MANCHESTER, Oct. 7 – Avon’s Sara Leavens finished 11th as the Avon High girls cross country team finished third in the seeded race at the 34th Wickham Park Invitational on Saturday. The Falcons had three girls in the top 25 in the race, led by Leavens, who finished with a time of 20:33.
Emily Foley was 13th in 20:36 over the 3.1 mile course with Rhiannon Richmond taking 23rd with a time of 21:07. Hall won the seeded race with a score of 112, followed by North Kingston, R.I. with 133 and Avon with 152.
The Avon boys cross country team finished eighth in the unseeded race led by sophomores Anish Rajamanickam (18:35) and Daniel Carvalho (18:51), who finished 39th and 56th, respectively.
It’s good practice for all of the runners, who will race here later this month at the upcoming CCC championships and CIAC Class MM championship meet and State Open — if they qualify for it.
Both teams return to action when they close out the dual meet portion of the CCC West Patriot Division action when they face Farmington and non-league rival Innovation on Wednesday at Winding Trails in Farmington.
The Avon girls are 4-3 in the CCC West Patriot Division and overall. The girls beat Tolland on Tuesday with a 15-48 win over Tolland as Leavens won the race. On Sept. 26, the Avon girls beat Northwest Catholic, 20-43 but dropped a close match to Simsbury, 25-30.
The Avon boys are 1-6 in the CCC West Patriot Division and overall. The boys fell to Tolland on Tuesday, 19-42. On Sept. 26, the boys earned their first victory of the season with a 26-31 win over Northwest Catholic and dropped a heartbreaking 27-28 decision to Simsbury.
34th Wickham Park Invitational results
Sparks takes 2nd at Brewster Bear Invitational
BREWSTER, N.Y., Oct. 7 – Canton’s Max Sparks took an early lead in Saturday’s Brewster Bear Invitational and dueled with Patrick Tuohy for nearly half of Saturday’s 3.1 mile race at Brewster High.
They swapped the lead a few times before Tuohy took over for good at the two-mile mark and he pulled away with a late sprint to beat Sparks by seven seconds to win the Brewster Bear Invitational in 15:44.90.
Sparks took second in 15:51.90 to lead the Warriors in a crowded field of more than 170 runners and 44 teams. Canton finished 18th overall. Aidan O’Donnell was the only other Canton runner in the top 50 with a time of 17:35.60, good enough for 32nd place.
On the girls side, Canton finished eighth out of 32 teams led by Jane Frawley, who was 23rd overall with a time of 20:35.50 seconds. Belle Magna was 31st with a time of 20:59.90 and Helena Winkler was 44th with a time of 21:27.30. Frawley actually finished 15th in the main race while Magna was 22nd.
Overall results were determined by combining results from the main race and the freshman races. The last time that Canton competed here was in 2015 when the girls won the Division I title here at the invitational.
Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 30 years.


High School
2025 NCCC Winter Tournaments

High School
2025 CCC Winter Tournaments

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