By Holly D’Addio, Courier Sports Writer
It was
their first taste of all of the Shoreline Conference teams this fall
season and the Valley Regional High School boys’ and girls’
cross-country squad had solid finishes. Held at North Branford High
School, the conference towns of East Hampton, Morgan,
Haddam-Killingworth, North Branford, and Coginchaug joined Valley in a
meet where runners could size up each other to get a feel for what the
competition would be like later in the season for the all-important
Shoreline Conference championships.
“I think our kids are starting to
run much better,” said girls’ coach Lou Luciani. “We had three of our
kids, two underclassmen, in our top-10 finishing and I think we’re
inching closer to some of the top teams in the league.”
The girls’ team finished second,
losing only to East Hampton, and saw strong finishes from all runners.
Finishing first for Valley was freshman Amelia Eppard (5th, 22:52.2), followed by sophomore Georgia O’Neil (8th, 23:17.6), junior Liza Dee (10th, 23:27.7),
freshman Katherine Watts (16th, 24:28), and junior Megan Callahan (22nd, 24:56.4).
Other finishers included sophomore Colleen Gardner (26th, 25:08.1), freshman Sarah Hammond (28th, 25:12.2), freshman Morgan Hines (37th, 26:24.3), junior Amelia Haney (41st, 26:44.6), freshman Aliza Dube (46th, 27:26), and freshmen Alyssa Cornwall (48th, 27:29.1), Amanda Preble (49th, 28:01.5), Anna D’Agostino (52nd, 28:27), and Devon Bakoledis (61st, 29:37).
“We still have our four and five
runners pretty close together, we’d like to close that gap and get them
closer to the second and third runner,” said Luciani. “I’m getting
ahead of myself because we’re very young, our oldest runner is a
junior. We can only get stronger with more experience and they’re all
pushing each other out of spots here. I don’t have to pick and
choose—you work, you run, and do what you’re supposed to and the seven
fastest will run varsity. If we can continue to get better and gain
more confidence, we’ll be that much closer to gaining on Saybrook’s
up-front kids.”
The boys’ team finished strong and
saw a solid effort on all parts, particularly the underclassmen once
again. Leading the pack was sophomore Glenn Holmes (5th, 18:26.2), followed by senior Darren Walden (11th, 18:51.6), and junior Rodney Mosier (20th, 19:19.9),
Other finishers included sophomore Jonah Fidel (38th, 20:55.9), junior Zack Mantie (44th, 21:25.5), junior Patrick Campbell (54th, 22:02.5), sophomore Kevin Bango (71st, 22:47.8), freshman Bailey Steele (74th, 22:57.8), freshman Dylan Ficke (82nd, 23:55.3), and freshman Robert Hernandez (98th, 25:41.6).