CIAC Girls Division XC Championships

S DivisionIt is rare, but not unheard of for a Class S school to make noise at the State Open and crack into the top ten. NCCC powerhouse Somers is one such team, finishing 10th last year and this year they defended their title by overtaking upstarts Lyme-Old Lyme by a score of 45-75. LOL was 13th in Class SS last year.
Somers coach Michael Szfir set up a game plan for the girls to return to the victory stand. “We knew Lyme Old Lyme was going to be good. Today, we were trying to get ourselves in a position where we could pick up some spots. We ran conservative and mature in the first half. Our goal was to stick around until the hill and then we were going to make the race our own.”
Led by runner up Stephanie Burzynski, the Spartans put five runners in the top 20 and come into the State Open with the 10th fastest time of the day with an outside shot at qualifying for New Englands next week by finishing in the top six.

Lyme Old Lyme’s program has been revitalized with the emergence of freshman Chase Gilbert who won in 19:12, the third fastest time of the day. The Wildcats ran aggressive from the gun and were up by a score of 45-75 at the halfway mark before Somers came charging up the Green Monster hill, right before the two mile mark.