The Staples Wreckers boys’ cross country team swept three competing schools on Sept. 12 during a meet at Ridgefield High School.
While not the first race run by the cross country team, the meet at Ridgefield put a number of new runners, such as Sebastian Rodriguez ’25 – who previously only ran track – onto the course.
“I’m happy I took the dub,” Rodriguez said. “First time ever in a meet, it’s a first win.”
In all, 107 boys ran, 53 in the varsity-class race and 54 in the novice-class race. Staples scored first place in both races with a strong concentration of runners in high positions.
“I ran fast for the entire race,” Alex Price ’27 said, “and ended in an okay 39th.”
Taking runners on a course that comprises two loops of hilly gravel paths in tight forested areas, the Ridgefield course is notoriously disliked, especially due to the fact that it can easily degrade in bad weather. Runners from Ludlowe, Greenwich and Ridgefield struggled with the terrain.
“The course was pretty bad,” Calum Mattigan ’25 said. “I wasn’t that excited to race on it […] on this course, there’s a lot of downhills, and there are rocks you can step on. It’s very easy to slip.
The Wreckers also previously claimed victory in the varsity race at the Wilton Invitational on Sept. 9.
“The Ludlowe guys gave us a scare in the first 800 meters, but we caught them and won,” Morgan Samuel ’25 said.
The team will race again at Staples on Sept. 19 against the St. Joe’s, Danbury and Fairfield Warde cross country teams.
