October 2 Meet

The meet on October 2nd will be at Tarrywile Park in Danbury. Below are the directions:

Take I-84 East or West to Exit 3. (Route 7 South - Danbury Airport).
Take 2nd right for Danbury Airport.At light at end of ramp, turn left.
At next light, take left onto Wooster Heights.
Go 9/10ths mile and turn right onto Southern Blvd. Go 6/10ths mile and Southern Blvd. will make a sharp right turn.
The Park & Mansion entrance is 100 yards beyond this turn on the right

Bethel Invitational Results

Yesterday, we had another strong showing at the Bethel Invitational. Due to the performances and the depth of our team, the boys finished 2nd, while the girls finished 4th. This is the second straight year that both teams finished in the top five at Bethel.

The day started out with a strong showing in the girls JV race. Cynthia Wells lead the way with a 9th place finish (19:54). Following her was Victoria DeRosa (20:05, 10th), and Chloe Laverack (20:36, 16th). In the boys JV race, Chris Tinley lead the way with an 8th place finish (19:08). Right behind him was Nick Bebe-Center (19:09, 9th), and Chris Greco (19:12, 11th).

In the girls varsity race, Jeanne Theleen lead the girls with a 3rd place finish (16:07). Other top varsity finishers were Emily Pattison (18:26, 44th), Casey Ciaccio (18:54, 60th), Katie Noel (19:01, 66th), Olivia Lawson (19:03, 68th), and Katie Whitney (19:04, 70th).

In the boys varsity race, Harrison Katz once again lead the boys with an 11th place finish (16:44). Close behind him was Phil Critelli (17:08, 20th), Matt Letho (17:19, 23rd), Eric Brenn (17:31, 29th), Austin Delaney (17:34, 32nd), and Colin McCrory (17:36, 33rd).

Yesterday shows us that we are steadily improving and working towards our goal of finishing high up in both the SWC championships and the Class L championships. Your hard work will pay off in a couple of weeks.

Bethel Invitational

The bus for the Bethel Invitational will leave the high school at 7:45. The times and directions to the invitational are found in the post below.

9/25 Home Meet Results

Today was another good day for the PHS Cross Country Team. Both the boys and girls finished the day 3-0. Already, the boys have equaled last year's win total and the girls are one win behind last year's total.

The boys beat Joel Barlow 20 - 43, Bethel 19 - 44, and Bunnell 15 - 50. The boys were lead by Harrison Katz's 2nd place finish (17:07). The rest of the varsity runners include Phil Critelli (17:27 - 4th), Matt Letho (17:29 - 5th), Jake Critelli (18:11 - 6th), Eric Brenn (18:15 - 7th), Austin Delaney (18:16 - 8th), and Colin McCrory (18:25 - 9th).

The girls beat Joel Barlow 27 - 28, Bethel 22 - 39, Bunnell 19 - 44. The girls were lead by Jeanne Theleen's 1st place finish (15:33). The rest of the varsity runners include Emily Pattison (17:06 - 5th), Casey Ciaccio (17:29 - 9th), Katie Whitney (17:36 - 10th), Olivia Lawson (18:06 - 13th), Katie Noel (18:10 - 14th), and Hannah Holbrook (18:18 - 15th).

Congratulations on a good day. You have made good progress throughout the season. With half the season over, now is a good time to check to see how you are progressing and determine a goal for the rest of the season. Nice work and good racing today.

Bethel Invitational

The Bethel Invitational will be held on Saturday, September 29 at Bethel High School. The meet begins at 9:30 and the races will go off about 30 minutes apart. All of our runners will be running in the race, either in the varsity race or the JV race. Here is the order of races:

• Girls Junior Varsity
• Boys Junior Varsity
• Girls Varsity (12 runners)
• Boys Varsity (12 runners)

Directions: Take 84 West to exit 9. Take a left and go under Route 84. Go to the stop sign, take a right onto Route 6. Go to the traffic light (past the garden center), take a left at the light onto Old Hawleyville Road. Go to the second stop sign and take a right onto Plum Tree Road. Go by Blue Jay Orchard, at next traffic light take a left. Go up the hill to the school.

I hope to see all of you there.

Pasta Party September 24

There will be a pasta party at Katie Whitney's house on September 24 at 6:00 PM. The Whitneys will supply the pasta, but the following classes need to bring food:

Freshmen: Desserts
Sophomores: Drinks
Juniors: Bread/Garlic Bread
Seniors: Salads and Dressings

Everybody needs to bring a lawn chair or ground blanket and dress for the weather.

184 Bates Rock Road
Southbury, CT

Nonnewaug Invitational

The date of the Nonnewaug Invitational is on Friday, October 12, not on Saturday as was originally posted. I'm sorry about the confusion.

The schedule of the races is as follows:
Girls JV: 3:15
Boys JV: 3:45
Boys varsity: 4:15
Girls varsity: 4:45

9/18 Home Meet

Congratulations on another good meet. We are improving with each meet, and today was no exception. Our times are dropping from the beginning of the season, and compared to last year.

To begin with, Harrison Katz lead the boys to victory over Newtown, Stratford, and Oxford. Harrison finished 2nd with a time of 17:07 (a new Pomperaug team record). Phil Critelli was second with a time of 17:27 (a new sophomore team record). Rounding out the top seven for the boys were Matt Letho (17:29 - 4th), Eric Brenn (17:44 - 6th), Austin Delaney (17:56 - 8th), Jake Critelli (18:04 - 9th), and Marc Romano (18:06 - 11th). Congratulations on a well deserved victory over Newtown today.

In the girls race, Jeanne Theleen won the race with a time of 14:56 (a new junior team record). Rounding out the top seven for the girls were Emily Pattison (17:04 - 9th), Jessi Johnson (17:09 - 11th), Casey Ciaccio (17:31 - 15th), Katie Whitney (17:37 - 16th), Katie Noel (17:54 - 18th), and Olivia Lawson (18:00 - 20th). Although the girls lost to a very talented and deep Newtown team, they had a very successful day. We had our entire varsity team running at 18 minutes or faster, where last year there were only three runners who broke 18 minutes. We are getting better and it will show at the end of the season.

For everybody, I was very impressed by your performances. We had numerous personal bests today, with some people having to set new goals for themselves since they have already reached their season goals.

Your times are posted to the left, but there is a problem with the boy's times. Since some people did not remove their numbers and give them to Coach Wargo before leaving the chute (there were people from all teams who did this), some of the times are not correct. Tomorrow, we will attempt to fix this, so try to remember which place you are for tomorrows practice.

Once again, nice work. We are getting better with each race and I can't wait to see how we are performing by the end of the season.

Windham Invitational Results

Congratulations on a very good first invitational of the season. We had many gutsy performances and personal bests today, and we had a strong showing by both the boys and girls teams. The girls finished 8th in their race, while the boys finished 9th.

The day began with Colin McCrory finishing second in the freshman boys race with a time of 12:15. Melanie Scott lead the freshmen girls with a time of 18:58. Casey Ciaccio was the first girls JV runner to cross, with a time of 15:34. These three races were over a 2.15 mile course. The boys JV team was lead by Tyler Kniery's 19:17 over the 3.05 mile course.

Harrison Katz once again lead the boys with a 16th place finish and a time of 16:44, beating his time from last year of 17:48. The rest of the boys team of Phil Critelli, Austin Delaney, Matt Letho, Marc Romano, Matt McDonald and Jake Critelli bested their times from last year by an average of over one minute.

Jeanne Theleen had an impressive race, leading the girls with a 3rd place finish in a time of 15:29, beating her time from last year of 16:23. The rest of the girls team of Jessi Johnson, Emily Pattison, Katie Whitney, Olivia Lawson, Jessica Urqhuart, and Morgan Caffrey are about 45 seconds ahead of where they were last year.

Today is a great start to the invitational season. With too many people to mention here who did well, I just have to say that I'm proud of all of your performances.

The times are posted in the updated results. The places are in yet. Once they are posted on mysportsresults.com, I will update the list.

Windham Directions

If you would like to come to Windham to watch the invitational, here are the directions.

Take I-84 east through Hartford to Route 384 (Exit 59). Pick up Route 6 in Bolton. At intersection of Route 6 and 66 in Columbia, continue (left) on route 6 toward Willimantic. Take second exit marked for Eastern Connecticut State University/ Route 195. At end of ramp, turn right onto High Street. As you crest the hill, Windham High School will be on your left.

Parents are allowed to bring thier children home after their child's race.

Windham Invitational

Saturday is our first invitational, the Windham Invitational. This is a large race, with over 60 teams competing. All of our runners will run on Saturday. The bus will leave the high school at 8:45 and return around 6:00. Although we will stop for food on the way home, everybody should come prepared with their own food for the meet.

The race schedule is as follows:
Boys freshman - 11:20
Girls freshman - 11:45
Girls JV - 12:10
Boys Varsity - 12:55
Girls Varsity - 1:25
Boys JV - 2:25

If you cannot make it, please let me know.

Snack and Drink List

One of the traditions of Pomperaug Cross Country is parents supplying snacks and drinks to the runners after their race. We have many runners, and this takes many families to help supply their fuel. At the pot luck dinner, we had a list of dates to sign up for food and drink. Although many signed up, there are still more opportunities for people to help out. We need about 2 to 3 families to help (we have around 90 runners). Below is the link for the snack and drink list and it can be found on the left. If you would like to add your family to the list, please e-mail me and I'll add you to the list. Thank you and have a good day.

Snack and Drink List

September 11 Meet

Congratulations on completing the first meet of the season. This is a good start to the year. Both the boys and girls finished the day 1 and 1. The boys beat New Fairfield 20 to 43 while losing to Brookfield 29 to 28. The girls beat Brookfield 19 to 44 while losing to New Fairfield 23 to 34.

Harrison Katz lead the boys with a 2nd place finish and a time of 16:16. Rounding out the top seven were Phil Critelli, Eric Brenn, Matt Letho, Jake Critelli, Austin Delaney, and Colin McCrory. We had nine boys under 18 minutes and nineteen boys under 20 minutes. Many people had dramatic improvements from the time trial on Friday. This is a good way to begin the season.

Jeanne Theleen lead the girls with a 1st place finish in a time of 16:48. Rounding out the top seven were Jessi Johnson, Emily Pattison, Katie Whitney, Olivia Lawson, Katie Noel, and Hannah Holbrook. We had nine girls under 21 minutes. There were many girls who decreased their time by significant amounts. Good start.

Remember how you performed in this meet as you continue to run throughout the season. You should improve from week to week and remember how today felt as you get faster this season. Congratulations to all of you on a good start to the season.

Time Trials

We had a very good day at the time trials. Our performances were strong, many people had personal bests for our course, and we all walked away with a good feeling about the upcoming season. This is a good start to the season. The results are posted to the left under XC results. Have a good weekend and I'll see you Monday.

New Sites for the First Two Meets

It is official, the first two meets have been moved to new sites. The meet on September 11 has been moved to New Fairfield. The meet on September 18 will now be at our course. Hopefully these are the only changes that we will have to the schedule.

Timed Mile Results

We had a good day yesterday, with our first timed event of the season, the timed mile. We had many good performances and a few surprises. We have had a strong start to the season. All of you are working hard and pushing yourselves and this will pay off at the end of the season. The coaches and I cannot be happier with your performance so far this season. Keep up the good work.

Remember to take a day off from running to recover from your work this week. You should run at least once for 30 to 40 minutes this weekend. Anybody who has been running over the summer should get in a distance run on Saturday or Sunday of between 45 and 70 minutes and then do a normal 30 to 40 minute run on Monday.

Enjoy your vacation and see all of you on Tuesday.

Timed Mile Results (with last year's times)