GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY
Coaches Corner SPONSORED BY RUNNER'S ROOST
LYONS, WILTON RUN AWAY WITH FCIAC TITLE
By Ron Jones
Taking a phrase from the Beatles, "I get by with a little help from my friends", pretty much summed up the dominant performance by Wilton's freshman sensation Kerry Lyons and her teammates. The Warriors won the team and individual titles at the FCIAC championships at Waveny Park in New Canaan, placing four runners in the top 12, which blew away the competition en route to the FCIAC title.
Lyons set the tone by finishing with a time of 15:14, nine seconds better than Danbury's Liz Calle, whose team finished second overall. Senior Katlyn Regan of Wilton, took the third spot with a 15:29. Ridgefield's Rebecca Chain came in fourth at 15:31 and senior Emily Williams rounded out the top five and put three Wilton runners in the top five of the standings. Warriors sophomore Kerry Hand placed 12th to round out an spectacular showing by Wilton.
Longtime Wilton coach Jeff Gee said, " I figured before the season that we would have a good team, but Kerry (Lyons) was a complete surprise that really elevated us."
Although this was Lyons first involvement in any kind of organized sports, cross country running is in her blood as her mom Cindy was an outstanding road racer more than 20 years ago, until bad knees prevented her from competing.
Lyons started the race near the leaders and when Danbury's Calle decided to kick it up a notch, the freshman was her only competition. As they reached the halfway mark, it was basically Lyons vs. Calle for the top spot. Lyons pulled ahead to stay in the last 500 meters of the race. Asked what was her winning strategy the newly crowned champion replied, "I had no idea what to expect. In a way , that was good, I didn't have any pressure of goals, aside from running well. I wasn't sure how the race would go but when I got about 10 meters from the finish line, I knew I had it won."
It looks as if Lyons will have many opportunities in the future to master her game plans and strategies but for right now, she's just enjoying running on her natural talent and her teammates and coach are enjoying it too.
PLACE-TEAM- POINTS- PLACES OF FINISHERS- AVE. TIME- SPREAD
1) WILTON 37 1,3,5,12,16,34,35 15:43 1:00
2) DANBURY 46 2,6,9,14,15,26,53 15:51 1:09
3) RIDGEFIELD 71 4,8,11,23,25,27,29 16:08 1:13
4) FAIRFIELD 88 7,17,18,22,24,30,38 16:21 1:02
5) STAPLES 152 13,21,32,40,46,47,54 16:57 1:36
6) TRUMBULL 173 20,31,36,42,44,45,56 16:57 1:08
7)NEW CANAAN 202 28,37,39,41,57,60,65 17:25 1:30
8) ST. JOSEPH 215 10,33,50,58,64,70,72 17:39 3:15
9) DARIEN 235 19,43,52,55,66,82,83 17:59 3:22
10)GREENWICH 301 51,59,61,62,68 18:43 2:06
11)STAMFORD 317 48,49,69,74,77,78,90 19:30 3:43
12)BASSICK 355 63,67,71,75,79,80,96 20:20 3:23
13)NORWALK 412 76,81,84,85,86,91,92 22:41 2:44
14)BPT.CENTRAL 430 73,87,88,89,93,94,95 23:45 5:59
INCOMPLETE TEAMS:
TRINITY, HARDING, BRIEN MCMAHON
2002 ALL-FCIAC TEAM
PLACE FINISHER TIME PACE TEAM
1)Kerry Lyons, Fr 15:14 6:08 WILTON
2)Liz Calle, Jr 15:23 6:12 DANBURY
3)Katlyn Regan, Sr 15:29 6:14 WILTON
4)Rebecca Chain, Jr 15:31 6:15 RIDGEFIELD
5)Emily Williams, Sr 15:34 6:16 WILTON
6)Jessica Valencia, Jr 15:38 6:18 DANBURY
7)Mariah Underhill, Sr 15:41 6:19 FAIRFIELD
8)Caitlin Helgesen, Jr 15:51 6:23 RIDGEFIELD
9)Martha Perez, Sr 15:53 6:24 DANBURY
10)Kristin Jackson, Sr 15:54 6:25 ST. JOSEPH
11)Nicol e Breves, Sr 15:54 6:25 RIDGEFIELD
12)Kerry Hand, So 16:06 6:29 WILTON
13)Anna Dowdle, Sr 16:09 6:30 STAPLES
14)Lauren DellaVolpe, Sr16:10 6:31 DANBURY
15)Anjali Carrasco, Sr 16:11 6:31 DANBURY