HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY : New Hampshire Runners Go 1-2 in Boys’ Race

Matt Downin and John Mortimer made it a big day for little New Hampshire at the Foot Locker national cross-country championships at Morley Field.

Downin, of Pinkerton Academy in Hampstead, N.H., pulled away from his best friend, John Mortimer of Londonderry, in the final 100 meters Saturday to become the first New Hampshire runner to win the boys’ title in the 16-year history of the meet.

It was the sixth time this season that Downin had raced Mortimer, and he evened the score at 3-3.

Downin’s time was 14 minutes 58.3 seconds over a course that was just short of 5,000 meters. Mortimer finished in 15:03.1.

“I didn’t think that we would both be on again today,” said Downin, who finished eighth in the nationals last year. “But when it came down to the two of us at the end, it felt great.”

In the girls’ race, Santa Rosa sophomore Julia Stamps blew away the field with a time of 16:41.9.

Stamps, who won the 3,200 meters in the State track championships in June as a ninth-grader at Rincon Valley Junior High in Santa Rosa, defeated runner-up Sally Glynn (17:12.1) of Johnson High in Rockville, Md., by more than 20 seconds.