Avon will be racing in the Class MM girls championship meet Saturday at Wickham Park in Manchester
MANCHESTER – The CIAC cross country championships will be held this weekend at Wickham Park in Manchester and the Canton High boys cross country team is hoping to come home with some hardware.
The Warriors (13-1) will be competing Saturday’s Class SS championship race at 3:45 p.m. A senior-dominated Haddam Killingworth, which won the Shoreline Conference championship last week, will be the favorite. But Canton is hoping to be in contention for a title or a runnerup trophy.
The Canton girls will be competing in the Class S championship race at 2:05 p.m. The Avon High girls will run in the Class MM race at 10:20 a.m. while the Avon boys will be competing in the Class M race at 10:55 a.m.
Led by the Yost twins, James and Dean, Canton turned in a strong second place performance at last week’s NCCC championship meet. Canton lost to Ellington, which won its third straight league championship and will among the favorites to win in Class M.
Canton’s Will Briggs and Jake Whittingslow each finished in the top 10 along with the Yosts and all four earned All-NCCC honors. Canton will need another strong performance on Saturday if they hope to bring home a trophy.
Canton has finished third in Class SS for the past two seasons. Before that, they were second in 2011 and won their only state title in 2010.
The Avon High girls (13-1) saw their three-year run as NCCC champions end last week despite a strong performance as Suffield prevailed. The Falcons will be looking for a top five performance in the Class MM meet.
Defending champion Branford returns led by senior Cyrene Nicholas. New Fairfield’s Gabrielle Richichi will be looking for her third straight Class MM championship.
Avon will be led by senior Molly Hamel, who won her first NCCC championship. Christina Martin, Rachael Martin and Ryley Higgins earned All-NCCC honors for the Falcons while Gabriella Colletti and Gillian Reyes ran well. Avon will need a strong overall effort if they hope to finish well. “It’s been a productive year,” Avon coach Al Dadario said. “Instead of relying on just a couple of girls, the whole team has been productive.”
The Canton girls (8-6) hope to finish among the top eight teams in a strong and large (52 teams) Class S field. “I am thinking a solid effort will get us a top eight finish,” Canton coach Tim O’Donnell said. “Perhaps, we could go as high and fifth or sixth with a great day.” The Warriors will be led by Emily Briggs and Jocelyn Rossitto.
O’Donnell is hoping that Briggs or Rossitto can finish among the top 12 runners and advance to the State Open championship race on Oct. 31.
The top 12 runners in each race and the 30 fastest runners on time beyond the automatic qualifiers earn a ticket to the State Open. The top two teams in each division and the eight fastest teams, as judged by overall time, also earn berths to the Open.
The Avon High boys (12-2) had a fine year, taking third in the NCCC. They’ll need another solid effort from Andrew Suter, Colin Pritchard, Bryant St. Jean and Kurt Goldie if they hope to run well in a competitive Class MM race.
The Falcons were sixth in 2005 and the last time they cracked the top five was in 1995 when they were fourth in Class SS.
NOTES: Maddi McHugh, who ran at Avon High for three years, recently won the MECKA 8 Conference championship meet in North Carolina. McHugh, a senior who runs for Hough High in Cornelius, N.C., led the Huskies to their first-ever conference championship with a winning time of 18:58 at the league championship meet. McHugh won the NCCC title with the Falcons as a junior.
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