When I ran against the X-Men for the final time back in the spring of 1975, they had not yet started tallying up CT XC Open championships. But six months later Xavier of Middletown won its first XC title by outscoring Simsbury by 151-175. The way the Falcons won the Open 46 years ago on the Edgewood Golf Course in Cromwell is also a facet of a lot of their subsequent wins -- the pack attack. None of the first 18 guys across the line back then were X-Men, but then Jim Augeri charged in 19th, and he was shortly after followed in by Mark Carbone in 25th, Dave Boraks in 26th, Joe Vergedula in 40th, and Geoff Wilson in 41st to clinch the win.
Catching up with Xavier again at the Bowdoin Classic in the Varsity 2 Race on Saturday, I saw signs of the same Xavier tradition burgeoning as the one that led to the Falcons' 11th and 12th Open wins in 2017 and 2018 along with a Class L win in 2019. Running second only to the legendary CBA-Lincroft team that has won the majority of the Manhattan Invite's Eastern States championships along with the 2011 NXN national championship, Xavier was led in by Eamon Burke in 4th. Following the leader in spots between 12th and 30th were Brody Santagata, Alexander Uschak, Jacob Kirejczyk, and Sam Simko, all combining to post a 159 speed rating that puts them at the top of CT right now.
And of course you don't win a record 12 Opens without continuing to keep the talent sprouting from below, and Xavier has four freshmen on the squad that finished 2nd to Staples in the Bowdoin JV-2 race.
There's a lot more to heard from the X-Men this year, and we hope to catch them at the SCC, Class L, and Open championships, but on Saturday we got to hear from two of their squads.
Xavier Varsity
Xavier JV