By MARTY OGDEN
A day that started at 9:15 am under cool clear skies had its share of celebrations and disappointment for the athletes and teams at the CIAC Class Championships, held at Wickham Park on Saturday.
Class L
First up was E.O. Smith edging out SWC runner-up Pomperaug, 62-70, for the girls' title. The two teams were very evenly matched but E.O. Smith coach Jorge Guerra felt the difference in the outcome - "We know the course well and have confidence in ourselves."
He credited senior Annika Morrison with the biggest improvement on his team. "She has been sick all season and has only been running for the past two weeks," he said. "Today she was our number three, finishing tenth in 20:16."
New Milford repeated as the boys' champion, defeating Darien, 50-96. Darien has been without the services of All American Armstrong Noonan, who has been out all season with an injury. The senior still performed admirably, finishing third in 16:38. But the day belonged to Michael Stoker of South Windsor, who won in 16:25.
Class LL
The girls individual race had all the suspense of a North Korean election with two-time defending champion and course record-holder Hannah Debalsi toeing the line. She did not disappoint as she won by over a minute in 18:14. But on the team side, it was a toss-up with four of the top five teams in the Connecticut Cross-Country Coaches' Poll in one race.
To win a championship, all five scorers must be at their best and Glastonbury came out on top for the third straight time and nine of the last 12 years. Unfortunately for FCIAC champion Ridgefield, their number one runner, Kasey McGerald, passed out about halfway into the race and didn't finish. The SWC champion, Newtown, who had finishers in 2-5-6 and 15th place but was relegated to third place when one of their top finishers finished in 55th. But the score was incredibly tight as Glastonbury, Ridgefield, Newtown and Staples put down scores of 74, 78, 83 and 88 points, respectively.
The boys' race was even more competitive as the top seven teams in the Coaches' Poll were entered. According to Staples coach Laddie Lawrence, the only difference between these top teams was "a good day." Well, Amity had the best day of all defeating Staples, 93-106. Amity, which has won seven class titles since 1991, always seems to be in the hunt for a trophy under coaches Bob Orgavan and Thom Jacobs. Jacobs, who is stepping down as track coach this year, noted, "Consistency is our trademark. At Amity, we promote the athletes to have ownership over their running." Amity were led by senior Harrison Block in seventh place. According to Jacobs, "(Block) is the glue of this team."
The three fastest times of the day also came from Class LL as Eric van der Els of Brien McMahon, Gabriel Altopp of Ridgefield and Randal Neish of Glastonbury all broke 16 minutes over the hilly five-kilometer course. All American van der Els edged out Altopp after both of them almost ran past the finish line chute. "I could have worked a little harder in the middle," said van der Els, bound for UConn in the fall. "I waited until the last 400m."
Class S
The Class S division is filled with the smallest schools in the state and they often have trouble finding five athletes to compete against the larger schools. Immaculate has assembled a cast of runners this year, which has a chance at competing for one of the top six spots to qualify for the New England Championships in Thetford, Vt. Immaculate dominated its class meet by sweeping the top three spots and also having the fifth fastest time of the day among all classes. Immaculate, which is also known for its soccer and field hockey teams, is having a great fall among the various sports. The secret to its success, according to junior third-place finisher Danielle Marcone, "Immaculate is a like a family and we all have a strong sense of team."
Immaculate was led by freshman Angela Saidman who won with the fourth fastest time of day. After the race, she was excited and said, "It was cool to win." Saidman started running when her school began a track program when she was in first grade and was last year's state middle school champion.
Immaculate's closest challenger was NVL champion Derby, who didn't even have five scorers three years ago and have now been Class S runners up two years in a row. Coach Nick Diluggo credits many factors including "a good middle school running club, which has been doing a great job acclimating runners to the sport earlier. Kids have also been motivated by others from Derby seeing success." Derby's track team has enjoyed a resurgence led by its throwers who have risen to prominence in the conference and state.
The boys' race was dominated with a Shepaug's 49-point win over Bolton. This is their 11th class championship or runner-up trophy it has claimed in 19 years under coach Tom Scarola. Shepaug was led by Ed Wolfe, Erik Quist and Sean Parker, who went 2-3-7. Seventh-place finisher Parker felt the team had a shot to finish top six at the State Open going into the season, but now sees a top 10 finish as a more realistic goal. Lamenting on the difficulty running for a smaller school, he said, "For us to beat Danbury, it would be like them beating a school with 36,000 kids."
Class SS
Sweeping the boys' and girls' meet was Haddam Killingworth, led by coach Matt Diglio, who was assisted by track coach Sean Gallagher. Gallagher credits their program's success to "absolute hard work. They all follow Cameron Garrelts." One of the many parents in attendance stated, "We are a small little family" and pointed to their T-shirts they were wearing which stated, "We are Family".
The senior Garrelts, not only led his team, but led the entire field to take the Class SS title by 25 seconds over runner-up Connor Levins of Terryville.
The H-K girls were able to use their superior depth to defeat defending champion Coginchaug by a razor-thin margin of 65-68. While Coginchaug's Samantha Drop and Alexandra Alsup went 1-3, H-K was able to counter by taking 5th , 6th, 10th, and 12th places to win their first state title since 1986.
Class M
One of the biggest margin of victories was in the girls' race where four-time defending champion Tolland took their fifth title by a score of 20-111 over Suffield. Tolland has had an up and down season with a variety of injuries and illnesses, but has managed to bring it all together for championship time. Their combined time of 1:37:34 was only six seconds slower than last year's class meet when they finished with a perfect score of 15 points. Every single girl improved considerably from just 10 days ago when they lost the CCC meet to Glastonbury and now they are going into the State Open with the fastest team time of all the class meets.
The boys was much closer for both the team and individual races. James Mas of St. Joseph's pumped his fists in the air over the last 100m defending his title and defeating Tommy Consalvo of Brookfield by nine seconds. Brookfield's team also finished a close second to defending champion Ledyard by a score of 99-106.
Class MM
Avon girls repeated as class champions by defeating RHAM by a score of 62-73. Ryley Higgins led Avon by winning in 19:57. Her time was a 1:25 improvement over last year when she was 17th. Guilford boys added their 9th class title in 13 years by defeating E.O. Smith, 70- 107. Guilford boys were led by senior Ben Siciliano, who finished 3rd in 16:22. E.O. Smith, who won both the team and individual titles last year, took runner-up honors in both races as East Lyme's Vann took down defending champion Patrick Briody by two seconds, winning in 16:17.
The top two teams from each division, along with eight wild-card teams plus the top twelve runners in each division and the 30 fastest runners overall have qualified for the State Open this Friday
Girls starting time for the race will be 2 p.m., and the boys starting time will be 2:45 p.m.
Girls qualifiers can be found at http://content.ciacsports.com/gcc15o.shtml
Boys qualifiers can be found at http://content.ciacsports.com/bcc15o.shtml