By Matt Diglio (September 20, 2026)—
On Saturday 9/19, the Haddam Killingworth boys and girls cross country teams traveled to Somers, NY to compete in the Somers Big Red Invitational against over 20 teams from New York. Not only did the boys and girls team win the team title in their respective races, but the program also once again captured the best combined boys and girls combined team championship out of all the schools competing at the meet.
The Girls team had a strong race on the challenging 3.1 mile course to place first overall as a team in the Division 3 race scoring 31 points as a team. The girls were led by senior co-captain Charlotte Behnke who placed 2nd in a time of 19:54. She was followed by her sister sophomore Alyssa Behnke who placed 3rd (20:51) and senior co-captain Emi Schweitzer 4th (20:58). Rounding out the team scoring was sophomore Annie Webster 8th (22:04) and freshman Mattie Gersz who running in her first 5k race ran 23:30 to place 14th.
The H-K boys cross country team also had a strong race to easily take the team win scoring 19 points to take the Division 3 title. The boys team was led by senior co-captain Evan Berardino who won the race in a time of 16:36 in the fastest time of the entire meet for the hilly 5,000 meter course. Following him was fellow senior co-captain Wyatt Voegtli who placed 2nd (16:47) then junior Trey Downing 3rd (17:28) to complete the 1-2-3 sweep in the race. The other scorers were senior Paul Birkmeyer 8th (18:18) and sophomore Mason Bergman 9th (19:01).
The cross country team will next be in action on Tuesday September 29th as they travel to Totoket Park in North Branford to compete in the Shoreline Large School League Meet.
