerge as champion.

Following the Meet of Champions, the 2012 New England Cross Country Championships will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10, at Twin Brook Recreation Area in Cumberland, Maine.



NHIAA cross country divisional meets

Where: Derryfield Park, Manchester

When: Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m.

Boys’ state course record: Cory Thorne, Portsmouth, 15:21 (2004)

Girls’ state course record: Danyelle Wood, Spaulding, 17:57 (1992)