Avon girls win CT River Valley Invitational; Canton girls second at Stratton Brook

From left, Avon’s Ashley Martin, Rachel Martin, Sara Leavens and Christina Martin at the Lobster Loop road race in Canton in August. The runners were competing throughout the summer in road races.

CROMWELL, Sept. 19 – Another invitational. Another trophy.

It’s not that easy for the Avon High girls cross country team. There was a lot of off-season work by the athletes involved in getting prepared for the fall campaign. That work is paying dividends now.

The Avon girls participated Saturday in the Connecticut River Valley Invitational in Cromwell for the first time and came home with the championship trophy. The Falcons placed four runners in the top 10 and five in the top 14 to top Coginchaug, 39-48 to win the invitational.

The Avon boys finished fifth, led by Andrew Suter with an eighth place performance.

The Canton boys and girls cross country teams ran Saturday at the 35th annual Stratton Brook Invitational in Simsbury. The Canton girls finished second in the Small Division – its best finish at the race in a decade. The Canton boys were eighth in the Large School race.

In Cromwell, Rachel Martin led the Falcons with a second place finish in the girls race with a time of 19:31 over the 3.1 mile course. Coginchaug’s Samantha Drop won the race in 18:49.

Christina Martin (6th, 20:00), Ryley Higgins (7th, 20:02), Sara Leavens (10th, 20:17) and Ashley Martin (14th, 20:31) rounded out the top five for Avon. Among the teams that the Falcons outran were Central Connecticut Conference foes E.O. Smith, which was third with 63 points and Berlin, which was fourth with 156.

It’s the second championship trophy of the season for the Falcons. The Avon girls also won the Girls Varsity II race at the Haddad Windham Invitational a week ago in Willimantic.

Suter led the Avon boys with a time of 17:04, good enough for eighth place in the boys varsity race. Jon Hernandez (13th, 17:39) and Jack Stokesbury (17th, 17:50) finished in the top 20. Zach Bortoff (28, 18:12) and Andrew Mascoli (37, 18:33) rounded out the top five.

E.O. Smith won the championship with 72 points, beating Weston with 87. Wethersfield (96) and Hand (102) finished ahead of Avon with 103 points in the field of 13 teams.

The Canton High girls cross country team finished second in the Small Division at the Stratton Brook Invitational Saturday in Simsbury.

A junior-dominated squad helped the Canton girls finish second in the Small Division of the Stratton Brook Invitational – its best finish since finishing second to Avon in 2005.

Abby Briggs led the Warriors by finishing sixth in 22:01 followed by her sister Emily, who was 12th in 22:29. Bella Magna (14, 22:33), Cameron McCauley (16, 22:40) and Jocelyn Rossitto (19, 23:27) each finished in the top 20. All Canton runners are juniors.

Suffield placed five runners in the top 10 to win the race with 26 points. Canton finished with 57.

Senior Jake Whittingslow led the Canton boys, who were eighth in the Large Division. Whittingslow was 16th with a time of 17:57. No other runner finished among the top 50. If Canton had run in the Small Division, Whittingslow would have finished fifth if he had his same time. As a team, the Warriors probably would have finished fifth or sixth based on the times they ran in the Large Division race.