On Saturday September 30, 2017, the Windham High School
Cross Country teams raced in the 16th Annual Festival of Champions held in
Belfast, ME. Being known for one of the fastest cross-country courses in the
state, the Windham runners proved they were ready to take on the trails.
Seventeen out of the nineteen lady Eagle runners toed the
line and after crossing the finish, earned eight all time personal records (PR)
and three season best (SB) times. Twenty nine out of thirty boy Eagle runners
toed the line and after crossing the finish, earned fourteen all time personal
records (PR) and eight season best (SB) times.
For the girls, Windham’s top runner, (Sophomore) Hailey
Applebee ran a season’s best time of 19:54 for the 5k course. Hailey
finished 42rd overall out of 759 runners on the day. (Junior) Morgan Colangelo,
returns for her second season with Windham XC. Morgan achieved an all time
personal record with a time of 21:27, which is nearly a three-minute
improvement since her first ever cross-country race in 2016.
This performance earned Morgan a second-place finish for
the team. (Junior) Abigail Clinch proved she came to fight for it, when she
achieved a personal record with a time of 21:46, earning her a
third-place finish with her team. Her time was nearly a seven-minute
improvement over her very first cross-country race in 2016.
Morgan and Abby were almost caught up in the pile up at
this beginning of this race but emerged
with only a torn spike and a bruised
toe for Morgan. (Sophomore) Hannah Langstaff, known for her state qualifying
time in the 400-meter race in track, joined the cross-country team this year.
Hannah has made a nice transition to the 5k distance and earned a fourth-place
finish for her team on the day, with a time of 23:57. Rounding out the top
5 finishers for the day was (Freshman) Molly Cochran, who had a breakout
moment, when she crossed the finish line with a time of 24:04. Molly improved
her all time personal best time by almost a minute, proving she is ready to compete
in the postseason for the Eagles.
Supporting the top 5 scorers were sixth-place finisher,
(Junior) Mikayla Baiguy, who ran with a time of 24:12 and seventh-place
finisher, (Junior) Carly Witherow, who had an all-time personal record in a
time of 24:22. Female Eagle finishers 8 through 15 were as follows:
(Junior) Becca Turner 24:27, (Sophomore) Anna Foster 25:00 (SB), (Senior)
Danielle Meader 27:04, (Senior) Gabby Smith 27:10, (Junior) Savannah McLellan
28:32 (PR), (Freshman) Jessica McLellan 29:21 (PR), (Junior) Anya Shmanenko
30:09, (Senior) Natalie Walker 30:58 (SB). Did not run: (Junior) Allison Drew
and (Sophomore) Miranda Delano.
For the boys, Windham’s top returning runner, (Junior)
Mason Rosborough, finished first for the Windham Eagle boys with a time
of 17:39. Mason does double duty as a Windham athlete, as he also
participates on the high school soccer team. Mason finished in 94th place
overall, out of 940 runners. (Senior) Wyatt Yost earned a second-place finish
for the boys, with a time of 18:19, which was also a season best for
Wyatt. Keep watching Wyatt as looking to get back to his sub 18 PR! (Senior)
Kevin Ingalls pushed through the crowd, after nearly avoiding the big pile up
at the start of the race. Kevin picked runners off one at a time and still
managed to cross the finish line with a time of 18:46, earning him a third-place
finish for the team. (Senior) Hunter Dionne, not once - but three times,
avoided downed runners along the 5k course. Hunter narrowly missed his personal
best time but crossed the line with an impressive time
of 18:51 earning him a fourth- place finish for his team. Rounding
out the top five, was a first-year cross country runner, (Junior) Connor
Abbotoni. Connor became an instant contributor to the boys’ team and finished
the race with a time of 19:06.
Supporting the top 5 scorers were sixth-place
finisher (Sophomore) Jordan Piechowski, who ran an
all-time personal best
of 19:19. The seventh-place finisher (Senior) Jaren Preston, also finished
with an impressive time of 19:28. Male Eagle finishers numbers eight
through twenty nine are as follows: (Freshman) Tristan
Candelmo 19:43 (PR), (Senior) Zach Harris 19:43 (PR),
(Senior) Mitch Budroe 19:56 (PR), (Senior) Logan
Cropper 19:57 (PR), (Senior) Owen March 19:57 (PR),
(Senior) Callean Frechette 20:21 (PR), (Senior) Trevor
Crowley 20:40 (PR), (Senior) Noah Hall 20:45 (SB), (Senior)
Ethan Leech 21:05 (PR), (Junior) Sam Cole 21:07 (PR),
(Freshman) Octavian Anghel 21:15 (PR), (Junior) Owen
Wert 21:51 (SB), (Junior) Mike Ryan 22.18, (Sophomore) Davis
Kinney 22:57 (SB), (Junior) Rohullah Habibzai 22:58 (SB),
(Sophomore) Kobe Pillsbury 23:09 (SB), (Freshman) Mark Gedicks 23:24 (PR),
(Sophomore) Dean Preston 23:52, (Sophomore) Derek
Klimko 23:55 (SB), (Freshman) Robbie Soucy 24:02 (PR), (Junior) Gabe
Ransom 24:09, (Sophomore) Zavier Cummings 24:42 (SB) Did not run: Stephen
Sepulveda.
The team’s score is calculated by adding up the finishing
place for the first five runners to cross the finish line for their team. In
the event of a tie, the score of the sixth and the seventh runners’ time may be
utilized to break the tie. The goal is to have the lowest combined
score. Girls finished in 33rd out of 62 teams and the boys finished 34th
out of 68 teams.
“The overall team race results/season standings don’t
truly tell our cross-country story, our 2017 story is epic. Our story is found
in the daily grind, in the endless pursuit that our athletes demonstrate daily,
and in their proud smiles! Many will never fully know all that each of our
athletes have accomplished, but they know and that’s good enough.” says coach
Jeff Riddle.
The teams are coached by Coach Jeff Riddle and Coach Tom
Noonan. The Southern Maine Regional race will be held on Saturday October
21, 2017 at Twin Brooks Park in Cumberland, Maine.