There was no more dominant performance at Saturday's CIAC Class cross country championships than the
Glastonbury girls team's victory in Class LL at Wickham Park in Manchester.
Led by race winner Lindsay Crevoiserat, who tied a course record at 18 minutes, 22 seconds, Glastonbury won the Class LL meet with 68 points, taking first, fourth and fifth places.
New Milford was second with 151. It was Glastonbury's fifth class title since 2004 and first since '08.
It might have been even bigger. One of the Tomahawks' top four runners, sophomore Kathleen Carney, ran but was ill. Based on comparative times she could have placed around 10th.
"It almost went as expected as far as the times the girls ran," said Glastonbury coach Brian Collins, in his 11th season. "Our girl who's normally fourth (Carney) ended up dropping down to our sixth runner. She was still able to run well. She was a bit off. But she's had a very good season and she wasn't feeling well, so we're expecting her back fresh and ready for the (State Open Friday).
"What's helped us a lot this season is our fourth through seventh runners have been a lot more consistent, a lot more close than they have been in past years, which affords us a little more leeway if anyone has an off-day, or is sick or hurt."
Last year, Glastonbury came in with some runners sick and finished third to Norwich Free Academy. The Tomahawks had taken Class LL in 2004, '05, '07 and '08. But Collins says this happens to all teams and it usually comes down to who is healthiest that day and who has a good day.
Though Crevoiserat, a senior, tied the course record, set at the Open last year by Nonnewaug's (Woodbury) Jackie Nicholas, Crevoiserat felt she could have run faster.
"She's still on the upswing," Collins said. "One of the reasons she wasn't happy was she felt she didn't finish off the last part of the race as well as she normally does. It's hard. She's run quite a few of her races this year alone, where she had a large lead over her competition. There was only a few races where girls were running close to her. One was the Wickham Invitational, where Jackie Nicholas was with her for well over 4,000 meters and then Lindsay pulled away over the last 500 to 600 meters and won by about 17 seconds."
Crevoiserat and Nicholas (18:31 in Class M) will be running against each other at the Open, which should be good for both runners.
"(Lindsay) was hoping to be much faster (Saturday). I expect that will happen at the State Open because she and Jackie should be battling head-to-head for most of the race if not all of it," Collins said.
Glastonbury features strong two and three runners in junior Reid Watson (second,19:29) and senior Cara Dorris (third, 19:31).
"Reid is running about where she ran last year at this point, within seconds of LL last year," Collins said. "At the State Open (last year) she dropped almost a minute, so everything clicked in with her. Cara Dorris has been running very well from Day 1 this year, because last year she had many, many issues with infections to exercise-induced asthma to flu late in the season. It was one thing after another. She still ran well last year overall. She was able to get healthy afterward. She's still feeling good, she's still feeling strong, which is going to help the team for these big races."
One of the team's top goals is to run well at the Northeast Regionals (Nov. 27, Wappinger Falls, N.Y.) and go to Oregon as a team for Nationals Dec. 4. Crevoiserat, who will run for UConn next fall, and Watson made Nationals as individuals last year.
Other team members are freshman Kristen Arborio (fourth in LL), sophomore Kara Brazel (fifth in LL) and junior Samantha Madnick.
Glastonbury has won three Opens, two under Collins in '07 and '08. Class MM champion Guilford, Hand (Madison) with MM winner Sarah Cotton, Wilton (second in MM), Class L winner Pomperaug (Southbury), Class S champion Thomaston and individuals such as Aubbrey Wagoner of Conard (West Hartford) should all figure in the mix on Friday at the Open at Wickham Park at 2 p.m.
"We feel good (about the Open)," Collins said. "We don't take anything for granted. We know anything could happen. Someone could trip, someone could fall, someone could have a bad day, but right now I expect Kathleen will be feeling much better and healthy for Friday. I like our chances but we can't overlook a lot of these kids, a lot of these teams."
After the Open, the New England Championships are Nov. 13 at Thetford, Vt.
STORYLINES* Unranked
Cheshire girls soccer upset No. 6 Hand (Madison) on
Molly Dupont's goal in the 77th minute of a 1-0 SCC victory. The Rams' only loss of the season was to Hand.
* Unranked
North Haven boys soccer stunned No. 6 Fairfield Prep, handing the Jesuits their first loss of the season 1-0 on
Keegan Hanlon's goal.
*
Simsbury girls soccer surprised previously undefeated Northwest Catholic (West Hartford) and ended the Indians' 23-game unbeaten streak with a 2-0 victory behind goals from
Jenna Verrengia and
Julia Levesque.
* Unranked
Hand (Madison) football upset previously unbeaten No. 5 West Haven 35-13 behind quarterback
Zachary Miller, who threw for 249 yards and four touchdowns (three to
Alec Pacelli), on 15 of 22 passing and rushed for 90 yards.
* No. 1
Xavier (Middletown) football held off Hillhouse (New Haven), 9-6, when the Falcons broke up a Je'Vaughn Moore pass in the end zone late in the game.
TOP PERFORMERS* Brendon Lytton, Torrington football: Scored a state-record nine touchdowns and all of his team's 61 points, also a state record, in a 61-28 victory over Wilby (Waterbury). Lytton finished with 332 yards on 42 carries and seven extra-point kicks.
* Montrell Dobbs, Ansonia football: Gained 295 yards rushing on 51 carries, scored two rushing touchdowns and threw another in a 33-32 victory over Derby/O'Brien Tech.
* Josh Patterson, Law (Milford) football: Rushed for 214 yards and five touchdowns on 13 carries in a 48-35 victory over Branford.
* Amihr Bess and Tirrell Young-Williams, Notre Dame (West Haven) football: Bess gained 218 yards rushing and scored four touchdowns and Young-Williams added 151 yards rushing and two touchdowns in a 55-42 victory over Wilbur Cross (New Haven).
* Tyler Girard-Floyd and Kenny Strecker, Montville (Oakdale) football: Girard-Floyd gained 233 yards rushing and scored twice and Strecker had 189 yards and scored three times as Montville dominated Plainfield 57-18.
* Cody Keith and Nick Cefalo, Cheshire Academy: Keith completed 26 of 39 passes for 637 yards and eight touchdowns and Cefalo caught eight passes for 259 yards and four touchdowns in a 62-34 victory over St. Thomas More.
LOOKING AHEAD* The CIAC State Open boys cross country championships are at Wickham Park Friday at 2:45 p.m. Connor Rog of
Fairfield Prep had the best time of the day at the class championships with a 15:58.
* The pairings for the CIAC tournaments in boys and girls soccer, field hockey and girls volleyball will be released later this week. Play begins Nov. 8 with some preliminaries if necessary this weekend.
Paul Rosano, the former assistant sport editor of The Hartford Courant and sports editor of The New Haven Register, covers Connecticut for MaxPreps.com. He may be reached at pjrosano@cox.net.
