Warriors Run Wild

The foliage, the weather, and the Wilton Warriors Cross Country teams all peaked at Waveny Park on Thursday afternoon.

The Varsity Lady Warriors took second place overall, and the Varsity Boys finished a respectable ninth despite a slew of injuries at the FCIAC Championships in New Canaan. Junior Julia Broach paced the girls team, completing the race in ninth place, and Junior Tim Becker led the boys team by coming in 20th overall.

"I took it out fast and found a good conservative pace," Becker said of his performance. "I thought I ran well. And the team did very well. We were 7-10 during the dual meet season, but we finished ninth today, ahead of a lot of teams we lost to before. So, we're very happy."

The girls team, who finished first last year, had particular reason to celebrate. Despite graduating some of their better runners, they finished just three points behind overall winners Warde, and had their top five runners all finish in the top 20.

Freshman Alosha Southern (15:36-10th), Sophomore Rebecca Craig (15:40-12th), Senior Celeste Hoelzl (15:46-16th), and Junior Zoe Gaston (15:59-19th) rounded out Wilton's leaders, completing the 4k within thirty seconds of each other, well ahead of most of the 115-athlete field. Warde Senior Meg Ryan won the race in 14:03, beating the next closest competitor by 44 seconds, shattering the course record in the process, and leading her team to victory.

Senior Paul Sackstein (18:19-47th place), Freshman Owen Mellin (18:52-68th), Freshman Matt Caswell (19:07-73rd), and Sophomore Ben Follett (19:28-78th) filled out Wilton's top-five runners, who were running without one of their team leaders, Danny Prospect, who was sidelined with an injury.

"We definitely exceeded our expectations," Prospect said afterward. "We thought we'd be farther back given all the injuries we've had. But in the end, everyone ran a solid race. I mean, we had three Freshmen running for our varsity squad and we still did really well."

Senior Richie Hume of Ridgefield won the boys race in 16:20, also a new course record, defeating a field of almost 130 runners. Danbury won the team competition with 60 points, followed by Darien with 65, and Staples and Ridgefield, both with 73 points.

Wilton's self-proclaimed boys B-Team Captain Jon Dorfman was especially exuberant after the race. Asked how he feels about cross country, he said, simply, "I love it. You gotta believe."

Wilton's top finisher in the JV boys race was Sophomore Adrian DiCorato (19:58-51st). The Lady Warriors also dominated the JV girls 4k, with Sophomore Paige Lyons (17:05-2nd), Senior Kimmie Sakamoto (17:15-5th), Senior Christina Conte (17:24-6th), Senior Kathryn Saphire (17:33-9th), and Senior Kristina Durels (17:36-10th) all finishing in the top ten.

The complete race results are available online here.