By Michael Letendre
The adventures of the 2010 Class L cross country champions from Bristol Central continue in the pages of The Bristol Edition as the squad, going 5-0 over the month of September, entered October with title aspirations on their collective minds.
And head coach Tamara Stafford-Kirk enjoyed a front row seat for that magical run.
“The whole season just felt like we were building and building and it just felt so special,” said Stafford-Kirk. “Those boys were and are brothers – they loved one another, took care of one another, and came together in a way I have only witnessed a few times in my career.”
The start of October was exciting for Central as the program won the Greater Hartford Invite from Stanley Quarter Park in New Britain.
The Rams had three runners place in the top-10 as Kelley (third, 15:51.35), Duprey(15:52.32) and Eschner (ninth, 16:23.38) helped the locals win the invite.
Central (56) destroyed the competition as Xavier (90) was a distant runner-up.
The Rams then traveled to Veteran’s Park in Middletown on October 5 to battle the Blue Dragons and Blue Devils of Plainville.
And both those programs looked fairly blue after Central dismantled Middletown (15-49) and Plainville (15-48).
The Wickham Park Invite took place on October 9 in Manchester and the Rams were sternly tested.
In the end, the locals made a credible sixth place finish with 194 points.
But Central ended the event as the top Class L team at the event.
At this race, Duprey was the top Central finisher, taking seventh place in 16:26, Kelley placed 15th (16:48), Eschner came in 18th (16:54), Washburn 60th (17:43) while Mancini was 101st (18:12) followed by Johnson (104th, 18:17).
Halfway through the month, it was time for the city series meet against Bristol Eastern and St. Paul.
It wasn’t close as Central took nine of the top ten spots in the race from Page Park in Bristol.
Kelley and Duprey finished 1-2 in 17 mites flat while Eschner was one second behind for third place.
Mancini (4th, 17:26), Washburn (5th, 17:27), and Johnson (6th, 17:48) helped the Rams pick up another clean sweep – and an undefeated season was the result.
“Those boys never gave up – not on themselves, not on their team, and not on me,” said Stafford-Kirk. “We all took care of one another and loved each other unconditionally. When you spend that much time with your coaches and teammates, you learn so much about each other. They picked me up on my bad days and I would have done anything for them. They believed in the training I put together and we just had each other’s backs. We knew we were going into battle together and we needed to trust each other for that.”
That city series win ended the regular season for Central with the CCC Championship meet in Manchester (October 20) and the Class L title tilt (October 30) next on tap for the program and in our next story in the TBE of this outstanding team.
