Boys Cross Country
Staples coach Laddie Lawrence has been around long enough to know when his team is about to go through a rebuilding year. Or so he thought.

"I figured this season would be a little bit of a down one," Lawrence said. "We were young, we didn't have a lot of experience coming back. I thought we would learn and rebuild. It turns out I was wrong."

Despite returning just one of their top eight runners from a season ago, and spending the first half of the season helping a handful of converted soccer players get used to a 3.1- mile course, the Wreckers have been the biggest surprise in the FCIAC.

They will take a 16-1 record, including a 28-29 win over Ridgefield Wednesday, into next Thursday's FCIAC championship meet at New Canaan.

Seniors Eric Fitzgerald, Kevin Peterson and John Crocker, and juniors Remi Ray and Henry Kaplan have all made a successful move up to the varsity. Senior Cameron Morantz and junior Jason Hanrahan have been equally impressive in their transition from the pitch to the cross country course.

"It's been a team effort," Lawrence said. "And that's been great to see."

Lawrence knows he will need every one of his runners to be at their best for the FCIAC meet, where he feels as many as six teams have a legitimate chance to win. The Wreckers have won half of their races this year by fewer than five points their only loss came by a single point to Darien and they expect that too-close-to-call trend to continue in the final conference race of the season.

"It's anyone's race to win," said Lawrence, whose only loss was by one point to Darien. "We'll be in the hunt. Whether we can win it or not, that remains to be seen. We'll give it our best and then hope it's good enough to come out on top."