By MARTY OGDEN
After finishing as FCIAC runner-up by just one and three points the past two years, the Staples High boys' cross-country team finally got their revenge on their long- time rival, Danbury, on Wednesday. In what was supposed to be close meet, some outstanding performance by the Wreckers, combined with some sub-par races by the Hatters gave Staples a 27-61 win. This marks the 11th FCIAC title in the last 50 years under Hall of Fame coach Laddie Lawrence.
Staples was led by the individual winner Zak Ahmed who went to the front from the start and just continued to extend his lead until he was up at the finish line by 11 seconds over runner up William Brisman of Fairfield Warde. As another historical accomplishment, Ahmed's win marks the 13th victory from a boy from Staples, which is an FCIAC record.
Senior Terrell Cunningham, normally Danbury's 3rd or 4th runner, surprised everyone by moving up from 17th last year and taking third in 16:14.
But unfortunately for the Hatters, Staples' William Landowne, Christian Myers and Benjamin Seiple, all juniors, came within three seconds of each other and took the next three spots. When Sunil Green crossed the line in 11th place, just behind Danbury's number three runner, Bradley Fox, that sealed the win. The top 5 finishing places gave them 27 points, the 9th lowest score in conference history. That dominating performance was enough to beat the entire conference, made up of four state ranked teams, in a dual meet.
To add to Staples' dominance, Morgan Fierro won the freshman race and Connor Teran and Alec O'Donnell went 1-2 in the JV race to lead them to another 25-53 point win over Danbury.
On the girls' side, things pretty much went as expected with Ridgefield putting on a display of pack running and taking places 7-13 with a 14 second split from their first runner Ava Kelley and their 5th Haley Greene.
Greenwich was able to put up a fight through their first three runners, but didn't have the depth to withstand Ridgefield's onslaught. They were led by freshman Zoe Harris, who took the runner up spot and followed by Hetty McMillian who was up with the leaders most of the way until the heat caused her to drop to 9th and State Open 800m champion Emily Philippides in 11th. But with a 21st and 36th place finish of their next two scorers, the Cardinals held on for second by a score of 50-79, eight points ahead of Wilton.
While Wilton was hoping for the runner up spot, they didn't go home empty handed. Junior Morgan McCormick used her superior endurance to gradually pull away from the field and take home the victory in 14:36 over the 4000m course. Harris of Greenwich was 17 seconds back in 14:53 with senior Katelynn Romanchick of Trumbull setting her school record on the course in 14:57.
McCormick's victory is the 11th time a Wilton athlete has won the conference title, the last coming in 2004 after Kerri Lyons won three straight.
As a bookend to Staples' sweep of the titles, Ridgefield girls also won both the freshman and junior varsity races. Isabel Trinkaus won the 2500m freshman race with a time of 10:00 to lead her teammates to a 39-65 point win over Danbury. To close out the day, fellow freshman Elizabeth Jasminski stepped up to the 4k course and led a 1-2-3 junior varsity sweep for the Tigers with a time of 16:55. That also gave Ridgefield another victory with a convincing 17- 70 win over host New Canaan.