By Michael Letendre

SIMSBURY – After last year’s cancellation, the 40th Stratton Brook Cross Country Invite from Simsbury went off without a hitch as the boys and girls squads from Bristol Central took part of the event.

In the large school boys varsity race, the outfit from BC did a very good job at the competition according to long time Bristol Central cross country coach Tamara Stafford-Kirk.

“[The] boys placed 11th” overall said Stafford-Kirk. “Junior Frankie Porrini was sixth and junior Chris Roy placed 19th to lead us.”

Porrini finished in 17:37 which was just nine seconds off the time of the fourth place competitor.

Roy was also in the mix until the end, running extremely well.

Also performing well for the Rams was Ryan Sarmiento (59th, 20:49), Tyler Wilson (69th, 22:10) and Scott Petrosky (73rd, 22:42).

The girls from Central also saw action that day, performing in JV competition – running in the girls large school challenge.

Maura Waters was the top finisher for the girls group from the school from Bristol.

“With a young girls team of freshmen and sophomores, we put all the girls in the JV race,” said Stafford-Kirk. “Maura Waters led the girls in 13th place at 25:35 followed by Sophia Stark in 18th (26:16). Katie Tran (30th, 27:22), Janelle Brand(86th, 36:09), and Rachel Griffin (89th, 38:19) rounded out the girls team today.” 

Those finishes were good enough for the Rams to snare sixth place in the race.