By Michael Letendre  

The Bristol Eastern girls cross country program split against Middletown and Platt on Monday afternoon from Hubbard Park in Meriden.  

The Blue Dragons topped the Lancers by a 20-35 final while Eastern took it to the Panthers, 15-50.  

And per usual, a certain freshman phenom from Eastern’s squad was able to top all the competition.  

“Kaelyn Gonzalez ran strong coming in first place overall with a time of 20:22,” said Eastern coach Paul Ryskowski. “Lauren Ayotte also had a strong day coming in 11th place with a time of 24:58.”  

And then on the flip side, the boys were able to sweep all the competition in Meriden.  

The Kingstreeters were able to hang duplicate 15-50 losses on both Middletown and Platt as the boys from Eastern are having a very good season with a competitor from King Street ultimately winning the race.  

“Dominic Tartarelli runs a gritty race and comes in first with a time of 18:26,” said Ryskowski. Jack Mulcunry celebrated his birthday with a second place finish of 18:44 while several other Eastern runners crossed the finish line soon after.   

“The Bristol Eastern boys packed it up behind [Tartarelli and Mulcunry] with strong races from Aidan Tartarelli, Brendan Tartarelli, Dylan Prince, Cole Beland, and Aidan Gezelman,” said Ryskowski.    

Eastern’s final regular season challenge comes on Thursday, October 13 when all three high schools in town meet up for the annual city series challenge.  

This year, Eastern joins Bristol Central to run the course over at St. Paul Catholic High School.  

Meet time is 3:45 p.m.