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Bohlke, Lyons, Fischer, Dissa, Hergenrother Earn Tickets to 2023 National XC ChampionshipsPublished by
By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp A beautiful clear, crisp day descended upon the Northeast on Saturday as cross country runners across the region gathered at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, NY or Franklin Park in Boston for a chance to qualify for one of two national championships in the autumn sport that is extended into early winter for a select few. Connecticut will be well represented by five individuals with four at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships and one at the Nike Cross Nationals.
Foot Locker Northeast Region MEET RESULTS - PHOTOS - VIDEOS (RunnerSpace) Race Photos from MySportsResults.com Connecticut has a long rich history at Foot Locker national qualifiers all the way back to 1980 when Greenwich’s Ceci Hopp won the inaugural edition as Kevin King of Westhill finished 8th and Jay O’Keefe of E.O. Smith finished 15th. The Nutmeg State has added three more names to the list of runners who have been able to run on historic Balboa Park’s 5k course to bring our total to 59 runners in a little over 40 years. Girls Championship Race Leading the charge for CT athletes was State Open champion Katie Bohlke of Newington who punched her own ticket to run in the national meet like her brother Michael did in 2021. She placed 6th in the star studded field running a time of 17:50.
Footlocker Regionals has a team component to it, as the top seven runners from each state are scored as a team. In what is believed to be a first time ever, CT girls came away with the lowest score among the seven team region. Bohlke recognized the quality of her in-state competition throughout the season and said, “the Connecticut girls really pushed me throughout the season and made me a better runner. I’m super grateful to them.” Joining her at Nationals will be Lily Lyons of Greenwich Academy. The sophomore from Darien was better known as a lacrosse goalie until she started running this fall and won the NEPSTA Division 1 Cross-Country Championships two weeks ago. She finished 8th in 18:01.
Unfortunately, CT also has a long history of runners just missing out on Nationals by finishing in one or two spots out of qualifying. Tess Sherry of Conard finished 12th in 18:21 with Glastonbury’s Brooke Strauss grabbing 13th in 18:22. Strauss was in the top ten until fading over the last mile. The pair of juniors were just five and six seconds out of tenth place but will have another shot next year.
The girls race was won by Zariel Macchia of William Floyd High in a time of 17:13. She was the Eastern States and NY Federation champion who turned the tables on last year’s Northeast champion Ellie Shea of MA who was 2nd in 17:21. Connecticut scored 53 points to overtake the host state Massachusetts who was 2nd with 65 points. Rounding out the top seven finishers for CT was Liv Sherry of Conard taking 17th in 18:36, Trumbull’s Katie Marchand in 42nd (19:08) and Claire Palmer of Kingswood-Oxford (19:14) in 48th. Boys ‘Marty Lewis’ Championship Race On the boys side, CT will send two runners to San Diego on December 9th. Alex Fisher of Loomis Chaffe was the Northeast Regional Freshman champion last year but improved a great deal and finished within 13-seconds of NXR-NE Regional champion Byron Grevious of Exeter in the NEPSTA Division 1 Cross-Country Championships to take 3rd place.
On Saturday,he went through the mile in 4:43, which is very close to his personal record and surprised himself by picking up six spots to move into 7th by the two mile mark. He held on to finish in the same spot in a time of 15:09 over the fast 5k course at Franklin Park. Grabbing the last qualifying spot was State Open runner-up Soheib Dissa of Newtown, running 15:32. He was in a huge lead pack going through the mile in 4:42, only two seconds off the leaders. By the two mile mark (9:55) he had fallen back to 14th and was only 2 seconds behind 10th. With about 800m to go, the State Open 1000m champion used his finishing speed and moved into the all important 10th place position, setting a five second PR in the process.
One of the runners Dissa passed over the last 800m was three time Class SS champion Griffin Mandirola of Suffield who finished two seconds behind the junior in the unfortunate spot of 11th in 15:32, a lifetime personal record over the 5k distance. New England runner-up Isaac Mahler of Hall was 14th in 15:47.
Another Prep school sophomore finished high in the standings as Nathan Lee of Brunswick School in Greenwich finished 20th in 15:57 to become the 5th CT scorer. Jack Mattingly of E.O. Smith took 35th in 16:16 and Woodstock Academy junior Christian Menounos was 40th in 16:21. They all contributed to CT’s 3rd place rankings with 62 points in the state competition behind Pennsylvania who came out on top with 33 points with Massachusetts in 2nd with 44 points.
Nike Cross Regionals Northeast MEET RESULTS - PHOTOS - VIDEOS A few hours to the west at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, NY teams and individuals were attempting to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals to be held next weekend in Portland on the Nike campus. Boys NE Championship Race Ridgefield’s Steven Hergenrother was sick right before Footlocker Northeast Regionals last year and finished 11th, just missing a trip to San Diego. A year later, the Princeton bound senior mixed it up with the best of the eight state region and finished 3rd over the daunting 5000m course in a time of 15:53.7. He became the third Ridgefield boy to qualify for the National meet after Trevor Hopper and Austin Gilbert who qualified in 2013 and 2014.
Ridgefield, who won the State Open and New England titles this fall and were ranked 17th in the latest Dyestat national poll, placed third in the Northeast Region region race behind Christian Brothers (59 points) and Westfield (69 points), both of New Jersey. The top two automatically received bids and there were four at-large-spots determined by a committee. It was announced right before midnight that Ridgefield boys just missed out as no teams east of the Mississippi River earned a Wild Card spot. While the team was sorely disappointed, they can take some satisfaction on defeating Massachusetts champions Brookline by a score of 123 to 167. Since the Bay State does not compete at New Englands in cross country, this put to rest any question that Ridgefield is the best boys team in New England this season. After Hergenrother, juniors Charles Lovett and Magnus Manley finished 16th and 18th place in 16:26.1 and 16:29.4 to earn All Region honors. Rounding out the scoring for the Tigers were two more juniors Trevor Fuller (16th in 17:02.1) and Sullivan Dunn (69th in 17:05.7). Sophomores Aidan Nelson (109th in 17:21.6) and Pearse McInerney (137th in 17:32.7) gained valuable big meet experience they will use to make another attempt at qualifying for Nationals as a team.
State Open runner up Danbury finished 22nd in the 33 team field and South Farms (Xavier) was 26th. New Balance National Outdoor 5000m champion Byron Grevious of Phillips Exeter easily won the championship race in 15:32.8 with Union Catholic’s James Wischusen 17 seconds back. Girls NE Championship Race Two Connecticut girls teams chose to run in the championship race. State Open champion Greenwich, without the services of Class LL champion Esme Daplyn still managed a 14th place finish with South Farms (Mercy) without Class M champion Sarah Roberts taking 20th. Kate Friedman led the Cardinals in 33rd place with Caroline Philips leading South Farms in 132nd. As expected Union Catholic won the girls title with 54 points and Wexford was 2nd scoring 82. Like Ridgefield, Champlain Valley was New England champion and finished 3rd with 98 points and just missed out on qualifying for the national finals. Non Championship Races This Weekend Besides the championship races on Saturday, both meets offered separate divisions for other athletes as well that highlighted CT runners. Foot Locker Northeast Region The Freshman/ Sophomore race at Foot Locker saw CT runners girls take three of the top nine spots. Harper Shirley, the Manchester freshman, led all finishers, grabbing the victory in a time of 18:49, which would have placed 30th in the championship race.
Sophomore Katherine Cavanaugh of Southington was 5th in 20:14 and Abigail van Hoof, a freshman from Avon was 9th in 20:31. The boys Freshman/ Sophomore race saw a pair of 10th graders from CT in the top ten. Brian Smith of Rocky Hill was 5th in 17:03 and Andrew Sharron of Darien was 9th in 17:18. The Junior/ Senior races saw an onslaught of our home state runners take home top honors with seven of the top ten coming from the Nutmeg State. 2nd Julia Donorfio - Southington - 20:24 3rd Leela Kocinsky- Trumbull - 20:42 4th Madeline Peterson -Hall - 20:54 5th Hannah Donzella - Windsor - 21:05 6th Lillian Khouri - Watertown - 21:19 7th Abigail Sanderson -Hall - 21:26 8th Maya D'Aquila - East Lyme - 21:38 Southington’s Brian Kalwat has the highest placement of his career, finishing 2nd in a PR time of 16:56. Also finishing in the top ten were: 3rd Grant Bigger - Conard - 17:04 4th Donovan Connole - Hall - 17:17 7th Thomas Boulter - Hall - 17:26 8th Evan Piccioli - Conard - 17:28 Nike Cross Regionals Northeast The NXR Northeast Region Open race grew so popular that they had to split it into two sections. The Blue race witnessed a great battle by a pair Connecticut sophomores. Matteo Chiesara of Greenwich took it out hard and had a seven second lead on Immaculate’s Lorenzo Lopes at the halfway mark. On the downhill, Lopes pulled into the lead with about three quarters of a mile to go, quickly extending it to about five seconds. But then with about a quarter mile to go, Chiesara must have gotten a second wind because the Cardinal quickly made up ground and surged past Lopes over the last small hill, winning in a time of 16:50.0. Lopes, the Class S champion finished 2nd in 16:56.8.
6th Christian Zawislack - Greenwich - 17:20.9 7th John Humphrey - Ridgefield - 17:21.7 In the Boys NE Green Race, a top finisher included a 4th place finish by Samuel Zwick-Lavins of Staples in 16:56.1. Sweeping the top two spots in the Girls Northeast Open race were: Mya Salvino - Wilton - 20:01.0 Jenna Mancuso - Wilton - 20:04.9
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