The Amity boys cross country team won the Varsity 2 (large school) race at Saturday’s Windham Invitational and veteran Coach Bob Orgovan admitted that he was not surprised.
He said, “Going into the race, we were ranked No. 3 in the state behind Fairfield Prep and Tolland. We ran great as a team, putting seven of our guys among the top 17 finishers.”
Clark Shurtleff won the 3.1 mile race with a time of 15 minutes, 56 seconds. Behind him came teammates Adam Kelley (6th out of 108 runners—16:30), Shae Belinski (9th—16:43), Connor Dunleavy (10th—16:47), Miles Radin (13th—16:58), Brandon Regan (16th—16:59), and Nate Arndt (17th—17:00).
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Orgovan was delighted to see a spread of only 1:02 between his first and fifth runner, noting anything less than 1:30 is ideal.
He added, “If we stay healthy, we could have one of the strongest teams we’ve ever had—even stronger than last year when we won the state championship. Things are looking pretty good right now. At the same time I know Prep is also better than it was last year.
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Amity won the race with 39 points. Watertown (74), Staples High of Westport (106), E.O. Smith of Storrs (119) and Bolton (179) round out the list the top five teams.
The Spartan junior varsity also won its 3.1 mile race, easily outpointing Watertown 20-53. Its top five runners were Mike Yuan (1st—17:36), Aaron Barkin (2nd—17:44), Jules Tamagnan (3rd—17:59), Anthony Barletta (4th—18:05), and Josh Maier (10th—18:31). Orgovan proudly pointed out that this team also packed well with a 1-5 spread of only 55 seconds.
Led by Alex Bunnell (who placed 12th with a time of 12:46) Amity finished sixth in the freshman race. Orgovan labeled that “a good freshman time for a 2.1 mile course.”
Amity hosts East Haven Tuesday at 4 p.m. in its first Southern Connecticut Conference race of the season. It will be run on the Fitzgerald Trail in Woodbridge.
