Sports

New Canaan Girls Cross Country 6th, Boys 10th at FCIAC Championships

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After training in weather that felt more like fall–and over this past weekend, winter–during the days leading up to Wednesday’s FCIAC Cross Country Championships; on race day it resembled late-summer with the sun shining brightly on Waveny and a temperature near 75 degrees. So is the byproduct of running cross country in New England. And in what is arguably the best high school cross country conference in all of New England, the New Canaan girls team finished sixth while the New Canaan boys team finished tenth in Wednesday afternoon’s FCIAC Championships. “I’m really, really pleased,” girls head coach Art Brown told NewCanaanite.com. “Going in, I thought we had a shot at [defeating] Ludlowe and Darien and we beat them today, which was very satisfying.

Sports

New Canaan Boys Cross Country: Run, Rams, Run!

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In his lone year as an assistant for the New Canaan boys cross country program in 2012, Bill Martin coached a squad that totaled 22 boys. Now entering his third season as head coach of program, Martin was delighted to see (approximately) 60 boys ready to go for the 2015 cross country season. “The numbers are great,” Martin told NewCanaanite.com. “The team has tripled in the last three years, which is always a good sign. We graduated two of our best runners (Alex Ellsworth and Spencer Lyman) last year. Both boys made All-FCIAC, 2nd team. And as a team we finished fifth in the FCIAC, which was a pretty good showing.

Faces of New Canaan

Faces of New Canaan: Grayson Cordes

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Many locals will know Grayson Cordes, a 2011 New Canaan High School graduate, as the manager at Walgreens on Pine Street (he’s been there six years) who recently was honored by the New Canaan Police Department for his vigilance in the store, which helped authorities nab a fraud ring that had come into town. We at NewCanaanite.com first heard from Grayson—out of the blue—back in August, following the first report of a “reptile” sighting at Mill Pond that local police suspected was an alligator turtle (something like that would turn up about a month later on East Avenue). Grayson let us know that he’d seen the story of the reptile and that, soon after, a man came into Walgreens with what appeared to be a small alligator turtle and spoke to him for 20 minutes or so about the creature. More than that, Grayson had the man’s information and photos of the reptile. The NCPD issued its “Civilian Service Award” to him shortly after and Grayson reached out about the possibility of contributing to NewCanaanite.com—something we talk about in our conversation (transcribed in full below, for this our latest installment of Faces of New Canaan) and hope soon to showcase.

News

NCHS Cross Country Teams Finish 7th at FCIAC Championships

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Both the boys and girls NCHS cross country teams finished seventh at Monday’s FCIAC Championship race at Waveny Park. And although the results looked the same on paper, they were interpreted quite differently from the respective coaches of the two squads. “Overall thoughts…probably not happy,” boys head coach Bill Martin told NewCanaanite.com. “We had a couple of boys perform average, and it looks like we might have an injury to my top runner.”

That top runner, senior co-captain Alex Ellsworth, finished 19th overall and first for the Rams with a time of 16:34 over the 5-kilometer course, despite experiencing some pain in his rib cage during the race. As to Ellsworth’s status for Saturday’s State Championship race at Wickham Park in Manchester, Martin feels confident his star runner will fight through the injury.

Sports

NewCanaanite.com Athletes of the Week: Alex Ellsworth and Kylie Towbin

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The NewCanaanite.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Baskin-Robbins, Connecticut Sandwich Co., Joe’s Pizza and Mackenzie’s. Congratulations to Alex Ellsworth and Kylie Towbin for being named NewCanaanite.com Athletes of the Week. Ellsworth has been New Canaan’s top finisher in all but 4 of the Rams’ 18 dual cross country meets this season. The senior co-captain also led the Rams at the Wilton and Brewster Invites where the team placed first and second, respectively. Called “an exemplary leader and a good role model for our younger athletes” by head coach Bill Martin, Ellsworth’s success has helped the Rams to a 14-4 record, good for second place in the FCIAC East Division.