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10/12/2014 12:00 AMThe East Haven boys’ and girls’ cross country squads both earned its first victories of the season at its lone home meet of the season against Career on Oct. 7.
Both squads took home 15-50 wins as both squads had four of the top five runners at the meet.
“Motivating them is a challenge throughout the entire season because it’s a different sport than when you’re playing basketball or football. There’s not somebody directly in your face. It’s you against the road and how many miles you’re going to put in in the offseason and how hard you work in practices when we’re doing track workouts, it’s kind of you against yourself so it’s a little bit different,” Head Coach Anthony Russell said. “I think the motivation was that we hadn’t gotten a win yet, and they knew that if we ran well, they could possibly win today, and they did a good job.”
On the boys’ side, Conor Reynolds posted the best time, crossing the finish line at 19:30. For Reynolds, it was his personal best for both the season and his career.
“I started off rough,” Reynolds said of his times early in the season. “I started with a 22:07, but each race I’ve lost time. We’ve been practicing hard the last few weeks and it’s helped me in the long run.”
Running on the home course was another factor that contributed to Reynolds’ time as his familiarity and comfort with the track made for the great round.
“I just felt good today. The wing was going and I was enjoying it in front of our family members,” he said. “It’s easier because we know it better. We know how we have to run up the hill. It’s a tough hill and we run it all the time, so it just feels easier after going on it over and over again.”
Reynolds was one of many familiar faces on the boys’ squad from a year ago, which Russell said makes his job easier as a coach because they all know what’s expected of them in every meet and practice.
“That makes my job easier. When they know what to do, they can get the beginning run, form run, and stretch done because they know how to do it, then depending on what workout I have written up for that day, they do that and their cool down and they’re done,” Russell said. “They know the routine and it’s nice to have the familiarly of the kids and they’re familiar with a lot of the stuff we do so it makes it a lot easier.”
Other finishers in the boys’ race were Alphonse DeLucia (2nd, 20:01), Jake Ferrara (3rd, 20:11), Stephen Martindale (4th, 20:52), Austin Lieto (6th, 22:20), Ryan Hanlon (7th, 22:33), Ryan Albert (8th, 23:16), Jordan Higgins (9th, 23:47), and Tyler Spano (10th, 24:12).
On the girls’ side, Melissa Palma set her personal best mark and finished first with a time of 21:45.
“We’ve been working hard lately. It’s been really good,” she said. “Here we had our people supporting us so it was nice to have them here cheering for us.”
Palma said she understands how the course works, and therefore knows what areas may supply her a breather and where she knows she has to kick it into gear to stay ahead of the pack.
“We know what to expect and what our strengths and weaknesses are,” Palma said. “When I’m going up the hill, I know it’s going to hurt, but I know I have this where it’s straight so I’ll be able to recover.”
Other finishers for the girls’ team were Katie Maffeo (2nd, 22:51), Michele Kabel (3rd, 23:57), Taylor Maffeo (5th, 28:04), Emily Maffeo (6th, 28:05), Dana Ross (7th, 28:05), and Daniele Langan (9th, 30:23).
Russell loved hosting the meet because he could sense the enjoyment his squad got from competing on their home turf.
“I wish we had more,” he said. “I like having home meets. I wish we had a few more, but it’s nice to be running here where they’re familiar with the course. I like it more for the kids than for me.”