Girls cross country: Trojans are fifth in league

Written by Rocco Valluzzo
Thursday, 29 October 2009 10:46

Fatigue possibly got the better of the Weston High girls cross country team at the South-West Conference finals last week.

The Trojans thought they had enough time to rest up before the race. Evidently they were still feeling the effects on the day of the meet last Thursday, Oct. 22.

While the Trojans were hoping for a slightly higher finish, they were not that far off from what they expected, taking fifth out of 14 teams with a score of 157 at Bethel High.

New Milford was the winner with 68, dethroning eight-time defending champ Newtown, which was runner-up with 84. Pomperaug also posted this score but was third based on the sixth-runner rule.

Weston did finish ahead of Brookfield, which defeated it in an earlier but was behind New Fairfield (fourth), a team it beat during the regular season.

“We did a hard workout on Monday,” said Weston coach John Goetz. “I think the girls ran with dead legs today.”

They still had a runner place in the top 10 again. As she had done in almost every race this season for Weston, Jessica Welsh was first for her team and seventh overall in 20 minutes, 13.16 seconds to be named to the All-SWC team.

Weston also had one other runner finish in the top 25, making the All-SWC second team. Kara Bucaro was 21st in 21:38.13.

Sarah Griffin came close to making the All-SWC second team. With a time of 22:07.32, she was 27th.

Next for Weston, Casey Weiss was 43rd overall in 23:14.96. Completing the scoring for Weston, Rachel Fraade was 59th in 24:12.23.

Olivia Lewis was also in the varsity race, taking 77th in 25:12.29. SuSu Grace finished 82nd in 25:37.34.

Weston will now compete in the state Class M race on Saturday at Wickham Park in Manchester.