By Matt Diglio, HKHS Cross Country Coach
(November 24, 2025) —On November 22, 2025, the Haddam-Killingworth High School Boys and Girls Cross Country teams wrapped up their season at the Nike Northeast Region Championship meet held at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, New York.
The Girls team concluded their season-which saw them win the Shoreline Conference championship and the State championship, place fifth at State Opens and qualify for the New Englands–by winning the Nike Northeast Open race. Racing against teams and individuals from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the HKHS Girls placed first by scoring 96 points to narrowly edge out runner-up Union Catholic of New Jersey with 105 points.
The Girls team was led by Junior Charlotte Behnke, who placed 17th in a time of 20:26 and Senior Grace Mitchell 21st (20:38) on the hilly and muddy 5,000 meter course. By virtue of their top 21 finish, both girls received all Northeast Region team. They were followed by Senior Julia Downing 25th (20:44), junior Emi Schweitzer 59th (21:32), Senior Delaney Aronson 66th (21:39), Freshman Alyssa Behnke 110th (22:25) and Senior Amelia Riggs 175th (23:43).
The HKHS Boys Cross Country team also competed in the Nike Northeast Open Race and placed fifth out of 58 teams from all over the region by scoring 228 points. The Boys team was led by Junior Evan Berardino, who placed 22nd in the race with a time of 17:16 for the challenging 3.1 meter course- just missing out on All Region by .2 seconds. Following him were Seniors Alex Fredericksen 51st (17:34) and Anthony Fredericksen 55th (17:39) and Dan McCourt 77th (17:49). Rounding out the team scoring was Junior Wyatt Voegtli 109th (18:02), Senior Cash Smigel 143rd (18:21) and Sophomores Trey Downing 193rd (18:41) and Fischer Norton 200th (18:45) out of 550 runners in the race.
