The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Defending champs deliver again
WATERTOWN — Nonnewaug’s girls and Northwestern’s boys defended their Berkshire League cross country team titles Friday afternoon at Watertown’s Black Rock State Park.
The Chiefs took home their fourth straight crown, the Highlanders, their second, but the winning margins came as happy surprises.
Nonnewaug’s undefeated girls (9-0) beat second-place Shepaug by 17 points (38-55) behind Helene Berger (2nd); Carly Andrew (5th); Jennie Schwartz (7th); Jackie Berger (10th); and Madeleine Woodward (14th) four days after squeaking past the Spartans by just three points in a dual meet at Nonnewaug even though Shepaug’s Emma Krebs reversed Monday’s individual outcome at the top over Berger.
“We ran really well today,” said Nonnewaug Coach Arleigh Duff, citing Monday’s narrow win and a chance for their four-peat as big incentives Friday. “The girls have worked hard.”
The individual win for Krebs was bittersweet.
“I like to go out fast and stay there,” said the Shepaug senior, shooting for a spot at Division I Lafayette or Northeastern next year. After Monday’s loss, Krebs beat Berger by 30 seconds over the 3.1-mile course Friday.
“The gap grew throughout
the race,” she said.
“(Black Rock Park) is a harder course,” said Berger, a sophomore turning in her second straight league runner-up performance.
Northwestern’s surprise in its boys win was the result of more volume than pure speed at the top.
Terryville’s Corey Picard passed Nonnewaug senior Elias Field 800 meters from the finish line, but the Highlanders followed in waves as all seven team members (only the top five count) flooded in – Connor Spencer, 5th; Brandon Beland, 8th; Jack Kaszas, 9th; Joshua Magini, 10th; Sam Schwartz, 11th; Chris Grenfell, 12th; and Alex Beauchene, 13th.
The result was a 43-78 romp over second-place Terryville.
“I didn’t expect us to win by that much,” said Coach Alison Beauchene.
The undefeated Highlanders (9-0) have won handily all
year, but Beauchene saw that as a possible trap at the league meet.
“I wanted the group to keep the goal in focus,” she said.
Picard, a Terryville senior who finished fifth a year ago, did that throughout his undefeated individual season.
“I’m used to being the underdog, so there was a lot more pressure this year,” he said, describing Friday’s race as multiple jockeying for position before that final 800 meters and his first finish under 17 minutes (16:39.2)
Field, a senior at Northwestern heading for a running spot at CCSU, beat Picard in the league’s preseason scrimmage, then found Picard getting stronger and stronger through the regular season, finally out-kicking him in a course Field finds too slow.
Both winning teams’ prospects look bright for adding to their strings next year. Nonnewaug’s top three girls finishers are two sophomores and a freshman. Northwestern’s boys graduate their top three finishers, but look at all those Highlander runners behind them.