A beautiful day greeted runners from all over Connecticut at the 31^st running of the Bob Haddad/Windham Invitational yesterday. The first barometer measuring summer dedication and training yielded an expected result for Norwich Free Academy which won its third Varsity I race in a row. The Wildcats were led by Sarah Eagan’s 2^nd place finish (18:40) and Cassy Hunter’s 5^th place (19:01). Lindsay Fisher, Kathleen O’Brien and Rebecca Smolenski all finished in the top 20 vaulting NFA to the championship banner with 51 points, easily outdistancing Simsbury’s 110 points.

Daniel Hand’s Sarah Cotton (18:04) set the pace running wire-to-wire in the day’s best female performance. Fitch’s Brandy LeClair took up the gauntlet early staying right on Cotton’s heels for the first mile. Eagan made her move into second just short of the 2-mile marker, but wasn’t able to close the gap on Cotton. LeClair faded to 4^th, but still put in a very strong effort for the Falcons.

NFA clearly made a statement that the road to the ECC Championship goes through Norwich and barring injury and illness, all others will be running for second. Fitch finished in 6^th place overall behind the efforts of LeClair and Samantha Kiely.

The Varsity II race featured a 5^th place finish for the Colonels of Ledyard behind two super sophomores, Linsey Ackley (3^rd) and Cedar Nelson (5^th). Waterford’s Sarah Huang was 4^th overall in the field. Bacon Academy’s Courtney Benoit led her team to a 6^th place in this section.

The Varsity III race showcased Griswold’s Wheeler’s Shannon McBride (5^th), Griswold’s Kendall McGrath (6^th) and Stephanie Messier (8^th) and Lyman Memorial’s Molly Frankinburger (7^th). Griswold was 3^rd and Lyman 4^th in the overall VIII standings.

The Top ten ECC performers were Eagan, LeClair, Hunter, Fisher, Ackley, Huang, Nelson, O’Brien, Kiely and Smolenski. Top Three Aggregate times belonged to Norwich Free Academy, Fitch and Griswold.