Glastonbury, Ridgefield Snare State Open Cross Country Titles [VIDEO]

MANCHESTER, CT — "The Green Monster," a grueling hill in the middle of the 5,000 meter cross country course at Wickham Park in Manchester, oftentimes can make or break even the best of runners competing for a league, divisional or state championship. It is scary anytime of the year, but throw in the added factors of the CIAC State Open being contested on Halloween on an unseasonably warm day made it downright frightening.

Those elements did not seem to affect many of Thursday's participants, however, as some familiar faces and uniforms adorned the medal platform following the boys' and girls' races.

The boys' race, which began at 10 a.m. rather than the traditional mid-afternoon start due to the hot forecast, was won for the second straight year by Ridgefield. The Class LL champions compiled 43 points to edge Class MM titleholders East Lyme, which had 63.

Four Tigers placed in the overall top 15, led by a third-place finish by Magnus Manley and a sixth-place showing from Charles Lovett. Trevor Fuller was 11th and Sullivan Dunn 13th for Ridgefield, which won the Open for the third time in the past four years and fourth time overall.

Top finishers for East Lyme were Sean McCauley (4th) and Sam Leone (10th).

Soheib Dissa of Newtown was the individual boys champion, covering the tract in 15:24 to beat runner-up Luke Cushing of Amity Regional by 18 seconds. Last year, Dissa was second, improving greatly from his 17th-place showing as a sophomore.

The girls then took to the course at 10:45, with Greenwich favored to win after beating out Glastonbury by 11 points in the Class LL meet on Oct. 26. It was not to be, however, as the Guardians, led by an individual win by senior Brooke Strauss and a fifth-place effort from freshman Lauren Parrett, registered 62 points to cruise to the crown. Mercy of Middletown was second with 145, while Greenwich was a distant third with 173.

A huge difference between Saturday's divisional race and the Open was the vast improvement of two Glastonbury runners. JuniorAbigail Mathew, who was 37th in the LL with a time of 21:53, completed Thursday's trek in 19:43, good for 18th place. Senior Lila Garbett, who placed 54th at the LL in 22:40, also trimmed more than two minutes off her previous time, winding up in 33rd place in 20:26.

Strauss, who won the individual title for the second time in three years, completed her run in 18:19, a 35-second lead over runner-up Liv Sherry of Conard. In her four years with the Guardians, Strauss had two Open victories and two seconds.

Glastonbury won its second Open championship in the last three years, and sixth overall.

Complete results of both races may be found here: BOYS GIRLS