AVON, Sept. 21 – After the first two weeks of the girls cross country season, three heavyweight contenders have emerged for the North Central Connecticut Conference championship – Avon, Ellington and Suffield.
Above, Sara Stokebury pulls in front of two Valley Regional runners at Wednesday’s Going to the Sun Invitational in Durham.
The Falcons have already beaten one contender (Ellington) and await their opportunity to challenge Suffield this Wednesday in Suffield. The Wildcats, who shared a piece of the league title with Avon and Granby two years ago in 2009, look impressive.
Suffield is 6-0 through two weeks with its most impressive 19-38 win coming over Granby in week one. However, the Wildcats looked very sharp in Saturday’s Stratton Brook Invitational in Simsbury finishing a strong second to Thomaston, 53-70 in the Small School Division race. Thomaston is ranked eighth in the Northeast by ESPNHS earlier in September.
Avon (5-0) felt good after a challenging week. They dominated defending league champion Ellington, 18-39 and beat Granby, 21-38 by placing five runners in the top eight, led by sophomore Rachael Rosow.
The next day, the Falcons finished second at the Go to the Sun Invitational in Coginchaug on a hilly course. Rosow became the second Avon girl to win the race with a strong time of 19:36. Claire Smith won the race in 2008.
“I can’t say enough of how they trained over the summer. They were focused,” Avon coach Al Daddario said. “They’re a hungry team.”
Rosow set a punishing pace from the start. In the tri-meet against host Ellington and Granby, she pulled away in the second mile and won in 19:06 over 2.9 miles. Sophomore Sara Stokesbury caught Ellington’s Kayla Sgarlata at the end to finish second.
Sophomore Maddie Zapatka, freshman Molly Hamel and junior Katie McIntyre finished sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively. Granby (2-3) was led by Ashley Piccirillo, who finished fourth and Alexa Cipkas in fifth place, seven seconds behind her. Ellington nipped the Bears, 26-29.
At the Going to the Sun Invitational, Rosow again set a strong pace from the beginning and pulled away from the pack by the second mile. She won the 3.1 mile race in 19:36. Stokesbury moved up through the field to finish fifth with Hamel taking 10th, Zapatka in 16th place and McIntyre in the 20th spot.
Valley Regional won the race with 43 points but the Falcons weren’t far off the pace with 52.
Avon’s Jeff Demers powers past runners in the boys varsity race at the Going to the Sun Invitational in Durham.
The Avon boys cross country team (3-2) isn’t too far from being undefeated. They dropped a five-point decision to Bolton in week one and lost by three to Ellington, 27-30 last week. The Purple Knights had four of the first six runners against Avon. The Falcons did nip Granby, 27-28.
“We ran well but we’re not a strong in the second mile as we need to be,” Avon coach Gene Macy said. “At the two-mile mark, we were in pretty good shape. We have some good packs of runners. We just need to get them 20 to 30 seconds faster.”
Jeff Demers finished fourth for Avon while Sean Deneen was sixth and Michael Oberhausen took eighth. Granby (2-3) was led by John Stingle, who finished second in 16:28 and Ethan Lang, who took fifth overall.
At the Going to the Sun Invitational, the Avon boys finished third with 115 points behind Old Saybrook (78) and Valley Regional (107). Demers was the top Falcons in12th place in 18:05. Deneen (20th place), Eric Spencer (26), Oberhausen (27) and Tyler McCutcheon (28) each finished within 12 seconds of each other.
Avon’s Matt Mascoli (748) leads a pack of runners in the boys varsity race that include teammates Michael Oberhausen and Justin Alessio (733) at the Going to the Sun Invitational in Durham.
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