Page 1- XC 2004 News Archive

26th Windham Invite - Second Try...
(Oct 15, 2004) Meet Director Bob Haddad hopes that the weather cooperates for the second attempt of the 26th Windham Invite scheduled for Saturday, Oct 16, 2004 with the first race to start at 1:30 pm. There is an updated Race Schedule and a list of participating teams available at: Click to View Meet Info...

State Teams Prep for Class Meets at 23rd Wickham XC Invite...
(Oct 10, 2004) One of the great reasons to run at the mid-season Wickham Invite, besides all the awards, is that coaches have a chance to use the race to prepare their teams for the State Class Meets at the end of the month. With six races to choose from, coaches have the opportunity to see how their teams rate against other state teams on the same boys (5km) and girls (4km) courses that are used by the state meets.
In the Girls Unseeded Race, Katherine Bossardet of Ledyard won the race in 16:13.05 while the Portland Girls won the team title over runner-up Hopkins.
In the Boys Unseeded Race, Will Sanders of NW Catholic won by a comfortable 200m margin in 16:48.59. Monument Mt. MA won the team title over second place Granby.
In the Girls Seeded Race, Conard-West Hartford sophomore Emma Perron established the lead mid-way and ran to victory in 15:56.25. Longwood MA edged Griswold for the team victory.
In the Boys Seeded Race, Tradelle Ward of Griswold ran the fastest time of the day in an unchallenged 15:47.26 to lead Griswold to the team title over runner-up Conard-West Hartford.
In the Girls Championship Race, State Open champion Amie Schumacher of Holy-Cross raced to an early lead to record the fastest time of the day in 15:14.40. Manchester Central NH won the team title over Lyman Memorial of Lebanon.
In the Boys Championship Race, a last minute surge almost propelled senior Phil Mitchell of Glastonbury to victory but Manchester Central's Alex Hall held on for the 1-second victory in 15:48.16. Hopkins of New Haven took team honors over second place Nashua NH.
View Girls Seeded and Championship Top 100 Results
View Boys Seeded and Championship Top 100 Results

State Results from 32nd Annual Manhattan College Invitational ...
(Oct 10, 2004) The Ridgefield Girls Cross Country team won the Fred Dwyer Girls Varsity Race at the Manhattan College Invitational Meet, held at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City Saturday afternoon. Over 10,000 athletes from around the country participated in the biggest high school cross country meet in the United States. In the Dwyer race, the Tigers competed against 36 teams from as far away as Arizona. Ridgefield scored 98 points, defeating second place Shaker HIgh School of New York by 23 points. Junior Elly Teitsworth paced the Ridgefield runners, placing sixth in a time of 16:01 over the 2.5 mile course. Sophomore Megan Holmes was 11th, in a time of 16:13, followed by Freshman Heather Stephens in 17th place in 16:22, Sophomore Liz Navarro in 30th in 16:39, and Junior Leah Rosenfeld in 34th in a time of 16:44. Rounding out the Ridgefield scoring was Elizabeth Fleming, 80th in a time of 17:56 and Katie Murdoch, 150th in a time of 19:51. Murdoch had been running in 30th place when she fell on a steep downhill about 600 meters from the finish. However, despite her injury, she gathered herself and finished the race.
In the Girls Varsity Race E, Guilford placed second overall.
View Results of Varsity Race D at Manhattan Invite
View Results of Varsity Race E at Manhattan Invite

In the Boys Varsity C Race, Guilford placed third behind a highly touted Fayetteville-Manlius team which swept the top five places and CBA of NJ who paled 5 in the 6 through 18th spots. Guilford placed their top five runners in the first 28 places and were led by senior Jay Koloseus in 9th place.
View Results of Varsity Race C at Manhattan Invite

23rd Wickham XC Invite Top Show in State This Weekend ...
(Oct 7, 2004) The top place to be this weekend for athlete and fan alike is at Wickham Park in East Hartford where the 23rd Wickham Invite will be held. Meet Director Bill Baron expects a large turn out from out-of-state schools since the course is the same course as the 2004 New England Championships held in November. Barron expects about 100 schools and approximately 3,000 runners to invade the small park on the Manchester - East Hartford border.
Many of the top state teams are also headed to Van Cordlandt Park in New York for the Manhattan Invite to compete against some of the best teams in the Northeast.

55th Greater Hartford XC Invite Photo Gallery ...
(Oct 5, 2004) Three photo galleries are available online of the 55th Greater Hartford XC Invite. Photographs were taken at the race on Oct 2, 2004 at West Hartford Reservoir.
View Main Photo page with GHXC Meet links...

Top Teams Tested at 55th Greater Hartford XC Invite
(Oct 2, 2004) The mixture of a new fan-friendly course, perfect weather conditions and forty-plus teams provided all the excitement at the 55th Greater Hartford XC Invite today at the West Hartford Reservoir. Team race victories were earned by NW Catholic in the Girls Charter, Conard in the Boys Charter and Norwich Free Academy swept both Girls and Boys Open races. The fastest time of the day for the girls on the new 5km course was run by Emma Peron of  Conard-West Hartford in a time of 19:13 to win the Charter Race. The new boy's course record for the 5km was set in the Boys Open Race by Phil Mitchell of Glastonbury in a time of 15:59.
View Complete Race Results...
(Photo Gallery to follow on Sunday.)

Competitors List and Race Day Instructions for 55th Greater Hartford XC Invite...
(Sep 30, 2004) Attention All Coaches: Please read and print the List of Competitors and important Race Day instructions for the 55th Greater Hartford XC Invite scheduled for October 2, 2004. One of the new instructions for coaches includes that for the safety of all runners due to the nature of the new course design, each race competitor will have 28 minutes (9min/mile) to complete the 5km race. [Click to view GHI XC Meet Page].

26th Windham Invite Rescheduled for Oct 16 2004...
(Sep 27, 2004) Attention Coaches: Please contact Meet Director Bob Haddad and inform him to your preference for a start time if your athletes are affected by PSAT testing at your school on Oct 16, 2004. Coach Haddad will adjust the start time of the rescheduled meet to accommodate as many teams as possible.
Please notify Coach Haddad by calling him at Windham High School (860-465-2485) and leaving your name, school and preferred start time. Click to View Meet Info...

Special for Coaches and Runners - MRR Fitness Expo Special Presentation...
(Sep 26, 2004) The Manchester Road Race Fitness Expo on Saturday, November 20, 2004 offers a free special session featuring “The Four Speeds of Distance Running Training” presented by Gerry Chester (Griswold Coach) and Doug Sharples (East Lyme Coach). Click to Read More... 

Storm Ivan-15, 26th Windham Invite-50...
(Sep 18, 2004 - 1:30pm) Due to Storm Ivan, the 26th Windham Invite at Windham High School in Willimantic CT was cancelled. Meet Director Bob Haddad had to make the late call this morning as lightening and thunderstorm cells moved through the state.

FleetFeet Sponsors New Weekly XC Team Rankings...
(Sep 15, 2004) The "2004 FleetFeet Weekly XC Team Ranking" is a new feature of MySportsResults.com  introduced this week as the 2004 Connecticut High School Cross Country officially starts with conference competition. FleetFeet Sports of West Hartford is sponsoring the weekly XC Team ranking that will be compiled and maintained by MySportsResults.com based upon the results of regular conference meets, invitationals, conference and class championships. The rankings will be published online on a weekly basis after September 19 and will be based upon results that are submitted and posted at MySportsResults.com. The rankings will be divided into Boys and Girls as well as CIAC Class divisions. Regular conference meet results will count in the ranking but results for invitationals, conference and class championships will have more importance in the calculations.
COACHES: In order to be included in the "2004 FleetFeet Weekly XC Team Ranking" please use the button to the left "Submit Weekly Results" to submit your weekly conference meet results.
View this week's meets results...

Attention XC Coaches and Runners...
(August 13, 2004) On Sunday, September 12, 2004 at 10am at Manchester Community College the Second Annual Nikki's Run Walk 'N' Roll will take place. This is a noncompetitive fund raising effort to create awareness of childhood cancer. September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Last year over 300 people, including several area teams, were running and walking to support this event. More importantly, over $10,000 was donated to the various nonprofit foundations. The entry fee is $20 per person (first 400 persons receive a T-shirt); $10 for 12 and under. There are prizes from Build-A-Bear for fundraising efforts.
For more information, please click Nikki's Run Walk 'N' Roll to visit the official website. 

News for 2004 XC Season....
(August 12, 2004) Although the first official practice day for Connecticut high school harriers is August 28, many of boys and girls who have set their sites on the CIAC State Class Meets on Oct-30 and the Open meet on November 5th have been running daily all summer. The first allowable meet date for cross country is Sep-14, according to the CIAC website that also contains the CIAC 2004 Cross Country Championship Meet packet.  [Click to view CIAC website].

One of the Connecticut's first large invitational meets is the 26th Windham Invite on September 18th and the state's oldest meet, the 55th Greater Hartford Invite, is on October 2nd [Click to view GHI Meet website]. Another potentially large meet is the Wickham Invite scheduled for Oct-9, Wickham Park is also the site for the 2004 New England meet on Nov-13.

Next Week in FinishLine XC News...

• Read about MySportsResults.com sponsoring a new Connecticut XC Team Rankings.

• The new Nike Team Championships

• More previews of 2004 XC Season

Attention XC Meet Directors and Coaches...
(August 12, 2004) Please use the link to the right to view or add an event to the 2004 Cross Country Schedule. Click on a link to view a meet web page.
Click here to see more options for promoting and managing your meet!