At Wickham Park in Manchester CT today under sunny skies and breezy, cool temperatures, qualifiers from last week's Divisional Championships competed in the 2009 CIAC State Open Championships. The gold medalist individuals today on the 5km course were John Raneri of New Fairfield in winning the Boys Championship Race in 15;40 just ahead of a fast closing Christopher Bendsten of Wolcott in 15:43. The Girls Championship top medalist was Jackie Nicholas of Nonnewaug who crossed the line at 18:22 just ahead of runner-up Meg Ryan of Fairfield Warde in 18:22 as they dueled for the lead over the final 400 meters. The top 25 individuals have qualified for the 75^th New England Interscholastic Cross Country Championships, scheduled for Saturday, November 14, 2009 at Wickham Park.

In the race for the Boys Championship Team title, the top ranked Xavier Boys team scored a narrow win over runner-up New Milford by a 116 to 120 point margin. The Xavier Boys team title win was highlighted by a 9^th place overall finish by Ian Albert and then team place scoring of all five in the first 40 places with Nick Lemon, John Corona, John Annelli and Scott Stewart. The four other teams to advance to the New England Championships next Saturday included Amity (202), Canton (205), Hamden (209) and Conard (233).

The Girls Championship Race team title was won by the Guilford Girls Team, one of the fastest teams from the CIAC Divisional Races. Guilford scored 138 points to 146 points to runner-up Wilton. Guilford's top finisher was Valerie Williams in 16^th place overall followed by Megan Powell, Lauren Villano, Emily Taylor and Kathleen Duman as their top five. Pre-season favorites Glastonbury (3^rd) and Norwich Free Academy (5^th) joined Ridgefield (4^th) and Fairfield Warde (6^th) as teams qualifying for the New England Championships next Saturday.

Complete results are available at the Results page.

Stay tuned to MySportsResults.com for in-depth coverage and a photo galleries from each race.