Tolland High, winner of the Varsity 1 girls' race (Photo by Robert Haddad)
By KEN CASTRO
Tolland High School fired the opening salvo in defense of its state title following a dictating performance at the 36th edition of the Haddad Windham Cross Country Invitational.
The Eagles left little to the imagination as to their method in approaching the 2014 campaign. From the opening gun, the collective early season fitness of the team became strikingly apparent.
Tolland garnering the envious top spot in the Connecticut state preseason poll finished with 19 points in taking the team crown, well ahead of surprising Conard (90 pts.) and Branford.
Individual winner, junior Caitlyn Swanson, took control at the outset on the rolling circuit. With a quartet of teammates in tow, Swanson stretched the field to the breaking point at the initial mile marker. Rockville senior Haley Hasty, who hit the line in 18:37, remained the lone rival to upset the Eagles overwhelming control.
“We wanted to start slow and stick together. Once we got around the school we could start our race. We always push each other so when we hear each other we gradually get faster and that’s basically what happened,” Swanson said. “We don’t really want to push ourselves this early in the season obviously, but it was good to get back into racing.”
Swanson, third at the meet a year ago, clocked 18:33 in the triumph. Sophomore Haley Collins, winner of the freshman competition in 2013, was a tick behind her teammate for second. Senior Courtney Akerley(fourth), Katherine Deloreto (fifth) and tenth-place finisher Gabrielle Heilman rounded out the top five slots for Tolland. Akerley came into the opening test of the fall following an injury that led to an abbreviated outdoor track season. Collins entered the current campaign seated fourth on the Eagles depth chart.
“Haley ran really well today,” Swanson said. “It was a nice surprise that she stayed with us at the front.”
“Haley’s done the work over the past year,” said Eagles head coach Judi Lafontaine. “I think we’re going to see good things from her all season.”
While lofty rankings and polls can often have adverse effects on a team’s overall psyche, Lafontaine acknowledges her athletes remain aware of its presence.
“They’ve been pretty low-key about the ranking,” said Lafontaine. “We are doing a good job of trying to remain focused for the important races in the future.”
The Eagles overall domination aside, Conard’s rise to the podium became a high point of the afternoon.
“A surprise start to the season, no doubt, “said Chieftains coach Leslie Hadra after watching her charges take hold of second place. “We graduated five of our top seven from last season, and I thought this would be our building year. But some of the girls here today ran both indoor and outdoor track, and decided that they loved running and eventually decided to join us, and you can see the results of that today.”
Juniors Gwendolyn Geisler and Eve Gillis mixed it up at the front of the lead group throughout the race; Geisler eventually finishing sixth in 19:38 while Gillis arrived home in 20:34.
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Hall, a victor in the Varsity 1 boys' race (Photo by Robert Haddad)
Naugatuck senior Dan Schumacher relied on a modicum of patience on his way to securing the top spot in the boys' Varsity 1 race.
Schumacher called upon his knowledge from experience on the course and mixed in a healthy dose of maturity in powering away from the field; finishing in a time of 15:41.
“I guess I was playing it conservative out there,” he said. “My idea was to see what everyone else was doing and how it played out. Having run here before, I figured the move(s) would happen with somewhere around a mile left.”
Glastonbury’s Randy Neish, finished second, nine seconds in arrears. Senior Grant O’Connor of William Hall placed third.
“Danny kept in control; stayed with the leaders and went to work in the last mile,” said Naugatuck head coach Bill Hanley. “He was not happy the way his season ended last season and he wanted to change that. He’s got the discipline, the leadership and the intelligence to excel; he’s been the total package for us.”
Hall slipped past Glastonbury (91-92) in team competition.
“We return a veteran group with pretty high goals for the season,” said Hall assistant coach Jeff Billing of his senior-laden squad. “But on that note, we also lost three of our top five scorers from a year ago and the guys who were generally not involved in the scoring were asked to do so now. We didn’t have our number one (Ari Klau, sixth at New England Championships in 2013) which made it important for that group to contribute and run well. Coming out of this meet with that in mind is going to help our confidence going forward."
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