MileSplit CT is kicking off the previews of another XC season like no other with an in-depth series of articles that will continue through the month!
Following
on a 2020-21 year for cross country that was shortened or missing
entirely for teams in Connecticut, this year the outlook seems more promising for
an extended schedule that will culminate with State Open and national
championships. Still, at the beginning of September we are keeping our XC fingers
crossed that all the sections and conferences can be restored to the
traditional fall slate of action.
We begin coverage of this year's XC season with previews that will try to pull together the somewhat murky info from last year's XC meets along with more insights from the track season's long distance races and even from the estimates of who might be returning this year for a team that are based on 2019 XC results. So yes, this year we begin the XC campaign with a lot more questions than in past years. But we also hope to have a lot more race and interview videos, photo albums, and feature pieces to go along with the weekly rankings and wrap-ups that begin mid to late September.
An Invitation: We are making a commitment to cover all the schools in the state, which naturally includes the teams from the six classes (LL-L-MM-M-SS-S) of the CIAC. But we are also trying to give attention to teams from the other associations such as the Founders League, Fairchester Athletic Association (Fairfield+WestchesterNY, better known as FAA), and Housatonic Valley Athletic League. No matter which CT school you are running for, we'll be watching out for you. Please set up a MileSplit account for yourself if you do not own one and claim your athlete's profile if you are a runner or your team profile on CT MileSplit if you are a coach. Answers to any questions about MileSplit accounts can likely be found on the support pages. And teams are encouraged to tag MileSplitCT in your social media so we can share your exploits.
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The
previews and rankings for the XC runners and teams will be using not only the raw times from the meets but also the speed ratings from the Tully Runners system that are becoming an ever more central part of XC coverage. Speed
ratings for XC runners are composed from comparing the times from
individuals on a wide variety of courses under varying conditions and
are much more informative than the "best time" lists from performances on widely ranging course types. In 2020, however, few of CT's teams ran in meets that were were speed rated.
The
previews for the CT girls start here with an overview of the top individual
runners and teams overall, and they will continue with three more preview articles with special focus on each
of the CIAC's six classes and the rest of the conferences.
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Before moving on ahead, we need to look back. Last year during the height (hopefully) of pandemic times, there were no class or state open meets and many CT schools had no real XC season at all. A fantastic senior class had a far more limited slate of action with which to shine in their final season. Now they are moving on with Marianapolis's steeplechase national record setter Sydney Masciarelli at the University of North Carolina, Pomperaug's Kate Wiser heading to Notre Dame, Greenwich's Mari Noble checking in at Princeton, Conard's Chloe Scrimgeour on to Georgetown, Southington's Grace Michaud going to Quinnipiac, and Daniel Hand's Anna Steffen taking off for Brown. A few of the track senior highlighters included Fairfield-Ludlowe's Tess Stapleton going west to Stanford, Wilbur Cross's Nyia White going to Howard, Hillhouse's Leah Moore attending Kentucky, and Weston's Julia Rosenberg also in the SEC at Vanderbilt.
Check out the preseason previews below.
PREVIEW OF RUNNERS | PREVIEW OF Teams |
|---|---|
Individuals | Teams |