Sports
Southern, Prospect shine at regionals

Nov 21, 2007

After finishing the soccer season, Danny Prospect planned to use the tail end of the youth cross country season to prepare himself for the indoor track and field season.

But Prospect got more than he bargained for — and so did his competition.

Joining the Wilton Running Club team earlier this month, his first meet out of the gate was the USATF Connecticut Junior Olympic championships, held in Litchfield on Nov. 11. Prospect surprised everybody by winning the Youth Boys (grades 8-9) race.

But he surpassed himself this past Sunday at the USATF Region 1 Junior Olympic championships, held on Long Island, as Prospect finished second out of a field of 86 of the best runners from Region 1, which includes the USATF associations from the Adirondack (New York), New England, Maine, Connecticut, Metropolitan (N.Y.) and Long Island.

He will be among more than 3,000 athletes to compete at the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships on Dec. 8 in Lawrence, Kansas.

A record 11 members of the Wilton Running Club will be making the trip.

While Prospect making it to nationals was a surprise, another WRC runner to do so wasn’t — Alosha Southern. The Wilton eighth grader, already having established herself as one of the nation’s top youth runners, earned her second trip to nationals in three years by winning the Midgets Girls regional championship on Sunday.

Five WRC girls — Lily Creighton, Sarah Guth, Rebecca Craig, Zoe Gaston and Paige Lyons, off of Wilton — also qualified for nationals after running to third place as a team in the Youth Girls division.

Also qualifying for nationals were Clint Corso of Ridgefield and Spencer Brown of Wilton in the Bantam Boys division and Phoebe Gaston and Grace House, both from Wilton, in the Intermediate Girls race.

“We had over 40 runners representing the WRC in Junior Olympics, which is a record for the club,” said Kevin Foley, one of the WRC organizers. “Only two years ago we were lucky to have 40 runners in the entire club.”

Southern, who won the Region 1 title in the Bantam Girls division two years ago, won the Midget Girls title on Sunday in a dramatic photo finish over Caitlin Marino of Rhode Island. Southern ran the 3K course in 11:02.07, and Marino in 11:02.74.

Southern was coming off a win at the state championships on Nov. 11, as her time of 11:12 easily beat runner-up Kate Allen of Fairfield by 22 seconds.  

Prospect, a freshman at Wilton High, had played boys soccer at WHS this fall. A gifted runner, he was able to hang with runners who had been running cross country all fall at the state meet. He finished the 4K course in 14:18, edging out Dan Fields of South Windsor to win by a second.

At the regional meet, he finished second in a time of 13:45.02, less than five seconds behind the winner, Jack Callopy of Vermont.

“He went off course in Litchfield and battled the last 1K with this seasoned runner and held him off with a final kick,” said Fred Gaston, another WRC organizer. “Then (on Sunday), he’ s out with the top five and by half way is comfortably in second.

“Had he been running this fall, no doubt he’ d have won this race,” Gaston commented. “This kid is the real deal.”

The other significant performance for the WRC team was in the Youth Girls race, where Wilton finished third in the team standings and qualified for nationals. All five girls are from Wilton. Lilly Creighton led the way by placing 12th in a time of 15:27.66 for the 4K race, followed by Sarah Guth (17th, 16:00.14), Rebecca Craig (19th, 16:01.06), Zoe Gaston (44th, 17:02.74) and Paige Lyons (60th, 18:26.34).

“This is the second year in a row in which the Youth Girls qualified as a team. This is quite an accomplishment given the quality of the teams they faced from New Hampshire and Adirondacks who are usually top 10 finishers in the nationals every year, or so it seems,” Foley said.

The Youth Girls were coming off a first-place effort at the state championships as WRC grabbed five of the top 14 places, led by Creighton (second), Craig (fourth), Guth (fifth) and Maddie Elkins of Stamford (ninth). Zoe Gaston was 14th, Lyons was 23rd, and Isabella Corso of Ridgefield was 33rd.

In the Intermediate Girls 5K race, Wilton High sophomores Phoebe Gaston (11th, 20:29.77) and Grace House (17th, 21:32.43) both earned spots at the national championships.

In the 3K Bantam Boys race, Clint Corso was fifth (12:03.97) and Spencer Brown was eighth (12:14.44) to qualify for nationals. Also running in that race were John Sand of Redding (38th, 13:30.84) and Owen Callahan (42nd, 13:35.73).

The Junior Olympic cross country program is a series of competitions that start with the USATF’ s 57 local Associations and lead up to the 15 regional championships and, ultimately, the national championships. Competition takes place in five two-year age divisions, from ages 10-under to age 18.

The WRC Midget Girls team of Southern, Keiley Gaston, Cait Callahan, Kailey Zengo, Meg Cunningham, Larkin Brown, Colette Kehoe and Katie Foley just missed qualifying for the national meet as if finished fourth in the team standings at the Region 1 meet.

In addition to Southern’s winning effort, the WRC contingent in the Midget Girls race featured Callahan (52nd, 13:05.80), Gaston (55th, 13:15.88), Zengo (66th, 14:01.42), Brown (69th, 14:05.64) and Foley (71st, 14:19.68).

In the 3K Bantam Girls race, Grace Weldon led the way for WRC by placing 60th (15:47.24), followed by Sophie Gaston (67th, 16:02.58) and Kendall Flaven (72nd, 16:28.35).

In the 3K Midget Boys race, Tucker Radecki of New Canaan was 29th (11:33.04), followed by Cameron Elkins (51st, 12:10.28), Chris Levene of Redding (55th, 12:15.62 ) and Alex Sardinas of New Canaan (70th, 12:57.98).


© Copyright 2007 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers