By GERRY deSIMAS, JR.
Collinsville Press.com
MANCHESTER, Oct. 29 – It had been nearly two decades – 17 years – since the Avon High girls cross country team had returned from the CIAC cross country championship meet with some championship hardware.
On a frosty morning only hours before nearly foot of heavy, wet snow fell that plunged the entire town of Avon, the Farmington Valley and thousands of state residents into a 10-day power outage, the Falcons ran to a strong second place finish at the Class MM championship meet at Wickham Park. It was Avon’s first CIAC trophy since winning the Class SS title in 1994.
Sophomore Rachael Rosow became the third Avon High girl to win a state championship, racing to a 18-second victory over the 3.1 mile course in 19:31. Teammate Sara Stokesbury was fourth in 19:57 while Molly Hamel finished 12th in 20:33. Rosow and Stokebury earned All-State honors for finishing in the top eight.
Avon’s 70 point score was its lowest CIAC meet score since 1986 when they won a Class S title with 44 points. But it was still far off the pace set by Guilford, which won its eighth straight Class MM championship with a state-record score of 32.
The Indians had five runners among the top 13 finishes and all seven of their runners in the top 15 places. Guilford finished second at the State Open championships on Nov. 8 at Hammonasset State Park in Madison.
It was a fitting achievement for the Falcon squad that went undefeated in the dual meet portion of the North Central Connecticut Conference (13-0), won the NCCC championship meet and league championship along with the Bellringer Invitational in East Hampton and the Nonnewaug Invitational in Woodbury.
It is a young team, too. Rosow and Stokesbury are sophomores while Hamel is a freshman. Sophomore Madison Zapatka (26th), junior Katie McIntyre (27th), sophomore Julia deSimas and freshman Kristen Goldie rounded out the remainder of the varsity squad.
Rosow hasn’t lost a dual meet in her two years on the team. But she has been challenged in invitational events. She won at the Going to the Sun Invitational at Coginchaug in Durham but lost the Bellringer and the NCCC championship meet to Coventry’s fantastic freshman Ellie Jean, a national caliber soccer player.
Avon coach Al Daddario told Rosow that she could win the Class MM title. “He told me that I had a shot of winning this,” Rosow said. “And if someone tells me I have a shot at winning it I will do everything I can to win it . I just went out hard. I felt really good and really strong the whole time.”
The last Avon girl to win a state title was Claire Smith in 2009 when she won the Class MM title. Before that, Mary McNutt won back-to-back state titles in 1974 and 1975.
The second place finish qualified Avon for the State Open championship race, which had originally been scheduled for Friday, Nov. 4 in Wickham Park.
But the course was so torn up from the CIAC championship meets and the Central Connecticut Conference meets a week earlier that the State Open venue was moved to Madison.
At the Open, Hamel had Avon’s best time, finishing 44th in 20:18 in a field of nearly 150 runners. Rosow stumbled near the finish and ended up back in the pack.
BOYS CROSS COUNTRY: Avon finished eighth in Class MM championship meet led by Jeff Demers, who finished 17th with a time of 17:22 over 3.1 miles. Sean Deneen, Justin Alessio, Tyler McCutcheon and Michael Oberhausen all finished within four seconds of each other in 45th, 47th, 48th and 49th place, respectively.
Boys races
Canton finishes 2nd in Class SS
MADISON, Nov. 8 – It was a unique opportunity for the Canton High boys cross country team to defend its Class SS championship.
Only minutes before running the race at Wickham Park in Manchester on Saturday, Oct. 29, the race was postponed. Heavy snow had begun to fall and organizers were worried about teams safely getting home. Nine of the 12 races were able to be run. The only events left to run were the Class SS boys and the Class S boys and girls races. How long could they be delayed?
That heavy, wet snow cut power to over 831,000 customers of Connecticut Light and Power and thousands of customers of United Illuminating. Every customers in Canton, Avon, Farmington, Simsbury and Granby lost power. Some didn’t get their electric service restored for 11 days. Schools in many towns were cancelled and in some towns, such as Avon, the schools were community shelters.
But the long delay left the CIAC in a sticky situation. They had three races left to hold plus the State Open. And they wanted to give Connecticut runners some time to prepare for the New England championships on Saturday, Nov. 12 in Rhode Island.
The solution was to run the State Open and three races on the same afternoon (Nov. 8) at Hammansett State Park in Madison. Nine CIAC races in the snow and mud on Oct. 29 combined with damage from the Central Connecticut Conference tournament earlier in October deemed the park unusable. Times from the Class SS and S races would be combined with the State Open to determine which runners would qualify for the New England championships.
In the Class SS boys race, Haddam Killingworth was dominant with six runners in the top 16 places as they easily won with 44 points. Canton turned in a solid second place performance with 133 points with Old Saybrook taking third in 174.
Canton senior Jon Cahill finished second in Class SS in a season-best time of 16:21, 10 seconds behind champion Brian Poirier of Northwest Catholic. Cahill is the third Canton runner to finish second in a CIAC race and his time is the second-best time by a Canton runner in a CIAC divisional race. Cahill earned All-State honors with his performance.
Peter LeDuc was second for the Warriors in 18th place with a season-best time of 17:23. Tyler Fitzpatrick (27, 17:49), Bryan Fitzpatrick (42, 18:18) and Jarrett Choinard (49, 18:33) rounded out the top five for Canton.
In the girls race, Canton finished seventh in Class S. Emma Frawley led the Warriors by finishing 32nd in a time of 22:47.
Cahill’s time, which would have been ranked 19th in the State Open, was good enough to qualify to run in the New England championships in Rhode Island later in the week. Cahill finished 130th with a time of 17:22 out a New England field of 275 runners.
