Sports
Pomperaug Boys With A Strong Showing In SWC Cross Country Action
Stratford's Colocho Continues His Impressive Season Making His Presence Known
On Tuesday September 21st the Stratford High School Boys Cross Country team traveled to Pomperaug High School for a cross country meet against the host Panthers and the Brookfield Bobcats in South West Conference action.
A near perfect day was a tap with sunny skies, temperatures near 70, low humidity, and no wind.
The 4K race, that is correct, a 4K race (2.48 miles) instead of the standard 5K took place on the multi-elevated levels of the Pomperaug campus. A wooded portion of their usual course could not be used due to downed trees along the path from severe summer weather.
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So with that, SWC legendary cross country coach, Mark Goodwin reconfigured the campus, transitioning the previously mentioned multi-leveled campus into a 4k challenging course.
Runners had to figure eight along a soccer field up and over to a practice field and back over to the soccer field looping in between the two and facing an eighty meter hill three times. After the final lap on the soccer field, the course went downhill, crossed the baseball field, going behind the outfield fence before ending on the track. Surface conditions were mainly a grass carpeted course with some asphalt and rubberized track.
Right from the start of the race Pomperaug’s Hunter Curcuruto and Freshman Owen Martin led the charge. Brookfield’s Trem Ampeloquio and Stratford's Amos Colocho, were not far behind.
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Colocho continues to race well for Stratford and remains the top runner for the Red Devils.
After that, the next five runners were from Pomperaug, Ethan Hudson, Benjamin Kania, Eoin Collette, Jonah Turner, and Ben Koobatian.
Pomperaug went on to take seven out of the top ten finishes.
Brookfield’s Evan Belles rounded out the top ten.
The top ten finished in that order with Curcuruto first at 14:17. Martin second at 14:25.
Ampeloquio third at 14:27. Colocho fourth at 14:29.
Hudson fifth at 14:33, Kania sixth at 14:35, Colette seventh at 14:37.
With Collette’s finish, he became Pomperaug’s fifth finisher and Pomperaug claimed two victories on the day.
In eighth, Turner at 14:43. In ninth, Koobatian at 14:49.
Belles in tenth at 14:55.
The tilt between Stratford and Brookfield saw Brookfield, with already two finishers in, placing the next three runners across the line.
Omkar Maralappanvar (15:04), Sam Kotran (15:46), and Ian Foster (15:48) crossed the line before Stratford’s second finisher, Joshua Kydes (15:54) came in, solidifying a Brookfield victory over the Red Devils.
The remaining Stratford finishers were Ryan Munoz at 16:11, James Bragg-Phillips at 16:31, Kalaba Kibwe at 16:49. Marcus Cavallo at 17:00, Raiyan Khusru at 17:07, Andrew Maldonado, who suffered a fall during the hills portion of the race, in at 19:54, and Papa Insaidoo at 26:24.
Final scores on the afternoon, Pomperaug 18 Brookfield 41, Pomperaug 18 Stratford 45, and Brookfield 19 Stratford 43.
Stratford goes to two wins and three losses on the season.
Up next for Stratford, at home on the grounds of Wooster Middle School, Tuesday September 28th versus the New Fairfield Rebels and the Immaculate Mustangs at 4:00pm.
