Invites, Invitational, Classic Meet….Pick your poison because they were all offered this weekend at venues from Manchester, New Hampshire to Warwick, Rhode Island to Simsbury to Bethel.  Where a team landed depended on what type of competition one was seeking, training goals, and logistics. 

Coginchaug- Going to the Sun Invite

The weekend began with St. Bernard’s girls taking the trip to Coginchaug on Thursday.  This meet is typically a nice competition for smaller schools and the Saints, led by Kyra Coughlin’s 18^th place finish in 17:52 for the 4 kilometer course, finished 11^th overall.

Simsbury- Puma Stratton Brook Invitational

Griswold, Lyman Memorial and Windham also stayed in state and did very well by doing so. The Stratton Brook Invitational saw the Wolverines excelling on the course with the girls winning the small schools championship and the boys taking second by a point to Suffield. Stephanie Messier led all ECC runners clocking 21:33 on the 5K course and taking 4^th in her race. She was closely followed by 2 freshmen in Kendall McGrath (5^th), Krystn LaRose (8^th), while frosh Magen Faxlanger and Alexa Palasky finished in the top 20, rounding out the scoring for Griswold.

The Griswold boys were 2^nd by a scant point to Suffield as they placed 6 runners in the top 15 led by James Strmiska (5^th), Nick Emard (6^th), Jon Choiniere (8^th) and Mark Mackin (10^th). The top times on the course for ECC runners included Messier's 21:33 and Dan Fields of Lyman covering the course in 17:22.

Warwick, RI- The 3^rd Ocean State Invitational

The Goddard State Park venue attracted some of the stronger schools in Southern New England and featured another epic showdown between Norwich Free Academy and Glastonbury. While NFA, led by Sarah Eagan (4^th) and Cassy Hunter (14^th) brought its top 5 in before Glastonbury, the spacing was wrong as Glastonbury slipped by the Wildcats by 2 points. Glastonbury’s top three went 2-11-39 to give them a 7 point cushion which was whittled to 2 by race’s end. Eagan continues to show early season strength covering the Championship version of the 5K in 18:51.East Lyme’s girls finished 8^th in the Division 1 race as Brianne Mirecki (19:38) was 8^th and Collen Ahern finished 10^th. In Division 2, Shannon McBride was the highest finisher for the ECC running 20:42 to take 15^th place.

Woodstock Academy entered a freshman team which did very well in the 4K race with Cassie Guliani covering the distance in 16:05 followed by Anna Savvidis and Bridget Matsas. Griswold and Woodstock have some terrific young talent which bodes well for both teams in the future. 

The boys races saw no ECC teams in the Championship event, but did feature NFA taking a 6^th place in the Division 1 tilt. Dave Cardin ran the best ECC time of the day as he charged through the 5K in 16:56 good for 8^th place. Vos Hunter ran 9^th individually. Led by Greg Yacovou (17:04), East Lyme took a team 9^th and Woodstock was led by Carl Underwood (17:08) as they took 11^th  overall. In Division 2 Tyler Rouillard of Plainfield had the best finish for an ECC runner with a 43rd place effort.

Manchester, NH- 34^th Annual Manchester Invitational Cross Country Classic

Finally, at Manchester, Fitch made the longest trip to run at one of the more prestigious and long standing races. The Falcon girls competed in the Elite Division with Brandi LeClair posting the best time by an ECC runner for the day at 19:29 for 5K.  Brandi was running with the front runners from Manchester Central, Haverill and Hanover and finished 6^th. Though she left her teammates in the dust, the other Falcons ran a nice pack race taking 60-62-64-65-68 which gave the Falcons a 9^th place finish. Considering the depth of the field and quality of the competition this was a nice race for Fitch and should put them right in the thick of the ECC Championships.

The Boys’ small race produced the best time of the day for an ECC runner as St. Bernard’s Justin Missey-Higgins covered the 5K distance in 16:48 once again demonstrating he is one of the top 5 runners in the ECC. Justin’s time was good enough to garner 8^th place as an individual and a team 10^th. In the boys’ large division Fitch’s Chris Chapman ran 17:02 which brought his Falcons to an 11^th place team finish, while Chris was 15^th overall in the large.