Amity Boys Cross Country Third in CIAC State Open

With its third place finish at last week's CIAC State Open in Manchester's Wickham Park, the Amity boys cross country team  has qualified for the Nov. 13 New England Scholastic Championship Meet which gets underway at noon in Thetford, Vermont. It was the 16^th straight year the Spartans qualified for the Open and eighth consecutive year they made it to New Englands. Both are state records for longevity.

Tolland, the Class M champs, won the Open with 111 points.  Guilford  was second with 133 and and Amity came in third with 158 points.

According to Spartan Coach Bob Orgovan, "Most people who follow cross country across the state felt that Tolland was really good, probably  had the best team, and would win the State Open. We were the first Class LL team to finish and Guilford was the first Class MM team."

By placing among the top 25 finishers, Spartans Dean Bhatt (15^th out of 186 runners---16 minutes, 36 seconds) and Clark Shurtleff (24^th—16:42) earned All State recognition. The Spartans' fastest five also included Jack Dunleavy (31^st—16:53), Nathan Arndt—75^th—17:25), and Sam Spence (78^th—17:26).

"We ran well, especially Dean and Clark. They really earned All State honors." Orgovan said.  "It was about the same type of race we ran last week in the Class LL Championship Meet, but the course was wet so the times aren't quite as good.

Tolland's Brian Fowler was the individual State  Open champ as he covered the 3.1 mile course in 15:50. Fairfield Prep junior Conor Rog was second at 15:51.

Looking ahead to the New Englands, Orgovan conceded that since Rhode Island has two of the nation's top 25 teams, it was highly unlikely that Amity would bring home the first place trophy.

He added, "There's no way we are going to win it all, but it would be nice if we moved up and became either the No. 1  or No. 2 team in Connecticut."