By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp
The complete meet results including team scoring details, courtesy of FastTrackTiming, are available at MySportsResults.com – 64th Nonnewaug XC Invitational sponsored by Marathon Sports – with stores in Branford, Fairfield, Glastonbury and Old Saybrook.
With most of the state’s top ranked teams taking a down week after an extremely busy week, the 64th Nonnewaug XC Invitational gave many smaller schools a chance to shine under cloudy skies. After a day of heavy rains that began to let up just as the varsity races began, about a dozen boys and girls teams toed the line with sophomore Lorenzo Lopes leading Immaculate to the boys team title and Watertown junior Ryann Walsh taking the individual title with the Coginchaug girls claiming the top team plaque.
In her first season of cross country, Walsh was content to let others take over the early pace setting duties. “I wanted to start off slower and see what I could do because I wasn’t really expecting to win,” she said after the race. After playing soccer for the past two years, the Warrior began to find some success on the track, taking 2nd in the Class M championships 1000m race last winter.
Click the pic for interview of Ryann Walsh by Marty Ogden of MSR
This year she has goals of placing highly in the NVL and Class SS championships. While at the state meet she will have to face New Fairfield’s quartet who finished in front of her at Ocean State last weekend, her time of 19:41 is the first NVL girls under 20 minutes according to Athletic.net’s database.
She was followed in 2nd place by her teammate Lillian Khouri who finished in 20:09 with freshmen Briana Belanger of Thomaston (20:24) and Wamogo’s Lily Markavich (20:45) earning the next two spots.
Coginchaug was thrilled to grab the win in a close battle with Holy Cross by a score of 55-66. Multiple time Class S pole vault champion Allison Vigue showed off her range by leading her team to the win by taking 5th in 20:59.
Immaculate’s Lorenzo Lopes is a rising star among Connecticut distance runners. Last year as a freshman, he broke 16 minutes for 5k on the track and was the 2nd fastest freshman at Wickham Park in cross country. On Saturday, he had a pack of three other runners on his tail when he put on a surge around the two mile mark to win his second invitational of the season, crossing the line in a near PR of 16:35 on a challenging 5000m course with two…
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