Following a solid season last year, the Cross-Country program at the high school has been absolutely dominating. The boys’ team is captained by seniors Ben Skrelunas, Micheal Fico, and Cooper Colthup while the girls’ program has top runners Charlotte Moor, Radea Raleva, and Eliana Savelli.
Boys Team
Going into the 11th annual Winding Trails invitational the boy’s team has been undefeated this season. The boys’ program is led by junior Ryan Bolanger, who placed first in both of the Fairfield County Interscholastic Conference (FCIAC) events so far and twelfth in the Wilton Invitational. Other notable runners include sophomore Braden Barber, junior Spencer Paine, and senior Jacob Kozar.
Returning top runners Ryan Bolanger, Spencer Paine, and Jacob Kozar have all been performing extremely well so far this season. All three runners have gotten new PRs this season while still very early in the season. Ryan Bolanger, the fastest runner on the team, has pushed his 4k race down to 14:07.2 while Spencer Paine has also improved his 4k down to 14:28.2. Jacob Kozar has gotten PRs in both the 4k and 5k, with 14:18.6 and 17:14.2 respectively. During the Wilton, Norwalk, Ludlowe, and New Canaan meet held at Waveny Park, New Canaan managed to sweep the entire podium with Ryan taking first, Jacob second, and Spencer coming third.
Following an incredible season last year with 7 first-place finishes out of 12 races and 2nd place in the FCIAC championships, Braden Barber has settled well into the Varsity team. In the 2 races competed in so far, he has gotten personal PRs in both races with 14:22.6 in the 4k and 17:35.1 in the 5k. While only a sophomore, Braden is one of the team’s top runners and even faster than he was last year.
Varsity as whole has been performing well up to now in the season, with runners Ryan Bolanger – JR, Jacob Kozar – SR, Spencer Paine – JR, Braden Barber – SO, Ryan Jordan – SO, John (JD) Disturco – JR, Andrew Reed – SR, Faizal Zakir Hussain – JR, Ben Skrelunas – SR (Capt), Michael Fico – SR (Capt), and Cooper Colthup – SR (Capt). Going into the Winding Trails on Saturday the 23rd, hopes are high for the team to perform well following several wins on the varsity level.
The Freshman and JV teams have also been performing well, with JV placing 2nd at the Wilton invitational and the Freshman team also being undefeated. The top performers are Charlie Cavenaugh, Teddy Bliss, Boyd Causley, Sebastion Gonzalvez and Matt Sisser for the Freshman team, who will be joining their counterparts on JV and Varsity next year.
When interviewed about the team, long-time coach William Martin had this to say about his runners, “Our team is developing very nicely. We are led by Junior Ryan Boulanger who has been the individual champion in both of our FCIAC meetings so far. Last week he won at Tarrywile Park in Danbury vs Danbury, Bridgeport & McMahon. Yesterday he was 1st once again vs Ludlowe, Norwalk and Wilton. So far this season we are undefeated headed into this Saturday’s invitational meet, Winding Trails, in Farmington, CT. We opened the season with wins at the freshmen and Varsity levels at the Wilton Invitational Set. 9 and the JV placed 2nd.
We have a very exciting freshmen squad and they are also undefeated to date. The Boys are excited and we are off to a great start this year.”
Girls Team
Also heading into the Winding Trails invitational will be the Girls JV and Varsity teams. Both teams have been performing extremely well up to this point in the season, and are clearly in the making of a fantastic team.
At the 34th Wilton Invitational New Canaan took first place for Varsity and 10th on JV. Varsity has also received first place team scores during the Wilton, Norwalk, Ludlowe and New Canaan home meet and second place at the Bridgeport, McMahon, New Canaan and Bridgeport meet held at Tarrywile park. Notable runners for the girls team at the moment include Charlotte Moor, Radea Ravela, Eliana Savelli, Elizabeth McLaughlin, and Grace Driscol.
Junior Charlotte Moor is currently the team’s best runner, and has been performing well following a fantastic season last year that culminated in taking the team to a second place finish in the FCIAC championships. That being said, she has her work cut out for her to keep that position, with sophomore Eliana Savelli and fellow junior Radea Ravela. While Charlotte is currently keeping a fair time gap between her and anyone else from New Canaan, during the 2022 XC season they were all extremely close to each other in terms of time. Going into the Winding Trails invitational she is going to have to fight to hold onto that title as the team’s fastest runner.
Winding Trails Invitational
Both the Boys and Girls teams did very well at the Winding Trails Invitational, one of the first largest meets of the season. Their performance at this meet sets a good precedent for how the rest of the season will go and I am looking forward to their future races.
Starting off with the Girls, they placed 3rd overall on Varsity, with a score of 69. Charlotte Moor was the strongest runner for the Girls this week, placing 3rd with a time of 19:24.32. Close behind her was Radea Raleva with a time of 19:40.47, who placed 6th. Other runners on the Varsity team included Elizabeth Mclaughlin, Niyathi Iyenger, Maggie Greiner, Sophie Walter and Amanda Vigano. They placed 15th, 20th, 20th, 28th, and 35th, with times of 21:05.99, 21:39.7, 21:56.95, 22:04.61 and 22:33.64 respectively. Noticeably missing from the race was Eliana Savelli.
On the Boys team they managed to take 1st place in the large school division. Spencer Paine was the top runner in this meet for New Canaan, with a 3rd place finish of 16:41.5. Following him less than half a minute later was Ryan Boulanger with 17:05.99, placing 5th. Next up was Braden Barber who placed 8th with a time of 17:17.32. Jacob Kozar, Andrew Reed, John Disturco and Ryan Jordan also raced, taking 10th, 16th, 18th, and 22nd out of 65 total runners in their race. They received times of 17:30.47, 18:03.66, 18:04.43, and 18:32.31. When asked after the race, Faizal Zakir Hussain who got 2nd in the JV race with a time of 18:16 on a 6:05 mile pace said this, “Course conditions were less than perfect but we had several PRs on our team. Glastonbury put up a good fight, but we ran well and took home the victory. It was a great race.”
Overall, the Cross-country team has had a fantastic week running. The boys and girls won the earlier meet of the week, and had podium finishes during the Winding Trails Invitational. Both teams have robust JV and Varsity runners, and will almost certainly have a fantastic season this year.
