Warriors Impress in Season Opener vs Watertown
The first cross country meet of 2020 is in the books as the Warriors took to the course against Watertown on Saturday. The boys were at home to open the new season while the girls traveled to Watertown. There were several impressive performances on both sides and both teams came away with wins on Saturday.
For the boys team, they ran the new 5k home course for the first time and there were a lot of strong races. Let’s start with the top and group one. In his first cross country race, sophomore Ben Stratton secured the win with a strong time of 16:50. Not too far behind was senior Jonathan D’Ambrosio with a 16:58, then junior Thomas Dowd who ran a 17:10. Finishing off the top seven was junior Ajay Haridasse with a 17:22 followed by sophomore Leith Jones running a 17:27, then seniors Colin Rudy, 17:35 and Zack Jellison, 18:40. Closing out a strong group one was sophomore Will Riley running a 19:05.
Now onto group two where Freshman Mike Arria finished first and ran an impressive 18:49 in his first career race. Right behind Arria was senior David Schurter who finished strong to run 18:54. Senior Aaron Canestaro was next with a 19:28 followed by junior James Christie at 19:40 and seniors Andrew Roos at 19:57 and Jack Tomsyck at 20:03. Wrapping up group two was sophomore Matt McCoy at 20:09 followed by junior Brett McLellan at 20:12 and sophomore Sam Bangston at 20:15.
Group three was led by three freshmen, Joe Patt who ran 20:11, Ollie Polster at 20:24 and Robert Brown at 20:38. Sophomore David LoCoco broke 21 minutes running a 20:59, then sophomore Vinny Kaddaras at 22:05 followed by senior Cory Sample at 22:11. Sophomores Brian Casey and Marcus Conte finished together running 23:07 and 23:10. Freshmen Brendan Campea, 23:46, Kam D’Ambrosio, 24:16 and William Mezikofsky, 24:22 all had nice first races. Closing out the meet was junior Declan Carney, 24:48, then freshmen Cooper Davis at 27:14 and Theo Lyle at 29:31.
“It was so great to see the boys get a chance to finally compete after a long drought. They ran well on our home course and I’m confident they will begin to get better as they race throughout the season”. said Coach Pappas
The girls team started on the road in Watertown running the 2.7 mile course at Arsenal Park. Leading the charge was junior Sammy Seabury running a strong 19:02. Senior Elina Olmedo finished second at 19:24 with sophomore Maddie Nett finishing a close third at 19:26. Senior Maggie Ritchie in her first cross country race ran a 20:10 sticking with fellow senior Grace Butler at 20:11. Rounding out the top seven was senior Nicole Calandra at 20:24 followed by junior Emma Partyka at 20:46. Sophomore Devon Jellison was next at 21:04, then juniors Amber Roehrich at 21:17 and Stephanie Curran at 22:08.
Seven freshman raced for the first time including the first four, Alexa Ylancopolus coming through at 26:36, then right behind her was Charlotte O’Neill at 26:39. Julia Welch finished next at 27:30 followed by Maggie Barnard at 27:40. Senior Celia Casale was right behind them at 27:44 along with junior Caroline Collins at 27:45. Junior Aiva Barnard followed that up with a 27:58 and freshmen Grace Mackenzie, 29:00, Magnolia Preston, 29:23 and Sofia Macaluso 29:24 all finished their first career races.
The 2020 cross country season is off to a great start as both teams came away with big Freedom Division victories on Saturday. Up next on Friday the boys will travel to Wilmington for a tough Freedom Division matchup with the Wildcats while the girls will host them. One down, onto the next one!
