After its four top runners graduated in June, new head coach Cortney Fusco said that it was "between a rebuilding year and a 'reloading' year," for the Avon High School boys cross country team.
But many of the younger runners trained hard over the summer to prepare for the season.
"We lost seniors Connor Wise, Justin Alessio, Mike Oberhausen, and Jeff Demers, who were our top four last year," Fusco said. "That being said, we also have a lot of young talent on the team that are beginning to realize their potential. We are probably lacking the kind of unquestioned top runner that, say, Suffield or Coventry have, but we have a lot of depth."
Seven of the varsity runners competed in the NCCC championship at Windsor Locks on Wednesday, placing sixth as a team. Junior Collin Pritchard placed the highest for Avon at ninth with a 17:19.64 time. Sophomore Andrew Suter was next for Avon in 25th at 17:55.49. The other Avon runners were senior Eric Kirk (18:20.19), junior James Grant (18:23.36), senior Matthew Reagan (18:26.84), junior Bryant St. Jean (19:01.69), and senior Adam Helmy (19:02.29). Full results are available at mysportsresults.com.
"Collin Pritchard is our most talented runner, and he's just a junior; for that matter, only two of our seven varsity runners this year are seniors -- the team will be good this year, but should be even better next year," Fusco said toward the beginning of the season.
Pritchard (18:00) and Suter (18:07) were also Avon's fastest runners in the seeded race at the esteemed Wickham Park Invitational Columbus Day weekend in 31st and 38th, respectively. St. Jean placed 96th in 19:04, Reagan was close behind in 99th (19:12) and Grant took 107th (19:17). Kirk finished in 19:46 (120). The full results are available online.
The Avon Falcons has been working on a 'pack running' strategy this season. It's another way teams can rack up points to place higher, even though Fusco said "we are lacking a clear ace at the top of our lineup."
"Cross country is an interesting sport in that a team might not have a single runner in the top 3 of a four-team race and still manage to win the race if they have a solid pack of runners finishing in the top ten," Fusco said in September. "The challenge will be to make sure that our depth of fast JV runners progresses to the point that they're ready to compete at the Varsity level by this point next year."
Avon has had many conference meets this fall agains rivals like Coventry, Canton, Suffield and Ellington making for a competitive season.
The team has risen to the challenge from the start, honing technique in addition to building endurance.
"Taking a cue from some professional-level training groups like Alberto Salazar's Oregon Distance Project, we're integrating new core-building and footwork-enhancing exercises on 'easy' run days -- the days after a hard workout or a race, during which we usually do an short, slow run," Fusco said. "The hope is that building a better all-around athlete will make them stronger runners, even though the results of such exercises can be invisible and intangible."
Fusco has been on board with the cross country program since 2011 as an assistant and now replaces Gene Macy coaching the boys team. Before that, he was the assistant track and field coach.
"Last year, Gene felt that it was time to hand control of the team over to someone else, and he could tell that running was something about which I'm passionate (I'm fairly regionally competitive in local 5Ks and Half-Marathons, and have run a few marathons)," Fusco said. "We treated last year, then, as a kind of apprenticeship year. My goal as a coach this year is to develop the young talent we have moving forward -- to improve every runner, no matter what their current level."
The boys cross country state championship is scheduled for Oct. 26 at Wickham Park in Manchester.
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