Richmond leads Avon girls to second place finish at Wickham Park Invitational

The Avon High boys cross country team finished fourth out of 71 teams in the unseeded race at the Wickham Park Invitational Saturday in Manchester.

MANCHESTER, Oct. 6 – Avon’s Rhiannon Richmond finished seventh in the girls unseeded race to lead the Avon High girls cross country team to a second place finish at the 35th annual Windham Park Invitational Saturday.

The Avon High boys cross country team finished fourth in the boys unseeded race while the Canton boys were 33rd. The Canton girls cross country team had three runners compete in the girls unseeded race, led by Helena Winkler.

In the girls unseeded race, Avon was a distant second behind New Milford, who won the race with 81 points. Avon finished with 130 with Hale-Ray in third place with 279 points.

Richmond led the way for the Falcons with her seventh place finish in 20:32. Sarah Lancaster was 23rd in 21:48 followed by Gabrielle Richmond (28, 21:48), Emma Buth (32, 22:08) and Caroline Luby (41, 22:29) finishing in the top 50. There were 290 runners and 68 teams in the unseeded race.

It was Avon’s highest finish since the girls won the seeded race here in 2015.

In the boys unseeded race, Avon finished fourth with 308 points behind Newington (115), Middletown (202) and Smithfield, R.I. (213). There were 391 runners and 71 teams in the race.

The Falcons were led by Jack Martin, who was 16th with a time of 17:39, and Anish Rajamanickam, who finished 32nd with a time of 18:12.

It was the best finish by the Avon boys since taking fifth in the seeded race in 2014.

The Canton boys were led by Andrew Obrzut, who was 80th with a time of 19:05. Winkler was the top runner for the Canton girls in the seeded race with a time of 22:39.

In the boys freshman race, Avon’s Lucas Hester was third. In the boys junior varsity race, Ian Albreski finished 10th while in the girls junior varsity race, Logan Jacobs took third place.

Avon returns to action on Tuesday when they host Farmington in a dual meet at Fisher Meadows in Avon beginning at 3:45 p.m.

Canton returns to action on Wednesday when they host Ellington, East Granby and Coventry in the final dual meet of the NCCC season at Stratton Brook Park in Simsbury beginning at 4 p.m. The NCCC championship meet is scheduled for Thursday, October 18, at Bolton.

Local varsity results

Unseeded race
Avon girls: 7. Rhiannon Richmond 20:32, 23. Sarah Lancaster 21:48, 28. Gabrielle Richmond 22:02, 32. Emma Buth 22:08, 41. Caroline Luby 22:29, 59. Rachel Nori 23:14, 129. Mary Alamar 24:56
Avon boys: 16. Jack Martin 17:39, 32. Anish Rajamanickam 18:12, 67. Daniel Carvalho 18:52, 94. Liam O’Dwyer 19:16, 99. Mark Nunziata 19:18, 121. Daniel Cuyler 19:29, 126. Rod Portal 19:31
Canton boys: 80. Andrew Obrzut 19:05, 165. Sean Richard 19:58, 190. Matt Barton 20:20, 191. John Holowesko 20:21, 245. Chase Lashgari 21:05, 257. Sean Miscikoski 21:14, 262. Gabe Mower 21:18
Seeded race
Canton girls: 55. Helena Winkler 22:39, 124. Maeve Balavender 24:22, 135. Lila Hunt 24:43