Xavier captures Class L crown
MANCHESTER — Xavier’s lineup looked far different than it did a year ago for the postseason at Wickham Park, but so far the results have been the same. The Falcons cruised to their second straight state title with its top runner approaching history.
Robbie Cozean’s time of 15:30 was the fourth fastest modern time until Sherry bumped it down a spot later in the afternoon. The Notre Damebound Cozean was unchallenged in his event, though, finishing ahead of Newington’s Sam Geisler by 39 seconds.
“Robbie ran well,” said Xavier coach Chris Stonier. “He looked very relaxed. Before the race he said he wanted to go out hard in the first mile. To run five seconds faster than the Wickham Invite; he looks like he has a lot more to go.”
The Falcons had all six of their runners finish in the top 20 as a late charge helped earn them spots. The squad’s secondthroughsixth runners finished 24 seconds apart. Xavier finished about two minutes faster than it did at the Wickham Invite.
Xavier (62) finished ahead of Bristol Central (94); Pomperaug finished sixth and New Milford was seventh.
“I was really happy,” Stonier said. “With a group of three sophomores and one freshman, it’s easy to get overwhelmed at a big meet like this. It seemed the emotions were a little more tempered.”
SHERRY EDGES PUFFER
It took almost the entire afternoon of races to produce drama at the front, but two of the most talented runners in the state dueled at the front of the pack during the Class LL race. Conard’s Gavin Sherry won his first title by edging Manchester’s Aidan Puffer in an intense battle between sophomores.
“That was amazing,” Sherry said. “I’m thankful to have Aidan in there and the fact we have two sophomores up there. I couldn’t ask for a better running partner; every single race we’re in he pushes me to do my best.”
After the pair were close throughout the first mileplus, Sherry exploded up the green monster to put a bit of distance between the pair. The gap remained as they came out of the wilderness and up the straightaway.
“I love racing hills because I always end up pushing what would seem to be too hard,” Sherry said. “But then I feel like it gets you to get more out of yourself. Your limits are way further than you actually think they are.”
Conard earned its first Class title in more than a decade in decisive fashion, placing three in the top 10. Callum Sherry (16:13) finished fourth wile Tyler Remigino was 10th (16:25). Staples finished second as a team, led by Morgan Fierro’s thirdplace finish (16:13); he just nipped Sherry at the line as the two were locked for most of the race.
It sets up a potentially intriguing race next week with Sherry and Puffer taking on Cozean; the trio have yet to race against one another in 2019.
AVON COMPLETES SWEEP IN MM
Avon’s Jack Martin made it a clean sweep for his school when he cruised to the Class MM title in 16:18. That was a top10 time Saturday overall as he won by 21 seconds over a pair of East Lyme runners — Luke Anthony and Fisher Macklin.
East Lyme took home the team title by 20 points, besting Avon 6787. Guilford, Bethel and Weston rounded out the top 5. Bethel’s Robert Doyle finished eighth in the race.
TOLLAND WINS 4TH STRAIGHT TITLE
The Tolland boys Cross Country team has now won four consecutive state titles after a dominating showing at Wickham Park Saturday.
Four of the Tolland runners finished with top10 placement in the race, including the individual Class M State champion, Alec Sauter.
“This is a group of guys where a lot of them have been running together for three or four years now,” Tolland coach Brandon Elliott said. “We have a lot of juniors and seniors on the team so they really have built up the ability to train and race together, which they showed today.”
Sauter, a senior, completed the race in 16:08 after finishing in fifth place at the event a season ago.
“It feels great,” Sauter said. “I definitely came into the race thinking that it was a possibility, but there was going to be a lot of tough competition so I gave it my all for the first half and tried to stay in front and then from there it was whatever I had left.”
Nathan Polangeli, Jackson Cayward, and Killian McNamee finished 567, while Jacob Gerow placed 11th, all of them finishing the race in under 17 minutes.
“This has been something we have been talking about since 8th grade,” Sauter said. “Winning the State Open is the goal Friday.”
IRELAND, EAST HAMPTON SWEEP CLASS SS TITLES
East Hampton won big at the Boys Class SS State Championship, taking the team title with some help from Jacob Ireland, who took home the individual title.
Ireland completed the race in 16:33, outpacing secondplace finisher Ryan Kittridge of Windsor Locks by just seven seconds.
“I definitely wanted to win,” Ireland said. “I was ranked number one in the rankings so I wanted to get number one. It was tiring though, I didn’t expect to lead from start to finish. I finished fourth last year behind three seniors who are gone now, so I had a little chip on my shoulder coming into this one.”
Alexandre McMillian placed 5th overall in the race, battling an injured hamstring while teammate Brendan Owen finished 11th in his first season of Cross Country as East Hampton’s top three paved the way to a team title.
“This has been an amazing group all year,” East Hampton coach Bill Wilkie said. “I didn’t know we would win, but I knew we’d have a very strong day. We have just been doing everything correctly, you never know what the results are going to be at the end of a meet, but this has been an awesome finish. I am wicked proud of them.”
TERRYVILLE’S DEFOREST WINS CLASS S
Terryville’s Chris Deforest was crowned the Class S Boys Cross Country State Champion Saturday as the senior finished the 5K course in 16:43.
“Last year I came in second behind Old Saybrook who is out of this class now,” Deforest said. “It was a great win. I feel amazing, finally winning this race. I upped my mileage over the summer a lot. My training during the season was good, lots of good workouts. I had an overall cool head for this race and that’s how I got it done.”
Despite Deforest’s effort, Bolton edged Terryville by just four points to take home the team title. Bolton had 47 points against Terryville’s 51.
Bolton’s Lucas Carini and Kevin Brudz finished in second and third place and were followed by Terryville’s CJ Hart in fourth.
With the first four finishers hailing from the two schools, it was George Chakulski’s 7th place finish and freshman Silas Gourey’s 19th place finish that arguably propelled Bolton past the defending champions.
“We knew going in that it was going to be extremely close,” Bolton coach Paul Smith said. “We knew it would be within 10 points or less, so every spot was going to count. I told my one and two that we weren’t not getting first place so (Carini) had to finish in second and (Brudz) had to finish third. (Chakulski) was our number three and he had to match Terryville’s strength. The older kids did what they had to do up towards the front, but today my number five, Gourey, ran a 40 second personal record, so basically that was the race.”