By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – After an impressive showing at the annual Bristol city series cross country event on Saturday from St. Paul Catholic, both the boys and girls programs from Bristol Eastern are looking forward to the CCC Championships which takes place today from Wickham Park in Manchester. 

“We get excited for the postseason whenever it’s coming because you’re racing against the best,” said Eastern coach Paul Ryskowski after the city series meet. “That’s what brings out the best.”

The girls from Eastern, headlined by an amazing freshman in the form of Kaelyn Gonzalez, are looking forward to testing their mettle on the course.

Gonzalez ended the city series bout as the individual champion as her time of 22:00 was the top time of the day.

She’s also familiar with the course in Manchester, squaring up a finish of 21:35 at the 40th Wickham Invite on October 8 – good for 36th place overall.

Junior Lauren Ayotte, making top-10 finishes at the Bristol city series race over the last two seasons, has plenty of experience at Wickham – finishing the invitational race two Saturday’s ago in 24:39.

Rita Gao and a host of other harriers also hope to show good times at the annual event for the Lancers.

The girls are slated to start CCC competition from Wickham at 3 p.m.

On the flip side, the boys – led by Dominic Tartarelli – also hope to make a splash at the event.

He was the runner up at last Saturday’s race in Bristol (17:51) behind winner Frankie Porrini from Bristol Central and looks to improve upon his 18:11 showing the last time he ran at Wickham.

The grouping of Jack Mulcunry, running extremely well at the event hosted by St. Paul Catholic, Brendan Tartarelli, Aidan Gezelman, Cole Beland and Aidan Tartarelli all expect to be on Central’s heels throughout the event on Tuesday.

Anything can happen at the huge event from Wickham as Eastern wants to prove it belongs with the featured programs of the CCC.

“These guys are trending in the right direction,” said Ryskowski of Eastern. “And that’s great but they’ve got to get it done on that day. We’ll see what ends up happening but we’re trending in the right direction and that’s a good sign.”

The boys race commences at 3:45 p.m. or at the conclusion of the girls contest.