By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp

66th Nonnewaug XC Invitational

Nonnewaug HS, Woodbury CT

RESULTS on AthleticNet

The oldest cross country meet in the state drew 17 boys teams and 15 girls who competed in the 66th Nonnewaug Invitational in Woodbury for another Friday afternoon meet. 

Watertown boys used their depth to take the win in the varsity race with 100 points. Their lead runner Owen Cipriano was only 15th place in 17:37.4 but only 27 seconds later, Chad Feliciano came across the line as their 5th runner in 27th place to clinch the win by only four points over Thomaston. 

Lakeview’s Ben Schildgen, 2nd last year at Berkshire League and winning of the Going to the Sun Invitational won his 2nd invitational of the year. He ran 16:22.7 and defeated Daniel Reilly of Kaynor Tech, the defending CTC champion. Beau Kociszewski of Thomaston, third in the Berkshire League last year, took third on Friday in 16:57.0.

Staples, from the powerful FCIAC, easily won the girls race with 41 points to Nonnewaug’s 95 points. Shepaug tied for the runner up spot but lost on the 6th man tie breaker rule. The Wreckers went 1 - 2 behind the efforts of Sarah Bogdan and Avery Kalter. Bogdan, a New England qualifier last year, won her first invitational convincingly with a time of 18:23.3. Her teammate ran her 2nd low 19 minute 5k of the season, running 19:11.3 Nonnewaug’s Madeline Garguilo, the Berkshire League runner up last year, took 3rd in 19:35.3. 

Thomaston assistant coach and Beau’s dad Eric Kociszewski won the 1.5 mile Mom and Pop race in 9:03.

The Woods Trail Run

Thetford Academy, Thetford VT

RESULTS from Lancer Timing

Girls Varsity Races

While placing five runners in the top 33 out of 500 typically gives a cross country team a strong chance at victory, the defending State Open Champion Glastonbury learned a valuable lesson when they faced the defending New England champion Champlain Valley, VT. Competing against the 14th-ranked team in the Dyestat National High School Girls Team Rankings revealed another level of the sport.

Champlain Valley put three in the top ten and all scorers in the top 20 to breeze to a 50 to 112 win, with Glastonbury in 2nd. Connecticut girls showed off their talent by taking five of the top nine in team competition. Sophomore Lauren Parrett ran the fastest time with 500 finishers in five girls races. The Glastonbury runner held off Alexis Paterna of Exeter, the 10th place finisher in New Hampshire’s Meet of Champions last year. Parrett ran 19:12.85 over the grueling 3.15 course. She was supported by Carolyn Kamp who finished 26th in 21:15.73. Right behind the sophomore were her teammate Clair Parkin in 30th place (21:37.2), Abigail Horesco two places behind (21:38.29) and Olivia Mckay in 33rd place (21:45.55). 

Greenwich, despite missing their top runner Eliana Daplyn, finished 4th with 205 points. Haddam-Killingworth, the Class SS powerhouse took 6th with 248 points and East Lyme despite missing a runner in their top five ran admirably to finish 8th with 309 points. Mercy was also missing Class MM champion Sarah Roberts for a family event, hung on for a 9th place with 318 points. 

Also finishing in the top ten was Hazel Delucia of Lyman Memorial who took 7th with a time of 19:50 and Mercy’s Cora Wasilek who was 10th in 20:05.25. 

Boys Varsity Races

Pinkerton (NH) has been a powerhouse in the Granite State for decades with several top five finishes at New Englands and were 4th last year.  When Hall of Fame coach Larry Martin declares this his best team ever, it makes people take a second look at the Derry boys. They came away with the win scoring 71 points over the underrated boys from E.O. Smith who scored 149 points. East Lyme was a little down after their strong 6th place finish at Ocean State Invite last week. "That was a good wake up call for them," said Coach Mike Flynn. “I told them last week when you were focused, you were right there with Xavier and Greenwich. Today you found out what happens when you aren’t fully engaged; which is a valuable lesson”. 

Other top 10 team finishes came from Haddam-Killingworth who took 8th with 273 points with Glastonbury was right behind in 9th scoring 304 points. 

The fastest time of the five varsity races was claimed by sophomore Ethan Fischer of Bishop Guertin (NH) as crossed the finish line in 16:37.77. Only a few seconds behind was East Lyme’s senior Sam Leone in 16:40.00 that followed on his 3rd place last week at Ocean State Invite. Another CT senior, Alex Cook of EO Smith, finished 5th in 17:03.31 to lead the Panthers to their runner-up finish. He had plenty of help from teammates Jason Cao in 16th (17:21), Gabriel White in 30th (17:47.51) and Max Mattingly in 35th (17:58.01).

Led by Leone’s runner-up finish, East Lyme scored fourth place overall aided by a 15th place by senior Jack Faitsch in 17:20.41 and Joey Papalia in 39th at 18:03.78.

Avon’s Brahm Bulow continued his strong senior campaign with a 13th place in 17:19.00.

Great American XC Festival

WakeMed Soccer Park Course, Cary, NC

RESULTS

RunnerSpace Webcast

Xavier and Staples made a strong statement, competing against many of the nation's best boys teams in North Carolina. Of the 40 scoring teams in the championship race, Xavier finished 14th with 452 points. The top ranked team in CT was led by sophomore Nolan O’Connor who looks to be settling into his pace setting role for the Falcons. He finished 14th in this star studded field, running 15:39.1 over the 5000m course, site of the NXR Southeast Regional course. Landon Rubano had a strong race, taking 75th place in 16:08.1 and fellow sophomores Holden Hines finished exactly 100th in 16:20.1 and Jackson Gould finished 123rd in 16:31.0. Junior Peter Torello was their 5th scorer, only 52 seconds behind O’Connor placing 125th in the team scoring in 16:31.3. 

Also in the championship race Darien’s Andrew Sharron was one of 81 boys who broke 16 minutes. He finished 77th in 15:58.0.

In the Varsity Boys Blue race Staples made a case to move up from their 5th place ranking in the previous Marathon Sports-New Balance Connecticut High School Coaches Poll. They came from 20 points at the 2-mile mark to win the non championship race in a combined time of 1:22:01, a time that would have placed them at 17th place in the championship race, only three  places behind CT top ranked Xavier. Oliver Samuel took 14th in 15:57.6 to lead the Wreckers with all their scorers finishing within 1 minute, 11 seconds. 

2025 Great American XC- Oliver Samuel of Staples (John Nepolitan)

Also in the Varsity Blue race were three boys from New Canaan. In his first season of high school cross country senior Quinn Kilkenny ran a smart race coming from behind over the last 600m and moved up steadily. He broke 16 minutes for the first time, taking 3rd in 15:35.9, the fastest CT runner of the meet on the hard packed, fast 5k course. Charles Cavanagh took 37th in 16:18.9 and Ryan Monohan was 149th in 17:17.3.