Submitted by Matt Diglio, Coach.
On Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, the Haddam Killingworth High School Boys and Girls Cross Country teams split their squads and competed in two different states. While the Boys and Girls Varsity squads traveled to Suffern Invitational at Bear Mountain, NY, the remainder of the team traveled to Cromwell to compete in the CT River Valley Invitational.
The Varsity teams competed on a challenging 3 mile course against over 70 schools from New York and New Jersey. Both teams placed third in their Varsity “C” race as the boys scored 79 points to finish behind Mount Academy and North Rockland of NY while the girls scored 97 points to place third behind Valley Central and Monroe Woodbury, both of NY. The boys were led by junior Matt Jennings who placed 3rd in a time of 16:18. He was followed across the line by senior tri-captain Christian Uzwiak who placed 8th in a time of 16:43, then juniors Sean Rutledge 19th (17:45) and Fisher Harris 23rd (17:32) then a trio of tightly packed Cougars led by sophomore Caleb Freeman 26th (17:47), junior Julian Spector 27th (17:47) and senior tri-captain Griffin Robinson 30th (17:56).
The Girls Varsity squad was led by junior Meara Bodak, who placed 7th in the race in a tmie of 20:37 for the 3 mile course. She was followed by senior tri-captain Julia Callis 24th (22:02), sophomore Brianna Minervino 26th (22:12), senior tri-captain Lauren D’Amico 27th (22:18), and sophomore Ava DiMatteo 30th (22:51).
At the CT River Valley Invitational, the rest of the Cougar squad competed in the JV boys and girls races against 15 other teams from CT. The girls JV team placed 2nd as a team and were led by race winner Isabel Berardino who placed first in a time of 22:31 for the 5,000 meter course. Other top 10 finishers were senior Jasmine Adelberg who placed 4th in 24:09 and junior Kathy Melgar who finished 7th (24:19). The boys JV team won their race and were led by sophomore Greyson Merola who was runner up in a time of 17:39 for the 3.1 mile course. Following him across the line was senior tri-captain Luke Sodergren 3rd (17:41), sophomore Tyler Robinson 4th (17:44), senior Michael Coleman 6th (17:58), freshman Mason Gorham 8th (18:06) and sophomore Andrew Hedges 10th (18:06).
