The Ridgefield High School boys’ cross country team had a fabulous season for the second straight year to highlight the success of many runners and teams from the FCIAC.
Magnus Manley led the way as the individual champion in the first two postseason championship races, and then it eventually became a Grand Slam year for Ridgefield’s Tigers as they won team titles at the FCIAC, state Class LL, State Open, and New England championship meets within a span of 25 days.
Manley won the 2024 FCIAC Boys Cross Country Championship race while leading a team so deep with very good runners that all five of the scoring Tigers placed among the top nine on Oct. 16 at Waveny Park in New Canaan.
And then Ridgefield proceeded to win the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Boys Cross Country Championships, the CIAC State Open, and the New England Interscholastic XC Championships which all took place at Wickham Park in Manchester.
Coach Bryan Kovalsky’s Tigers accomplished that one year after they won three postseason championships. This season they defended their FCIAC, State Open, and New England championships and captured the Class LL crown a year after placing second behind fellow FCIAC member Danbury.
And it wasn’t just that Ridgefield won those four championships, but it was how dominant the Tigers were in winning them which was very impressive. In the FCIAC Championships when those top five Tigers placed among the top nine to accumulate the minimal score of 26 points, they finished 32 points below runner-up Staples (58 points).
Ridgefield won with 66 points, runner-up Danbury had 102, and Staples (112 points) placed fourth in the state Class LL meet on Oct. 26. Ridgefield had 43 points and runner-up East Lyme tallied 63 at the State Open on a very hot Halloween morning, and nine days later the five scoring Tigers placed in the top 35 at the New England Championship to score 63 points and win by 98 points over runner-up East Lyme (161) on Nov. 9.
There were three teams from the FCIAC among the top six at the State Open as Staples placed fourth with 167 points and Danbury was sixth with 215.
Manley, a senior, won the FCIAC and state Class LL races to match the feat achieved last year by his former teammate, Steven Hergenrother. Manley then placed third at the State Open and fifth at the New England Championships. Last year Hergenrother also was the State Open and New England individual champion.
Manley began his postseason success this year by covering the 5-kilometer layout (3.1 miles) through the Waveny Park trails and fields in 15 minutes, 42 seconds to finish three seconds ahead of Staples senior Samuel Zwick-Lavinsky (15:45) at the FCIAC Championships. The previous year they both placed very high and were very close to each other in the 2023 conference championship race when Manley (15:50) placed third and was just one second ahead of fourth-place Zwick-Lavinsky (15:51).
The top five runners at this season’s FCIAC Championships were all seniors. Trevor Fuller, Manley’s Ridgefield teammate, placed third with a 15:52. Danbury’s Michael Komiskey (15:59) was fourth and Sullivan Dunn (16:00) was the third Ridgefield runner in the top five.
Staples junior Oliver Samuel and Benjamin Buchalter, his senior teammate, placed sixth and seventh, respectively, and were so close to each other that they both had official times of 16:09.
Junior Aidan Nelson (16:10) and senior Alexander Glenn (16:12) were those final two scoring Ridgefield Tigers who finished among the top nine.
The top 15 runners ran themselves onto the 2024 All-FCIAC Boys Cross Country First Team. The other six runners who earned that achievement, in order in places 10-15, were New Canaan’s Ryan Boulanger (16:14), Darien’s Andrew Sharron (16:15), Greenwich’s Benjamin Webster (16:16), Danbury’s Kyle Jeffers (16:20), Calum Madigan (16:20) of Staples, and Greenwich’s Dylan Jelliffe (16:21).
The next 15 runners who placed 16-30 to earn All-FCIAC Second Team distinction included Danbury’s Andrew Lema, Greenwich’s Ryan Newcomb, New Canaan’s John Disturco, Greenwich’s Chase Nizielski, 20th-place finisher Banks Valentine of Westhill, New Canaan’s Charles Cavanagh, Quentin Koch and Benjamin Hayes of Greenwich, Hudson Schunk and 25th-place finisher Maximillian Mocarski of Fairfield Warde, Trumbull’s Jacob Potok, Fairfield Warde’s Edward Kushel, Danbury’s Owen Tomasik, Luke Cooper of Staples, and New Canaan’s Ryan Monohan.
The seven conference runners who earned themselves All-State status by either placing among the top 12 in their respective state class championship races or the Top 25 at the State Open were Manley, Dunn and their fellow Ridgefield senior teammates Charles Lovett and Trevor Fuller, Zwick-Lavinsky of Staples, and Danbury’s Komiskey.
After Manley won the FCIAC championship, he won the Class LL race by one second over Zwick-Lavinsky with a time of 16:12 over the hilly and demanding Wickham Park 5K course. Manley showed vast improvements in the next two races on the same course. Manley improved by 28 seconds five days later when he placed third at the State Open with a 15:44 and then he ran nine seconds faster with a 15:35 when he was the fastest FCIAC runner and fifth overall at the New England Championships.
Newtown’s superb senior Soheib Dissa won the New England Championship race by one second over junior Marshall Vernon of La Salle Academy (Providence, R.I.). Dissa’s winning time of 15:13 which was 11 seconds faster than his 15:24 at the State Open. Dissa, who will run at Duke next year, was selected Player of the Year as one of the 12 runners selected to the 2024 GameTimeCT All-State Boys Cross Country First Team.
Manley, Fuller, Lovett, and Zwick-Lavinsky were the four FCIAC runners on the GameTimeCT All-State First Team.
Fuller was third at the FCIAC Championships, seventh at the Class LL meet, 11th at the State Open, and 16th at the New England Championship (15:58). Lovett, who did not run for Ridgefield in the first two postseason championship meets, placed sixth at the State Open and 14th at the New England Championships (15:51).
Zwick-Lavinsky, the senior from Staples, was the very close runner-up behind Manley at the FCIAC and state Class LL championship meets, eighth at the State Open (15:56), and 20th at the New England Championships.
Dunn and Komiskey were the two conference runners among the 12 total on the 2024 GameTimeCT All-State Boys Cross Country Second Team. Dunn placed 24th at the New England Championships (16:08) as Ridgefield’s fourth runner and the fifth fastest from the FCIAC. He previously placed fifth at the conference championships, ninth at the state Class LL meet, and 13th at the State Open.
Komiskey was fourth at the FCIAC Championships, sixth at the state Class LL meet, 18th at the State Open (16:14) and 31st at the New England Championships.
Nelson and Glenn of Ridgefield along with Buchalter of Staples were the three FCIAC runners among the 12 total who earned GameTimeCT All-State Honorable Mention.