Staples girls cross country places sixth at FCIAC

The Staples girls cross country team finished sixth at the FCIAC championship meet with 160 points on Oct. 21 at Waveny Park in New Canaan.

Lady Wreckers Senior captain Rachel Myers said, "I am very pleased with the team's sixth place finish. The team has continued to improve over the last few years, and I am proud of that fact. Often, we have been disappointed as a team in our results at FCIACs compared to the rest of the season, but this was not true this year. I am also glad that we beat Fairfield Warde, a team against which we were not able to compete this season because they were unable to run in one of their meets. This meet functioned as a dual meet against Warde, and we won that meet along with finishing sixth at FCIACs."

Staples knew that this was its most important meet of the season. "We wanted to put everything into it. We knew we had worked hard and were well prepared so we just had to go out there and perform," said Lady Wreckers senior captain Emily Hanrahan.

Finishing first for Staples and 11th overall was senior Ingrid Johnson with a time of 15:34. She received FCIAC honors, making first team. "It is nice being first team all-FCIAC. There were so many other talented runners in this race, so it feels great to have placed within the top 15," Johnson said.

Following her was junior Caroline Smith (31st place; 16:20) and sophomore Judy Feng (32nd place; 16:20). Hanrahan said, "Caroline Smith and Judy Feng both had their best races of the season."

Next was junior Alex Popkin (41st place; 16:41), Myers (45th place; 17:01), Hanrahan (47th place; 17:04) and senior Emily Harris (48th place; 17:08).

The Lady Wreckers will compete in the Class LL championships tomorrow. Hanrahan said, "The State Championships are Saturday at Wickham Park. It is a very challenging course but I think we are well prepared and if all goes well we will qualify for State Opens."