On Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018 the Haddam Killingworth High School boys and girls cross country teams competed in two separate meets as the Varsity squads traveled to Bear Mountain, NY and competed at the Suffern Invitational while the rest of the team traveled to Cromwell to compete in the CT River Valley Invitational.
The varsity boys and girls team after their race at the Suffern Invitational
The Boys Varsity team placed second overall out of 20 teams from NY and NJ in the Varsity C race. They were led by sophomore Matt Jennings who placed 7th in the race with a time of 17:04 over the 3 mile course. He was followed across the line by senior Nate Carlson who placed 11th (17:15), then a pack of Cougars all within 4 seconds: senior Kyle Criscuolo 16th (17:40), sophomore Fisher Harris 17th (17:41), and senior Seth Freeman 18th (17:44). Rounding out the squad were juniors Owen Howes 23rd (17:56) and Christian Uzwiak 27th (18:18). The boys team scored 66 points to place second overall as a team behind Cornwall, NY.
The Girls Varsity team only raced four so they did not score as a team but raced well over the 3 mile challenging course. The girls were led by senior captain Emma Anziano who placed 7th overall in a time of 20:15. She was followed by her teammates who all finished within 10 seconds of each other: sophomore Meara Bodak who placed 16th overall in a time of 21:15, junior Julia Callis 18th (21:19) and junior Lauren D’Amico 19th (21:24).
At the CT River Valley Invitational, the girls JV team swept the first 5 places in the races going 1-2-3-4-5 to score a perfect team score of 15 points to easily place first as a team. Leading the way for the JV girls team was freshman Ali Twachtman who won the race in a time of 22:19 for the 5,000 meter course. She was followed by teammates: freshman Brianna Minervino 2nd (22:28), senior Sadie Strom 3rd (23:02), freshman Kylie Studzinski 4th (23:10) and senior Michaela Flaherty 5th (23:19).
Ali Twachtman winning the JV race at the CT River Valley Invitational
HK boys sweep the top 10 spots in the JV race
The JV boys team also won their race sweeping the first ten places going 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, also scoring 15 points to easily outdistance the rest of the teams in the race. They were led by freshman Dakota Tucker who won the race in a time of 17:43 for the 3.1 mile course. Finishing behind him were: sophomore Sean Rutledge 2nd (18:04), freshman Greyson Merola 3rd (18:18), junior Griffin Robinson 4th (18:32), freshman Caleb Freeman 5th (18:32), senior Tuckerman Wink 6th (18:33), junior Nate Petras 7th (18:34), sophomore Henry Sodergren 8th (18:34), sophomore Julian Spector 9th (18:35) and sophomore Dan Studzinski 10th (18:43).
The cross country team will next be in action on Saturday September 22nd as they travel to Warwick, RI to compete at the Ocean State Invitational.
