What did the Windham Invitational Cross Country meet mean to local high school teams?
Most would tell you not much. That it was just a quiz building up the final exam which won't take place for about a month but it did tell us something about teams to watch in the upcoming month plus.
The St. Bernard Saints girls team, led by Caroline Riley who finished second in the varsity I race, will be a team to be reckoned with not only in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division but in the league as a whole.
The Saints finished ahead of perennial power, Griswold, but will still have to contend with the likes of Lyman (the two meet on Tuesday in Lebanon) and NFA.
The NFA girls also looked good thanks to the performances of two sophomores, Cassy Hunter and Kathleen O'Brien as well as senior Meegan Joly. The Wildcats captured the Varsity II race going away as those three runners were all in the top 10.
That should make for an interesting ECC girls championship meet come October at the Norwich Golf course.
The NFA boys, for the second consecutive year, also came out on top in the Varsity II race but there was a hint of worry about peaking too soon. It happened to the Wildcats last year and they don't want a repeat performance in 2007.
The Griswold Wolverines finished second in the Varsity I race with Jason Cusack, Erik Chester and Andrew Orum leading the way. The Wolverines just have to shore up their fourth and fifth runners and get them a little closer to the top three.
The Woodstock Centaurs were breathing a little sigh of relief that Zach Eckard was back on Saturday. He didn't race against East Lyme and the Centaurs suffered an unexpected loss. He ran on Saturday and Woodstock placed fifth overall in the Varsity I race.
We have dual meets for the next couple of weeks before most teams in the state gather on October 6th for the Wickham Invitational, the real warm-up for the states.