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10/16/2016 12:00 AMThe Yellowjackets’ cross country teams suited up for their final regular season meets last week and both the boys’ and the girls’ squads came away victorious at East Haven High School on Oct. 13. The boys’ team defeated Oronoque Division opponent Career by a 15-49 score, while the girls topped Career 15-50. It was the first win for the boys this year and the second for the girls as both teams now prepare for their upcoming postseason competitions.
“It’s an important meet,” Head Coach Anthony Russell said. “Their confidence level going into it, they know it’s a meet they can compete and do well in. That was the first thing. The other one was they all knew this was the last home meet for the senior boys, so it was special for those guys, their parents, and the other kids on the team.”
East Haven honored its five senior captains—Austin Rivera, Jake Ferrara, Alphonse DeLucia, Stephen Martindale, and Ryan Albert—prior to the start of the meet. Rivera finished in first place with a time of 17 minutes, 27 seconds and was followed in the top five by Ferrara at 18:44, DeLucia at 18:51, Martindale in 20 minutes, and sophomore Anthony Mauro at 20:29.
On the girls’ side, junior captain Katie Maffeo took first place behind a mark of 21:06 and was followed by junior Deborah Carpanzano, who ran 24:36. After that, the Yellowjackets saw a trio of freshmen cross the finish line in Rebecca Flynn (25:47), Rebecca Albert (26:30), and Kayla Vernon (28:38).
Coach Russell said he felt proud of his boys for pulling off a victory because of the leadership and work ethic that the team’s athletes have displayed this year.
“We have some experienced kids on the boys’ side and some good runners. From a day-to-day standpoint, it’s nice to have the experience on the boys’ side because they’re used to the system, know the warm-ups, and form on stretches since most have done it for four years,” he said. “They help motivate some of the younger, non-experienced runners.”
Rivera and Ferrara have been trading places as the Yellowjackets’ top runner all season and Coach Russell feels they’ve motivated one another to perform their best.
“It’s kind of been going back and forth between Jake and Austin. Austin has been edging him out in most races, but Austin will tell you himself, he didn’t put type of effort he could have in during the offseason. But despite that, he’s running good times. If he puts the effort in, it shows how good he can be,” said Russell. “Jake is a baseball player, but he has a knack for running long distances. Those two guys have led us the entire year and have been battling each other back and forth.”
Coach Russell added that it was nice to honor all five seniors at the meet and the fact that they went out with a victory made the day that much sweeter.
“It’s very rare to not have a senior class on both sides, but having five boys that were all into it and very good was different,” Russell said. “There are not a lot of us in our own little cross country family. It’s a nice group and we’re going to miss them.”
East Haven’s girls’ team doesn’t feature any seniors this season and Russell said it’s been a struggle making sure he has enough runners to compete at each meet.
“From a coaching standpoint, it gives you a little anxiety because you want to have at least enough runners to score. I was lucky to have some girls that tried out and transitioned from other sports,” he said. “As far as the mindset goes for going into meets, some of the younger runners just wanted to finish a 5K for the first time. That was a battle in itself. Others are sprinters using this to stay in shape and we have a few that are at the top and expect to do well. We have a nice range of kinds and I hope the experienced runners do well and it gets contagious. From the beginning of the year, everybody has improved.”
Coach Russell doesn’t have any outrageous expectations for his teams heading into the SCC and state meets. He’s just looking for the Yellowjackets to compete hard and take in the big stage as many of them have never competed at that level before.
“The girls’ team is so young and inexperienced. I’d like to see them compete at that stage. Running against 19 other teams at these huge venues, the girls need to get the experience of running in that type of meet,” Russell said. “The boys, I’m hoping can be pretty competitive. We have the experience. We just hope to get five running competitive times. Going into the meet, I have different expectations for each team respectively.”