SJS Shines at Cross Country State Finals

The cross country season has come to a close but not without a dramatic finish.  The girls finished the year in great form, WINNING the CT State Championship East of the River!  Placing 1st for the team was Lindsay O’Neill.  She steadily proceeded to improve in each competition, leaving her best race for last by finishing 6th in a field of 343 runners.  In second position for Saint James was Isabelle Burke who finished just 13 seconds behind in 8th place.  11th position was held by Ally Ansaldi, running a strong race from start to finish and bettering her time from last year.  Next for Saint James was Elizabeth Munns, placing 19th overall, also running quicker than the previous year.  Rounding out the top 5 scoring positions and running a spectacular race was Maeve Williams, placing 23rd overall.  Izabella Ray, in her first season running cross country, was a mere 3 tenths of a second behind Maeve.  Sophie Kisner, running her last XC race for SJS, finished 47th out of 343 runners.  Top 50 runners were awarded medals for their performance.

 

 

The boys also had a great race on Saturday!  Running an unbelievable race from start to finish was Aiden Puffer, who won the boys race by more than 10 seconds ahead of his competition!  Nathan Melia, running his last race for Saint James, was in stellar form, placing 11th out of 350 runners, he had the best race of his middle school career, sprinting past 7 runners in the final uphill finish.  Matthew Schwarz also did a great job!  Coming out for XC in his last year at SJS, Matt continued to improve throughout the season, finishing 23rd at the CT State Meet.  These top boys earned medals for their performances.  Dominic Cavallo and Kevin Leger rounded out the top 5 positions for the team.

Congratulations to all the runners for a great season!

Also, a huge thank you to Coach Jen O’Neill for all her time and dedication to the Saint James School cross country program!