Hall’s Isaac Mahler and Conard’s Tess Sherry both won their varsity races at Wickham Park on Oct. 17.

By Howie Lam. Photos by Craig Rosenberg

It’s that time of the year again – beautiful and bright orange trees, a nice cool breeze, and the start of the cross country championship season.

Hall was one of the many teams that competed this past Tuesday at the CCC Championships, as the varsity girls placed second in the CCC West and overall, and the varsity boys placed first in the CCC West and second overall. Hall’s junior varsity boys were able to defend their title as a team, and the junior varsity girls came up short for second place as a team.

For context, the CCC is made up of four divisions: north, east, west, and south. All athletes raced in either the varsity or junior varsity race, and with that, the scores within each division are scored, as well as a compiled results list with everyone among the CCC.

The Conard boys varsity team finished sixth overall, and the varsity girls were eighth.

As the gun went off for the girls varsity race, the lead group immediately began to string out the field, with Conard’s Liv and Tess Sherry, newly committed Virginia Tech commit Katherine Bohlke of Newington, as well as Glastonbury’s super star Brooke Strauss.

The Titans worked together as a pack throughout the first 2 kilometers, with only about six seconds separating the top five girls, with Julia Zydanowicz leading the way. At Wickham Park’s famed “Green Monster,” which is a steep uphill at about two miles into the race, the girls continued to move and maintain their spots as people began to slow after the difficult challenge. 

Conard’s Tess Sherry was the winner, in 18:30.2, and her twin sister, Liv, was the second Red Wolves’ runner and fifth overall in 19:46.7.

To the finish, Julia Zydanowicz led the way for Hall’s second place finish, with her time of 20:51.40 in 13th place overall. Maddy Peterson caught more and more athletes in the last kilometer, which earned her a 17th place finish in 21:06.00. Just two spots behind in 19th and 20th place were Abby Sanderson and Rylan Priest, with times of 21:14.80 and 21:16.20, respectively. Hall’s 400m record holder-turned-cross-country-runner Lauren Moskal finished in 23rd place overall, to finish off the scoring five members in a time of 21:25.70.

Katie Moskal maintained her spot from the two kilometer split and finished 44th overall in a time of 22:26.70. Katie Osoba, finished in 62nd place in 22:59.10. Harper Clancy rounded out Hall’s top eight runners in the varsity race, as she finished in 24:35.80.

All together, Hall scored 92 points to become runner-ups to conference rivals Glastonbury’s fifty-five points. Their strong placement as a team puts the Titans in a good spot as they advance in the championship season. More results for the girl’s varsity race can be found here: https://live.pctiming.com/meets/28407/xc-events/1028136/results.

Lucia Rittlinger, in 57th place, was Conard’s third runner, followed by Callie Cosgrove in 85th place and Keira Jennings rounding out the top five in 98th place. The Red Wolves girls scored 232 points overall, for eighth place.

In the boy’s varsity race, the favorite to win was the recently committed Boston University athlete, Hall’s Isaac Mahler. Mahler opened up his season with a fourth place finish at the Ocean State XC Invitational, as he raced among the top athletes in the Northeast. Just a few days before Tuesday, Mahler continued his senior season at the Catholic Memorial XC Invitational hosted at Franklin Park, in Boston, MA, to place second overall in the varsity race. 

From the start, Mahler led the race out front, with Tolland’s Colby Bornstein, E.O Smith’s Jack Mattingly and Brendan Cook, and Simsbury’s Daniel Coyne following behind in a chase pack. Not too far behind was the Titan’s number two, Ben Lewis. Donovan Connole, Tommy Boulter, Diego Acker Candela, and Nathan Yingling advanced as a pack and took advantage of the downhill to insert themselves in a good spot prior to the Green Monster. 

To no surprise, Mahler won the boy’s varsity in a time of 16:00.30, more than 17 seconds ahead of second place. Ben Lewis, who struggled with an IT band strain at the beginning of the season, was able to bounce back on Tuesday and run 17:03.10 for sixth place.

Donovan Connole edged out Liberty University commit Luke Davis in a time of 17:11.40 for 11th place, while senior Tommy Boulter had the race of his life, moving up 15 spots from the two kilometer split to the finish line. Boulter finished in a course best of 17:18.70 for 17th. Right behind Boulter was his teammate, sophomore Nathan Yingling who finished in 17:25.90. Diego Acker Candela finished 32nd overall in a time of 17:36.50, for his first time ever running the course, and his first season as a cross country athlete. Jonathan Pincus (18:17.10, 58th place) and Jacob Szalewicz (18:21.60, 61st place) finished out the varsity squad on Tuesday. Hall was able to finish their record within the CCC West Division undefeated, however they finished second overall among the entire CCC, behind E.O Smith, which finished with 46 points, as to Hall’s 53 points. More of the boy’s varsity race results can be found here: https://live.pctiming.com/meets/28407/xc-events/1028137/results. 

The Conard team was led by Evan Piccioli who ran 17:37.0 and finished in 21st place. Grant Bigger was 29th, Neev Kanwar was 43rd, Sawyer Bloom was 57th, and Sean Morley in 60th place rounded out the scoring for the Red Wolves with 210 points overall and a sixth place finish in the CCC.

Following the race, Mahler expressed his excitement for the rest of the championship season. “I’m super stoked to be able to race with a group of talented guys. For some of them, this is their first year being a part of a varsity team, however I think that there is a lot of potential for these guys to come later in the postseason. I can’t wait to work more with these guys.”

About half an hour later, the gun fired for the boy’s junior varsity 5000m race. Led and won by Hall’s Connor Mayr, the Titans scored only 19 points to win the race, followed by E.O Smith’s 57. Mayr was followed by Hikari Mizuno (18:30.6, second place), Matt Zeman (18:43.8, third place), Matt Castro (19:04.1, fifth place), Howie Lam (19:12.4, eighth place), Frankie Dewander (19:20.5, ninth place), and Jeremy Baun (19:23.0, 10th place) to assist the Titans in winning the race. More of the boy’s junior varsity race results can be found here (https://live.pctiming.com/meets/28407/xc-events/1028128/results).

The last race to conclude an afternoon full of racing was none other than the girl’s junior varsity race. Hall’s Claire Furia, a freshman, won the race with a time of 23:27.70. Her teammate, Lucille Vargas, finished right behind Furia in a time of 23:39.50. Senior Haileigh Tharp ran a season’s best, for fifth place in 24:25.00. Olivia Wollner finished 15th overall, in a time of 25:15.40. Anya Mantripragada rounded out the scoring five for the race for 23rd place in a time of 25:46.30. Karen Yang (26:13.8, 34th) and Sofia Ruffo (26:30.2, 40th) displaced other athlete’s placements as they finished off the top seven for the junior varsity race. More results of the girl’s junior varsity race can be found here: https://live.pctiming.com/meets/28407/xc-events/1028126/results. 

On Saturday, Oct 28, both the boys’ and the girls’ teams will be traveling back to Wickham Park in Manchester Connecticut, for the Class LL and Class L State Championships. To follow along and find results, they can be found here: https://www.nestiming.com/events/ciacxcdiv23. 

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