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Boys Cross Country

H-K boys win 7th-straight SLC cross country title, East Hampton girls win 1st since 2012

Will Aldam | November 9, 2020

Members of the Haddam-Killingworth boys cross country team pose after winning their 7th straight SLC title Friday, Nov. 6, 2020

Members of the Haddam-Killingworth boys cross country team pose after winning their 7th straight SLC title Friday, Nov. 6, 2020 (Photo taken by Yvette and John Minervino.)

Matthew Jennings and his Haddam-Killingworth teammates continued their tradition of success in the boys Shoreline cross country championships Friday.

Jennings’ 16 minute, 17 second finish was enough for him to capture his second consecutive individual Shoreline title as Haddam-Killingworth boys earned their seventh straight team title.

“This is the second year in a row that Jennings has won,” Haddam-Killingworth boys coach Matt Diglio said. “His sophomore year he was second overall. He is the most talented runner we have had come through the program. I have been here 20 years or so and he is the most talented. He has a great work ethic, a positive attitude and has matured into a leader this past year. I think he is just a cut above the other runners in the conference.”

Haddam-Killingworth junior Caleb Freeman (17:25) was also a key contributor, earning a fifth place finish as the first non-senior runner to cross the finish line.

Though winning has become somewhat of an expectation to Diglio and his team in recent years, the abnormality of this fall inspired a somewhat different outlook on the season.

“This year with everything going on we really just wanted to enjoy every step of the way and anything that got added along was really just a bonus for us,” Diglio said. “To be able to race was fantastic and then being able to win on top of that and continue the tradition that the team has set forth, the kids were really happy. They were really pleased and proud with all the obstacles they had to overcome this year.”

The East Hampton girls team, led by first place finisher Kaylee Gravel, took home its first Shoreline championship since 2012.

“It was a well earned victory for her,” East Hampton coach Bill Wilkie said of Gravel. “She has been working so hard. She’s a junior and it’s her third year. She has worked so hard and like any distance runner, there are good weeks and weeks that aren’t as smooth but she just kept working through them and it was great to see.”

After finishing 13th in the SLC championship as a freshman and fifth-place last year, Gravel edged Haddam-Killingworth sophomore Isabel Berardino by seven seconds for her first individual title on paper, but the two did not race head-to-head.

“Everybody raced one team and we compiled the results, which was incredibly unusual,” Wilkie said. “We were not racing Haddam-Killingworth, the other very strong team in the league. We hadn’t seen them all year and we weren’t racing them in the conference championship either so we were racing ghosts. That’s how our athletes approached it.”

The approach worked for East Hampton, which was paired up against Lyme/Old Lyme.

“Lyme/Old Lyme has a really strong runner (Madeleine Morgado) up front who was the number one runner when we raced them a month ago,” Wilkie said. “We wound up putting three in front of her on Friday so that was a pretty good indication that we had a really strong race.”

East Hampton had three runners finish within the top six with Gravel (21:21) in first, sophomore Savannah Garcia (22:02) in third and junior Jessica Starr (22:20) in fifth.

“We don’t have a single senior on the girls team this year,” Wilkie said. “To be as strong as we are this year without graduating anybody, that is a great scenario to look forward to.”

2020 SLC Boys Cross Country All-Conference

Matthew Jennings – Haddam-Killingworth

Alexandre McMillian – East Hampton

Mark Rodriguez – Cromwell

Mike Zocco- Cromwell

Caleb Freeman – Haddam-Killingworth

Sean Kennedy-Wonneb – Hale Ray

Brendan Owen – East Hampton

Jacob Schneider – Old Saybrook

Michael Kraszewski – Hale Ray

Owen Delisle – Portland

Greyson Merola – Haddam-Killingworth

Jack Wiley – Old Saybrook

Jack Insalaco – Haddam -Killingworth

Jack Dedman – Hale Ray

Aidan Powers – Lyme/Old Lyme

Robert Balda – East Hampton

Nathan Ireland – East Hampton

Joseph Lauria – Hale Ray

Felipe Patinha – Cromwell

Connor Daly – Cromwell

2020 SLC Girls Cross Country All-Conference

 Kaylee Gravel – East Hampton

Isabel Berardino – Haddam-Killingworth

Savannah Garcia – East Hampton

Caitlin Wiley – Old Saybrook

Catherine Minegar – Old Saybrook

Jessica Starr – East Hampton

Grace Mikan – Cromwell

Ava DiMatteo – Haddam-Killingworth

Carlina Castro – Old Saybrook

Madeleine Morgado – Lyme/Old Lyme

Kathy Melgar – Haddam-Killingworth

Brianna Minervino – Haddam Killingworth

Juliet Byrne – East Hampton

Sydney Adelberg – Haddam-Killingworth

Annin Daley – East Hampton

Alyssa Spooner – Lyme/Old Lyme

Abby Kelly – Hale Ray

Brylee Montanari – East Hampton

Charlotte Selmer – Haddam-Killingworth

Kayla LaMalfa – Portland

About Will Aldam

Will Aldam is a contributor to GameTimeCT.com.

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