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10/31/2023 12:04 PMBeyond the falling leaves, the crispness of the air and apples, and the sweet scent of pumpkin spice coffee, one additional given come the month of October seems to be the Haddam-Killingworth cross country teams asserting their dominance on the Shoreline Conference’s biggest stage, and 2023 proved to be no exception to that.
On Oct. 19 at Hammonasset State Park in Madison, both H-K cross country clubs claimed their respective Shoreline Conference championships. The girls tallied a nice low of 34 points to easily pace themselves past runner-up Coginchaug, which tallied 84 points. The boys accumulated only 35 points and led the pack over Hale-Ray (79 points) and Old Saybrook, which had 80.
“I am so proud of how hard we have all worked this year, individually and as a team, to accomplish this goal of winning Shorelines,” said freshman Charlotte Behnke. “All of us have put in so much effort and hard work since June to get it done. As a freshman, it has been such an amazing experience so far to be part of a wonderfully close team like H-K.”
The victory marked a three-peat for the girls’ squad and its fourth Shoreline crown since 2019. The Cougars have now won seven Shoreline titles since 2015 on the girls’ circuit. On the boys side, it was their second conference championship in three campaigns, and 12th since 2010.
“Winning Shorelines was one of our biggest team goals because of our performance last year at this meet,” said boys’ senior Luke Hedges. “I cannot express how proud I am of everyone on this team for working so hard since summer training started. We knew it was not going to be easy to earn the Shoreline title back, but we worked really hard and proved that we could do it.”
In terms of the girls’ performances for H-K, Behnke was out in front and came in second overall with a time of 19 minutes and two seconds. She finished only behind race winner Chase Gilbert of Old Lyme (17:06). Sophomore Grace Mitchell followed her in fifth at 19:54, and then senior Sydney Adelberg paced herself to seventh by clocking in at 20:11 for her performance. Rounding out the day for the Cougars were junior Keira Sehl-Albert (12th, 20:34), sophomore Julia Downing (13th, 20:38), fellow sophomore Delaney Aronson (14th, 20:42), and freshman Emilia Schweitzer (20th, 21:32).
“For my own performance at Shorelines, I could not be happier,” said Behnke. “My time was a personal record by a minute and a half, and it was one I did not expect to reach at the beginning of the season. It also gives me good personal goals to work towards for the future. I am proud of this team’s success.”
H-K Head Coach Matt Diglio detailed that the girls ran at full strength for the first time at the most opportune occasion to help elevate them back to the first-place step at the podium.
“Going in, we knew we were the favorites on the girls’ side. We had not run our full varsity roster all season long due to injuries until Shorelines,” said Diglio, who is assisted by Kristie Kaminski. “We ran a really solid race on the girls’ end. Charlotte led the way, and we were really happy overall. We only lost one of our top runners from last year’s team, so we knew we had talent coming back. They had a good summer of training. The girls were patient, and they knew what they were capable of.”
The final team standings for the girls’ competition beyond H-K and Coginchaug were Hale-Ray in third with 98 points, Portland found fourth with a score of 116, East Hampton came in fifth (120), Old Saybrook saw sixth (137), Valley Regional finished seventh (150), North Branford tallied 205 to place eighth, and Cromwell was ninth with 215 points.
With the boys, junior Jack Cozean finished third overall for the race with his 15-minute, 59-second showing. Classmate Matt Lara was right on his heels in fourth with a time of 16:15, plus sophomore Daniel McCourt completed a 3-4-5 sequence of finishes for H-K by placing fifth (16:17). Hedges also cracked the top 10 by coming in eighth (16:31).
“While I was happy with my performance, I was more impressed with how strong our team ran overall with having four of us finish in the top 10 and having four of the top 10 fastest times in school history,” said Hedges.
Additionally running on the day for the Cougars were sophomores Cash Smigel (15th, 16:53), Alex Frederickson (16th, 17:04), and junior Sawyer DiMatteo (19th, 17:18).
“The boys were determined, focused, and driven,” said Diglio. “They executed the race plan, and Jack led until about the last 500 meters. Overall, I was really pleased with both teams. We had some key injuries in the postseason last year, so they were extremely motivated and focused on this season since June. Every day, they worked hard and pushed each other.”
Additionally in the JV races, the boys swept the top six spots, while the girls did the same with respect to the top 5. Both varsity teams additionally finished 5-0 on their respective dual-meet campaigns.
Rounding out the field for squad scores on the boys’ slate were fourth-place Portland with 105 tallies, Cromwell at fifth (112), East Hampton in the sixth position (124), Old Lyme at seventh (194), Coginchaug was eighth (197 points), Valley Regional claimed ninth (234), and Morgan was 10th (279).
For both races, runners who placed in the top 10 were awarded First Team All-Shoreline accolades, and then finishers No. 11 through 20 notched Second Team recognition.
At the Class SS State Championships on Oct. 28 at Wickham Park, the girls finished in second, while the boys were third for their competition. The girls tallied a score of 66 to finish behind only New Fairfield, who had 55. Suffield was second (59) and Rocky Hill (50) took the boys’ team title, while H-K secured 76 points.
Junior Keira Sehl-Albert finished 10th for the girls’ race in a time of 21 minutes and 45 seconds. Adelberg was right behind her in 11th (21:49), Mitchell saw 13th (22:06), Aronson paced to 15th (at 22:17), Behnke was 17th (22:24), Downing finished 19th (22:40), and Schweitzer was 23rd (in 22:50).
For the boys at states, McCourt was sixth (in a time of 17:24), Cozean came in ninth (17:30), Hedges found 17th (18:19), Alexander Frederickson finished 21st (18:29), Smigel was 23rd (18:41), and DiMatteo raced to 25th (18:56).
The boys’ team roster is comprised of seniors Hedges, Alec Sicurella; juniors Cozean, DiMatteo, Lara, Jackson Snow, Soren Tassmer; sophomores Alexander Fredericksen, Anthony Fredericksen, Adam Livingston, McCourt, Garrett Mitchill, Smigel, Jake Wolfradt; plus freshmen Evan Berardino, Paul Birkmeyer, Grant Ignatuk, Tyler Traczyk, and Wyatt Voegtli.
The girls’ roster is made up of seniors Adelberg, Madison Moriarty, Kaleigh Nelligan, Kayla Rodriguez; juniors of Emmerson Goeden, Alejandra Hubbard, Margaret Robinson, Keira Sehl-Albert; sophomores Aronson, Downing, Grace Mitchell, Amelia Riggs; and freshmen Behnke, and Schweitzer.