Submitted by Matt Diglio, Coach.
On Friday, October 18, 2019, the Haddam Killingworth High School Boys and Girls Cross Country teams competed at the Shoreline Championship meet at Cromwell High School. Coming in as the underdog to the heavily favored Old Saybrook team, the H-K Girls Varsity team ran an unbelievable race to earn the upset victory and win their 4th Shoreline championship in the past five years, as they tallied 42 points to outdistance Old Saybrook with 47 points. The H-K girls, who had lost to Old Saybrook by 100 points at the Ocean State Invitational just several weeks ago, earned their victory by racing as a pack to reclaim the title that they had lost last year.
Leading the way for the Cougars was sophomore Ava DiMatteo, who had the race of her high school career thus far, by placing 6th in a time of 20:07 for the 5,000 meter course. She was quickly followed across the line by her teammates, senior Lauren D’Amico 7th (20:19), senior Julia Callis 8th (20:26), junior Meara Bodak 9th (20:28) — all of whom earned First Team All Conference honors. Freshman Isbael Berardino rounded out the scoring by placing 12th in a time of 20:45 to earn Second Team All Conference honors. Also key contributors to the team victory by displacing other teams’ runners were sophomores Brianna Minervino 16th (21:00) who earned Second Team All Conference honors and Ali Twachtman 26th (21:23).
The Boys Varsity team also came away with the victory and the Shoreline Championship which was their 6th consecutive Shoreline title and 9th out of the past ten years. The boys were led as they have been the entire season by junior Matt Jennings who was the Shoreline individual champion as he won the in a time of 15:47 for the 3.1 mile course. Senior Chris Uzwiak had a phenomenal race to place 3rd in a time of 16:07, then there was a pack of Cougars who all finished within 1 second of each other: sophomore Caleb Freeman 7th (16:40), junior Fisher Harris 8th (16:40) and junior Sean Rutledge 9th (16:41) to round out the team scoring. All five of the boys earned First Team All Conference honors on their way to leading the team to a score of 28 to outdistance runner up East Hampton with 49 points and the rest of the Shoreline field. Also contributing to the championship was junior Julian Spector 19th (17:27) who earned Second Team All Shoreline accolades and senior Griffin Robinson who placed 21st (17:33).
