High School Roundup: X-C Almost Springs Upset

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Bristol Central 29, Berlin 30

Berlin 15, Maloney 50

The girls ran as close as a race could get with Bristol Central. The final was Bristol Central 29, Berlin 30. 

"Going into the race we knew we had two things we needed to do to have any shot," Berlin coach Steve Soucy said. "Central is unbeaten in at least the last three years. First, split their top three and second get our seventh runner in before their fourth. We knew the second was possible but we knew we would have our work cut out for us with the first.

"Central's top runners are very strong finishing in 20:07, 20:31 and 20:32 respectively. I gave the assignment of trying to split them up to Kaylene Sylvain fourth overall 20:44, Brittany Sullivan fifth overall 21:14 and Nicole Grieco sixth overall 21:37.  All three ran a great race (putting up times they have never hit before). They each ran faster on the 3.1-mile course today than they did on the 3.0-mile course they ran Saturday.

"Kaylene stepped up and pushed the Central runners and closed the gap to 12 sec but they just proved to be too strong.  We did however take the following 10 spots after their first three.

"The one thing I will say is that that our girls ran incredibly well and Central isn't going to be too eager to run against us again at the CCC South Championships at the end of October. I also have to give the three BC girls credit because to be pushed that hard this early in the year and to be able to react the way they did was impressive."

Rounding out our top seven were Nicki Sylvain seventh overall 22:06, Kristen Madeia eighth overall 22:16, Paige Young ninth overall 22:34 and Taylor Lupini 10th overall 22:54.

The girls blanked Maloney 15-50.

BOYS CROSS COUNTRY

Bristol Central 19, Berlin 36

Berlin 20, Maloney 42

The boys fell to Bristol Central 19-36. 

"We went into this race knowing that Central is really strong and we just focused on continuing our improvement toward the class MM meet in October," Soucy said. "Before the race we talked about trying to close the gap within our team and keep our pack intact throughout the race.

"The boys did a fantastic job with our number two through five runners finishing only 9 seconds apart and our sixth coming in 10 seconds later."

The team was again led by Brendan McLarty 18:43, James Dwyer 19:00, Matt Kall 19:02, Will Cavedon 19:04, Lawrence Betterini 19:09 and Ryan Kliszewski 19:19. 

The Boys beat Maloney 20-42. 

The next meet for both teams will be in Cromwell this Saturday.

BOYS SOCCER

Bristol Central 4, Berlin 1: Berlin lost its first game, 4-1 against Bristol Central. Brajan Cano scored on an assist from Alex Bednarek

"We actually controlled the game but were unable to put the ball in the net," Berlin coach Dave Francalangia said. "All of thee goals were scored on uncleared balls within the six-yard box. We did not play with discipline defensively today. We are back at it again on Wednesday and we will change things up."