Angela Saidman of Immaculate en route to her victory in the girls' race.
By MARTY OGDEN
The 57th annual Nonnewaug Invitational was a rematch of last year's race with New Milford's Jonathon Davis and Brendan Murray of Cheshire battling it out for most of the 5,000-meter race. Murray, a then-freshman, couldn't stay with Davis.
But with a year of high school running under his belt, he was able to defeat the junior from Cheshire, barely breaking the 16-minute barrier with his winning time of 15:59.3. Davis, who earned All State last year with his 17th place finish at the State Open, hung on for second in 16:20.3.
The New Milford pace-setter was able to take solace in the fact that his team was able to defend their title and once again defeat a much-improved Cheshire team, 42-55. Chris Bacich, the veteran New Milford coach stated, "I was looking to give some of the team experience. Many members of the team are new to cross country and we hope they will learn how to race by the time the championships come around."
Bacich mentioned junior James Kane, "Who has been having great workouts, but hasn't been able to race well yet until today," as one of the keys to their success later in the season. He replaced freshman Eli Nahom, younger brother of All-New England Mia Nahom, who he decided to give a day off to keep him fresh for the Wickham Invitational next week.
While New Milford pulled away from Class LL rival Cheshire with its depth, Cheshire was very evenly matched with defending Class S champions Shepaug whom they defeated by only six points. The biggest difference was Murray and Jordon Kolpak's 1-4 finish. After Cheshire's top two finishers, both teams had finishers that could have easily switched places and possibly changed the outcome.
The highlight of the day had to be the match-up in the girls' varsity race between sixth ranked Immaculate, fresh off their fourth-place finish at the Ocean State Invite last Saturday and eighth ranked Avon, who finished second at Winding Trails last weekend. It looked like an easy win for the Mustangs when star runners Angela Saidman (18:29.28), Jenna Gasparrini (18:32.67) and Danielle Marcone (19:07.95) went 1-2-3 in the race. But it takes five cards to play poker and five runners to score in cross country. Between Immaculate's third and fourth runner came Avon's entire scoring pack led by sophomore Rachel Martin in fourth place. Avon was even able to place its seventh runner before Immaculate's fifth.
Immaculate's coach Brian Hayes was still very pleased with his team's performance noting, "Our girls all ran their fastest times of the season, but now we know how much we still have to improve."
Both freshman Saidman and senior Gasparrini were incredibly excited as they crossed the finish line only seconds apart. Saidman, last year's middle school state champion, is quickly adapting to high school competition.
"The best part," she said, "is having people to train with every day." When asked what her goals were, both Saidman and Gasparrini exclaimed in unison, "New England's!"
With exactly a month to go until the class meets and five weeks until the State Open, their goal of being Immaculate's first team at the New England Championships is within reach. But for today, it was the Falcons from Avon who shined the brightest and took home the championship trophy.