X-C Previews: Fairfield County Conference Boys


During the next few weeks, MileSplit CT will provide in-depth previews by MARTY OGDEN of all the major conferences in the state..

We begin with the Fairfield County Conference (FCC), which was led by last year by State Open champions and All-Americans Hannah Debalsi (Staples) and Eric van der Els (Brien McMahon). Staples and Danbury went 1-2 at the boys Open with Ridgefield and Fairfield Warde also finishing in the top ten.  On the girls' side, Ridgefield and Staples went 3-4 to qualify for New England Championships and Greenwich also finished in the top 10 in the team standings. 


Staples' Zakeer Ahmad is coming off a breakthrough outdoor season.

FCIAC Boys

On the boys' side, Danbury and Staples battled it out last year with the Hatter's holding off the Wreckers by three points at the conference meet and the State Open by only 13 points over Danbury. Once again, Staples barely held off Danbury by only 10 points at New England to take the third-place trophy home to Westport. 

Not to be overlooked Fairfield Warde had an outstanding season to finish sixth and qualify for New England's, and Ridgefield also finished ninth to give the FCIAC four teams in the top 10 at the Open.  

This year it looks to once again be Danbury and Staples battling for the crown with Danbury returning four of the top seven and a deep JV team that finished seven in the top 15 at the JV conference race.  But what will make this interesting is that Staples only loses one of its top five and two in their top seven, but return three junior varsity runners in the top 10.  So it come out that both teams are evenly matched.

Fairfield Warde, Darien and Trumbull also had good young teams last year and will hope to make some noise at the conference and state levels. 

Individually, this year's FCIAC harriers have some big shoes to fill. The last four winners have been All American and have broken several records. The top returner is Wiliam Brisman, who was third last year at the FCIAC meet and ran a solid 9:27 for 3,200m. But he will have his hands full with Zakeer Ahmad from Staples, who ran 4:12 for the full mile and 9:10 for 3,200m last spring.

Other top returners are Trevor Reed of Danbury who was sixth in the FCIAC last year and 15th at the State Open and popped off a 4:19 mile. Aaron Breene of Wilton, who ran 1:52 for 800m and 4:16 mile is another one who should be in the lead pack.  But not to be overlooked is Brien McMahon's Ajax Diamandis who barely earned All FCIAC second team last year and improved under the tutelage of his All-American teammate Eric van der Els.  He ended up finishing second to van der Els in the State Open 1,600m with a 4:16.