10/26/2006
Cross Country squads fall short in SCC meets
By: Phil Brodsky

Despite being outscored by Xavier 28-43 in last Thursday's Southern Connecticut Conference Boys Cross Country Championship Meet at Hammonasset State Park in Madison, Amity coach Bob Orgovan was very pleased with his team's effort and performance.
"Both teams ran really well," Orgovan said. "This is a low score for a big meet like this. The race went as I had expected it would. Even though we ran our best race of the season, I wasn't surprised to see Xavier win. Their guys ran faster than we did."If we scored this as a dual meet between Xavier and us, it would have been 23-32, which is the same exact score as our real dual meet with them. The only difference is, in our dual meet with Xavier, we averaged about a 20 second difference per man. In this meet, we cut that difference down to 12 seconds per man."
The Falcons' Adam Vess won the SCC individual championship, completing the 3.1 mile course in 16 minutes, 11 seconds. Amity's Wesley Halstead was second out of 138 runners. His time was 16:23. Paul Kichar (5th: 16:43), Adam Trofa (9th: 17:00), and Dan Rothberg (12th: 17:02) also finished among the top 15 and earned All-SCC honors.
They also were among the top eight runners in the Housatonic Division and also were included on the All-Housy team. Joe Greenspun (15th: 17:10) was also included on the All-SCC team.
James Harrison came in 10th out of 236 runners in the 3.1 mile junior varsity race. His time was 18:24. Ryan Laemel was the top runner in the freshman race. His time was 18:29. The Spartans' freshmen team was second to Cheshire (25-88) in the freshman race.
On Saturday, Amity will participate in the CIAC Class LL Championship Meet at Wickham Park in Manchester. The race gets underway at 3:30 p.m. While he said that his team has no chance to win or even finish second, Orgovan expressed a hope that the Spartans end up among the top eight teams. He saw Danbury as the clear favorite, but noted that Norwich Free Academy, Glastonbury, New Milford and Xavier could all present challenges to the Hatters, currently the state's No. 1 ranked team.

Girls Cross Country
While the Amity girls' cross country team defeated Guilford in a dual meet back on September 19 , the Indians avenged that loss by coming in first and outscoring the second place Lady Spartans 50-77 at last Thursday's Southern Connecticut Conference Championship Race at Hammonasset State Park in Madison. Amity was the defending 2005 SCC champs.
"I was afraid Guilford would be really strong," Amity coach Chris Dickerson said. "They always get stronger at the end of the season. We ran a great race. I don't think we could have run any better than we did run. Unfortunately, Guilford is deeper and ran a little better than we did. They had an excellent team last year and graduated only one runner in June. Both teams had awesome races."
Hamden's Courtney Dinnan won the SCC individual championship, completing the 3.1 mile course in 19 minutes, 26 seconds. Amity's top runner was Paige Pallotto. She came in eighth overall out of 140 runners. Her time was 20:31. By finishing eighth, Pallotto earned All-SCC and All-Housatonic Division honors. Annalies Gamble's 13th place 20:41 garnered her All-SCC honors. JoAnna Cambria (17th: 20:53), Stephanie Shea (18th: 21:00) and Jamie Marrone (21st: 21:08) were also in Amity's top five finishers.
In the 3.1 mile junior varsity race, Amity claimed both third (Stephanie Jorge: 22:03) and fourth (Kristen Griest: 22:04) place. The Lady Spartans' Jenna Zold defeated 49 other runners to win the SCC freshman title with her time of 22:08.
"Jenna ran a great race and ended up 30 seconds ahead of the second place runner," Dickerson said.
The CIAC Class LL Championship Race will be on Friday at Wickham Park in Manchester at 3 p.m.. Dickerson tabbed Glastonbury as the clear favorite. He also expected Ridgefield, Newtown, Cheshire and his Lady Spartans to all vie for a top five finish.
"We tend to run better and more together in the big races," Dickerson said.