Stingle Sets School Record, XC Teams go 2-1 in Tri-Meet

The boys and girls cross country teams' tri-meet on Wednesday in Granby against Bolton, East Windsor and Enfield had the perfect storm for a trap.

Indeed, the race was sandwiched between the Wickham Park Cross Country Invitational and next Friday’s North Central Connecticut Championships.

What’s more, the teams had an emotional buildup to the starting guns by wearing T-shirts to honor RuthAnn Lobo, the Granby boys cross country head coach Dennis Lobo and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Against that backdrop, both teams performed admirably by going 2-1, respectively.

The boys defeated East Windsor 15-46 and Enfield 16-45, while falling to Bolton 25-34.

The major highlight on the boys’ side was senior John Stingle setting the school record on the 3-mile course at Granby Memorial High with a time of 16:46.

“My goal was to challenge the record,” said Stingle, a team co-captain who finished second overall, three seconds behind Bolton’s Brendan Callahan (16:43). “I thought that I had a chance if I could run well. I knew that Bolton was going to come out and run some guys pretty fast and if I stuck with them, I would have a shot. … It feels good. It’s really exciting. I left my mark on the school in some way. It’s definitely a cool experience.”

Dennis Lobo, for his part, said that Stingle’s record was well-earned and part of a larger goal.

“He wants to qualify for the State Open,” Lobo said. “He’s been our No. 1; he’s been running really well. He had great competition today. He’s worked hard to do this. There’s been an awful lot of good runners who have come before him. It’s a nice race for him to have going into conference and state meet.”

Lobo said that he was happy with his entire team’s performance, as Ethan Lang (fourth, 17:37), Dillon Chicoine (fifth, 17:41), Alex Tessler (11th, 18:48) and Mitch Rennels (13th, 18:55), all ran times faster than the first meet at Granby Memorial earlier in the year.

Jeremy Ray (21st, 19:54) finished just outside the top 20.

“All the guys ran well,” Lobo said. “There were a lot of personal records.”

On the girls side, Granby Memorial defeated Enfield and East Windsor 15-50, but fell to Bolton 26-32.

The “A-Team” of Alexa Cipkas (second, 20:04) and Ashley Piccirillo (third, 20:18) paced the Bears, as Bolton’s Samantha Nyser finished the 3-mile course first (20:02).

Stephanie Dantos (fifht, 21:16), Michelle St. Amour (10th, 23:28), Gabbi Stahl (12th, 24:35), Maddie Fink (13th, 24:49) and Jamie Moffa (14th, 24:53) rounded out the scoring for Granby.

“I think we performed really well,” Granby Memorial girls cross country head coach Wally Hansen said. “We were very good. [Bolton was] excellent. They’re gearing up for the post season we’re gearing up for the post season. I was relatively happy with our performance in terms of how our 4-5 runners ran, and how our top 3 ran. But Bolton ran a helluva race.”

Hansen acknowledged that it was an emotional day for his runners.

“It was a trap race,” Hansen said. “We knew Bolton was going to be tough. We looked at their results during the season. We knew what we needed to do. … There’s nothing you can really do. Bolton was fantastic.”

Hansen said that he was generally pleased with how his team is rounding into shape entering the final leg of the season.

“I’d like to be a little more healthy,” he said. “There are some minor things going on, but from a training perspective, we’re exactly where we need to be and I think we are going to have a heck of a conference race and at [the state] Class M.”

To 20 boys resutls:

1. Brendan Callahan - Bolton - 16:43

2. John Stingle - Granby - 16:46

3. Thomas Cassello - Bolton - 16:51

4. Ethan Lang - Granby - 17:37

5. Dillon Chicoine - Granby - 17:41

6. Nicholas Peracchio - Bolton - 17:53

7. Samuel Hillebrand - Bolton - 18:11

8. Chris Armstrong - Bolton - 18:23

9. Evan Jaworski - Bolton - 18:42

10. Dominic Blesso - Bolton - 18:46

11. Alex Tessler - Granby - 18:48

12. Jacob Burnham - Enfield - 18:54

13. Mitchell Rennels - Granby - 18:55

14. Trevor Chambers - Bolton - 19:00

15. Tim Monfette - Enfield - 19:14

16. Harold Hennessey - Bolton - 19:21

17. Kent Zelesky - Bolton - 19:28

18. Dylan Costa - East Windsor - 19:29

19. Clay Harmon - East Windsor - 19:36

20. Billy Weton - Bolton - 19:47

Top 20 girls results:

1. Samantha Nyser - Bolton - 20:02

2. Alexa Cipkas - Granby - 20:04

3. Ashley Piccirillo - Granby - 20:18

4. Rachel Chambers - Bolton - 21:11

5. Stephanie Dantos - Granby - 21:16

6. Zoe Ounpuu-Adams - Bolton - 22:03

7. Hannah Milewski - Bolton - 22:23

8. Emily Fiano - Bolton - 22:32

9. Leah Seften - Bolton - 23:18

10. Michelle St. Amour - Granby - 23:28

11. Alexandra Hanlon - Bolton - 23:45

12. Gabbi Stahl - Granby - 24:35

13. Maddie Fink - Granby - 24:49

14. Jamie Moffa - Granby - 24:53

15. Savannah Blessis - Granby - 25:00

16. Chelsea Orefice - Enfield - 25:00

17. Kaitlin Greene - Granby - 25:02

18. Rebecca Rising - Granby 25:21

19. Becky Salustri - Bolton - 25:23

20. Alyssa August - Bolton - 25:31