Page 3- XC 2003 News Archive
Connecticut Runners Heat Up New England
XC Championships...
(Nov 9, 2003)
A large contingent of
Connecticut fans were rudely introduced to winter as temperatures
hovered near freezing with wind gusts to 20mph
at the 69th New England
Interscholastic Cross
Country Championships at Derryfield Park in Manchester NH. The fans
quickly warmed as they cheered a double victory for Connecticut's top
two harriers; Amie Schumacher of Holy Cross-Waterbury and Ahmed Haji
of Conard-West Hartford.
Amie Schumacher
Holy Cross-Waterbury
2003 New England Champion |
Ahmed Haji
Conard-West Hartford
2003 New England Champion |
In the first race of the
chilly day, sophomore Schumacher ran 18:12.0 for 5km and scored a
33-second victory over Elise Moody-Roberts of Cape Elizabeth ME. As has
been her strategy all year, Schumacher left the talented field of top
New England runners after the first mile and was not contested the
remainder of the race.
For Schumacher, it was her
first New England Championship race and she leaves us wondering what
else she is capable of over the the next two years. Fitch High School
was the top girls team
finishing in second place to Champlain Valley of Vermont. Fitch was led
by senior Betsy Boucher who finished in third place. State Open Champion
Ridgefield was sixth followed by East Lyme (8th), Guilford
(9th), Fairfield (10th) and Simsbury (15th). The twelve
Connecticut runners who placed in the top twenty-five received All New
England honors. View NE
Girls Results...
Defending champion Ahmed Haji executed his race plan to
perfection; waiting until the hill after mile one to make his move to
the lead. Only Ben True of Greely ME stayed with Haji at the break away.
During the rolling second mile, Haji opened a 5-10m lead that True could
not overcome as they quickly raced the downhill and flat last mile. Haji
just missed breaking True's course record by one second in finishing at
15:18.4. Haji is only the sixth harrier to win consecutive New
England Championships since 1935, the last runner to accomplish the feat
was Brian McGovern of Fairfield Prep in 1999-2000. The boys 1-2-3 finish
mirrored last year's with True in second at 15:22.3 and Gavin Coombs
of Griswold in third place at 15:41.0. New Milford improved
upon last year's sixth place finish to take the top team honors followed
by Ledyard in second and Danbury in third. Manchester
followed in 8th place, Griswold in 9th and Amity in 11th
place. Ten of Connecticut's top runners placed in the first twenty-five
places to earn All-New England medals.
View NE Boys Results...
State's Top Harriers at New England
Championships...
(Nov 6, 2003) The state's
top boys and girls harriers will get another opportunity to show their
speed at the New England Cross Country Interscholastic Championships on
Saturday November 8th at Derryfield Park, Manchester New Hampshire. The
girls championship race is scheduled for 11:30am and the boys race
follows at 12:30pm; both are on the 5km course.
Many New England fans are excited about the boys championship race where
defending champion Ahmed Haji of Conard-West Hartford will be
closely challenged by State Open Champion Gavin Coombs of Griswold
and Ben True of Greely ME, last year's runner-up who recently set the
course record of 15:17. Connecticut will also send their top six teams.
Our top three; New Milford, Manchester and Ledyard, will vie for
the team title.
The girls championship race may prove to be eventful as well with super-soph
State Open Champion Amie Schumacher of Holy Cross running in her
first New England title race. Also a contender in the race is State Open
runner-up, senior
Orlaith Cunningham of Branford who is seeking to improve upon last
year's finish. Top state teams to watch are Ridgefield, Fitch and
Guilford.
CIAC XC Open Champions Photo Gallery...
(Oct 31, 2003) View the
2003 CIAC Cross Country State Open Champions in a special photo gallery.
Photos include the top twenty-five
finishers, the winning teams and runner-up teams at the awards ceremony.
View
Girls Open Champions Gallery...
View Boys Open
Champions Gallery...
CIAC Cross Country Open Championships...
|
Gavin Coombs
First Place
Ahmed Haji
Runner-up
Amie Schumacher
First Place
Orlaith Cunningham
Runner-up |
Exciting
Boys Duel to the Finish - New Milford Tops All Teams...
(Oct 31, 2003)
As predicted by cross country fans around the state, the rematch
race between Gavin Coombs of Griswold and Ahmed Haji of
Conard lived up to its billing as the best race in several
years. For 4,990 meters at the CIAC Cross Country State Open
Championship at Wickham Park in East Hartford, Coombs and Haji ran side
by side at a blistering pace that was close to the record pace of
15:20 that Haji set last week in the Class L meet. It wasn't until
the last ten meters that Gavin managed to gain a step on Ahmed and
win the race in 15:21; Ahmed right behind in 15:22. The state's two
premier runners were both treated to several minutes of standing
ovations by appreciative athletes and parents at the awards ceremony
following the race. Fans are already anticipating next week's New
England Championships where the two will once again face off against
each other as well as other top runners in the region.
New Milford's Green Wave surged over the competition to claim
the top spot as the 2003 State Open Champion. New Milford placed
it's top five runners in the first 27 finishers to score 88 points
and defeat runner-up Manchester High School with 137 points. In
claiming their first Open title, New Milford was led by senior
Ben Danton who placed fourth overall in a time of 16:04. The
teams from Ledyard (3rd), Danbury (4th), Griswold (5th) and Amity
(6th) earned tickets to next week's New England Championships.
View Boys Open
Championship Results...
Schumacher Dominates Girls Race - Ridgefield Wins First
Open...
(Oct 31, 2003) In her
first State Open meet, Amie Schumacher of Holy Cross left no
doubt as to who would pick up the victor's garland left by Meghan
Owen last year. Sophomore Schumacher was definitely the class of the
field at the CIAC Cross Country State Open
Championship at Wickham Park in East Hartford running 15:15 to win
easily over senior Orlaith Cunningham of Branford (15:36). In
setting a blistering pace over the first half of the race,
Schumacher didn't give her competition the opportunity to make it a
close race. With the battle for first decided, several runners took
turns in second until Cunningham made her move in the last 2,000
meters of the race to move through the pack to finish strongly for
second place.
Ridgefield High School used a tightly packed group of runners
to win their first State Open Championship in scoring 112 points to
outpace Fitch High School with 141 points. Class L Champion
Ridgefield placed their top five runners within 34 seconds of each
other in the top sixty places to key their victory. Also earning
tickets to the New England Championships next weekend are Guilford
(3rd), Fairfield (4th), East Lyme (5th), and Simsbury (6th).
View Girls Open
Championship Results... |
CIAC XC Division Champions Photo Gallery...
(Oct 31, 2003) View the
2003 CIAC Cross Country Division Champions in a special photo gallery.
Photos include each division individual winner, the top twelve
finishers, and the winning and runner-up division teams.
View
Girls Division Champions Photo Gallery...
View
Boys Division Champions Photo Gallery...
Starting Lines Set for CIAC XC Open
Championships...
(Oct 27, 2003) The CIAC has
announced the start lists for the CIAC Cross Country Open Championships
scheduled for Friday, October 31, 2003 at Wickham Park in East Hartford.
Please direct all questions about the start lists to the meet director
listed in the CIAC meet packet. Click on a link below to view the CIAC
Start List for each meet.
View
CIAC Boys State Open - Start List - 1:30pm...
View
CIAC Girls State Open - Start List - 2:15pm...
Fast Times at CIAC XC Division Championships...
|
Ahmed Haji
Amie Schumacher
Betsy Boucher
Gavin Coombs
Chase Pizzonia
Ceara Danaher |
(Oct 25, 2003)
At the CIAC Cross Country Division
Championships at Wickham Park in East Hartford, both Ahmed Haji of
Conard and Amie Schumacher of Holy Cross started and
finished their races in the only way they know how to run...fast and
faster. Ahmed Haji
became the all-time course record record holder when he ran 15:20 on
the hilly 5km course in winning the Class L race by over a minute.
Brian McGovern had held the old record of 15:33 which he had set in
2000. Guilford scored 83 points to defeat Ridgefield
(132) for the Class L Team title.
View Boys L Results
By the time the Class MM race was
half over, Amie Schumacher was well on her way to setting the
fastest time of the day for the girl harriers in a winning time of
15:00 for the 4km course. East Lyme captured the team title
with 75 points to defeat Guilford with 99 points.
View Girls MM Results
Betsy Boucher of Fitch ran
15:38 for one of the fastest times of the day to claim the Class L
individual title but it wasn't enough as Fitch had to settle for the
runner-up spot to Class L champion Ridgefield who scored 50
points. View Girls L
Results
Gavin Coombs of Griswold
turned in the second fastest time of the day when he ran 15:46 to
set a new Class SS record formerly held by Mike Charron of
Griswold. Griswold placed four runners in the top ten to
capture their fourth consecutive team title with 39 points over
runner-up Haddam-Killingworth.
View Boys SS Results
The defending State Open Champion
Ledyard boys team earned the honors for the lowest scoring
team when they won the Class MM race with only 26 points.
Ledyard managed to place six of their runners in the top twelve
places. Chase Pizzonia of Darien scored his second individual
MM title as he ran 15:59 for the victory.
View Boys MM Results
In the first race of the day, Shepaug Valley repeated as
Class S Champions with a 43 to 106 victory over Old Lyme as Jacob
Edwards of Wheeler took individual honors running 16:51.
View Boys S Results
In the Class S Girls race,
Portland improved on their second place in 2002 to capture the
team title with 49 points over runner-up Old Lyme (65). Christina
Wells of Shepaug Valley earned her first class championship with
a 15:52 time. View Girls
S Results
In the Girls Class SS race,
Lyman Memorial reversed their regular conference standings to
narrowly defeat rival East Hampton, 69-75 for the team title. Alissa vonSchmidt
of N.W. Regional ran 16:13 to secure her first class title.
View Girls SS Results
Tolland High School placed
its five runners in the top twenty five places to win their first
Class M Boys Championship with 59 points. Junior Brian Colonnese
of Joel Barlow ran 16:52 for the individual victory.
View Boys M Results
Heather Burns of Nonnewaug
won her third consecutive Class M Championship as she finished in
16:12. Joel Barlow won the Class M team title over runner-up
RHAM 86-100. View Girls
M Results
Ben Danton led the Green Wave of
New Milford to the Class LL team title with a first place
finish in 16:00. New Milford scored 32 points to defeat Manchester
with 52 points. New Milford had the lowest total team time of the
day with 1:22:18 while placing five runners in the top twelve
places.
View Boys LL Results
Fairfield High School scored
130 points in a close team race to capture the Class LL Girls
team title. Ceara Danaher of Hall-West Hartford ran 15:50 to win her
second consecutive Class LL individual championship.
View Girls LL Results
More Team and
Individual Photos will be posted during the next few days. |
|
