Berlin Girl's Cross Country Outruns Its Seed at Open

The Berlin girls finished a fantastic season with a strong showing at the CIAC State Open. 

The girls went into the race seeded 24th overall but finished 16th. All seven of the girls ran really well and beat some teams that are historically very strong. 

"Branford was one of the teams that beat us at the MM meet but we were able to upset them today," Berlin coach Steve Soucy said. "One of the things I was most proud of was the way this team focused the second half of the year. 

"After our early loss the Bristol Central this year, they just didn't seem like they were bothered by the loss. I ended up not letting them practice for a day to think about it and asked them to come back focused. From that day forward they were 100 percent focused for every race. This team's success was centered around the 'team' approach and all the girls bought in. They didn't care who was first as long as we won and lowered our team time. 

"We had three or four different girls each place as our number one over the year and had one of the smallest gaps between our first and seventh runners among any team in the state.

"They went into this race not content just to be there, while they are the first team in Berlin history to make it, they wanted to end the year with a strong showing and prove that they belong in with the big teams."

Berlin Finishers:
Kristen Madeia 21:12
Nicole Grieco. 21:26
Taylor Lupini 21:42
Brittany Sullivan 22:07
Paige Young 22:10
Nicole Sylvain 22:13
Stefanie Parillo 22:17