Class M
Class M Girls Start Time 9:15
Defending Champion: Tolland
Class M Boys Start Time: 9:50
Defending Champion: Tolland
Class M Boys
Tolland surprised many people by finishing third at the Wickham Invitation and they backed up that effort with a 2nd place finish at CCC meet. This is a young team, but they have already had several years of experience together dating back to their days in middle school. While Tolland may be a slight favorite, they have to run well to earn the title. NCCC champion Suffield and Berkshire League champion have the fire power up front but aren't quite as deep as the defending champions. But if Tolland has an off day or one of the other team can get a big performance, there is a small chance there could be an upset.
Class M Girls
NCCC runner up Ellington and Berkshire League champ Nonnewaug competed on the same day twice this season. Nonnewaug won the small school section of the Winding Trails Invite with Ellington taking 2nd, but at the Wickham Invite, they ran in separate sections, but Ellington ran much faster. Weston will be up there, but all of their best times came from the Connecticut River Valley Invitational which is an incredibly fast course.
With athletes racing different courses with varying difficulties, it is inaccurate to base rankings in cross country based strictly on times. To show how close the Class M race will be, you only have to look at the results from the Wickham Invitational, the only race the top few runners competed against each other. Kayla Cohen of New Fairfield ran 20:25, Elisabeth Brown of Sheehan ran a 20:30 and Elizabeth Stockman of Rocky Hill ran 20:32 on the same day. Now add in Berlin's Juliana Cancellier who dropped her time down to a 20:09 at the CCC championships over the same course and you can see this race is totally up in the air.