By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp
Last year witnessed one of the greatest battles for team supremacy ever at Wickham Park. Not only did Ridgefield barely hold off East Lyme by a score of 43-63, both teams ran the first and third fastest combined time in Wickham Park history (Ridgefield’s 2023 team has the 2nd fastest time.) The teams battled it out once again at New Englands with both teams from the Constitution state going 1-2 against 30 of the best teams in the five state regional meet. While both teams were hard hit by graduation, they both have developed enough talent in the last nine months that they should make some significant noise by the end of the season. With 43 of the top 60 finishers from last year’s State Open graduated, predicting this year’s top teams will be especially tough. But let’s take a look at who some of the top boys teams MIGHT be for 2025.
Coaches can get their input by participating in the 2025 Marathon Sports CT High School Coach’s XC Preseason Poll. IF you are interested in participating in the polling this season THEN please register as soon as possible using the 2025 CT XC Coaches Poll Sign-Up form. Coaches must provide a valid email address on the form to receive further emails about voting in the next poll. Coaches only need to sign-up once to participate in polling this season.
The start of the 2024 CIAC Boys State Open Championship at Wickham Park.
Xavier – Class MM, Coach Chris Stonier
The boys from Middletown have won 81 state championships in the past 55 years and while they lost a huge chunk of their State Open 5th place team to graduation, they have plenty of talented JV and rising sophomores who should be able to fill the void. While no one will replace All Americans Jack Ouellette and Owen Martin who rewrote their school record book, the Falcons will should be strong the next few years behind rising sophomore Nolan O’Connor who was the top freshman at the State Open last year and went under 4:30 for the 1600m and 10 minutes for the 3200m in track. Another rising sophomore is Holden Hines, whose father, Brendan was All New England for the team in the mid 90s. The younger Hines is showing plenty of potential having broken 9:50 for 3200m to place 6th in Class LL. Another member of the Class of 2028 is Guilford transfer Jackson Gould who also went under 10 minutes for 3200m and was All SCC in cross country last year. They also have four other rising sophomores…
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