Top runners from across the state of Connecticut gathered at Wickham Park in Manchester on Saturday, October 25th for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) State Meet.
Each year, teams from all over the state pick their top 7 runners and send them to run at the state meet, hoping to win a title.
For the Bobcats, both the boys and girls cross country teams sent their runners.
The boys team came in searching for their second ever state title, and their first since 1995.
On the girls side, they came in seeking their third state title, having won previously in 1984 and 1995.
The day started with the Girls Class L race, followed by the Boys Class L race shortly after.
At 10:10 AM, the starting gun fired for the Bobcats and the Girls Class LL race.
Senior captain Sofia Holovatska was the first to the line for the Bobcats, finishing third overall with a personal best time of 18:38, qualifying for the State Open meet on Friday, October 31.
Holovatska, who recently committed to Quinnipiac University for cross country and track and field, wants to focus on having a positive mentality before the state open race.
“I can’t really change my level of fitness between Class LL and the Open, but my mental state I can change,” Holovatska says. “Mentality has just as large of an effect on performance as physicality.”
Junior Rachel Matyschsyk finished second for the Bobcats, placing 56th overall with a time of 22:08.
Freshman Saanvi Nigam finished third for South Windsor with a time of 22:32. The rest of the team finished within two minutes afterwards.
As a team, the girls finished in 9th place out of the 20 teams competing in the Class LL race.
The next starting gun fired at 10:45 AM for the Boys Class LL race.
Sophomores Denis Mike and Roman King finished first and second for South with times of 17:55 and 18:28, respectively.
King, in his first year of running cross country, improved his time by almost 5 minutes from the first race to the last.
“I’m gonna keep training in the offseason doing indoor and outdoor track,” King says, “It’s a mental sport and if you push hard enough, you can exceed your limitations.”
Sophomore Nevin Joseph and senior Ben Bolduc also came across the line with a time under 19 minutes.
The boys finished with a combined time of 2:12:33, the best time since 2018, and enough for an 11th place finish, their highest ever in Class LL.
While for most cross country runners, the season is over, Sofia Holovatska will compete in the CIAC State Open Meet on Friday, October 28.
