Danbury CT 56, Colby Delbene 12:37 Harrier US#1 Danbury CT wins battle of DyeStat regional #1's over Oakton VA, 56 to 71. Colby Delbene (left) is 8 second winner over Oakton's Joe Lorusso. photo by John Nepolitan Boys Varsity B Report - by Matt Soja In the most anticipated team match-up of the meet, Danbury CT, ranked #1 in the Northeast, edged out Oakton VA, ranked #1 in the Southeast, by a 56-71 margin. However, both team’s performances were a little disappointing given their ranking. Danbury was missing one of its top three runners, which put an end to their hopes of breaking Fayetteville’s course record average of 12:48. In fact, the Connecticut champions averaged “only” 13:02.8, almost five seconds slower than North Penn PA in the D race, which will probably cost them first place in the regional rankings this week. The Virginians ran almost the same average (13:02.3) and were winning handily 26-38 after the first four runners for each team finished, but Oakton’s fifth finished only in 45th place, almost 30 spots behind Danbury’s fifth, which cost them the victory. Once again, Danbury proved that its depth is its strongest forte, just as they won Hartford Invitational last month over Germantown Friends despite missing its best runner Matt Terry.  As they aim to peak at NTN Regionals and then nationals more than a month from now, the Hatters have been training through the early season meets, including this one. Will Ahearn, who finished third overall in 12:45.2, admitted that he was disappointed with missing the course record but expressed confidence in Coach Rob Murray’s training plan. He added that the cancellation of the Wickham Invitational last week did not take away from their race sharpness. The Hatters will now focus on the Fairfield County meet this Thursday, followed by the CT state meet, the CT State Open meet, New England Championships, and NTN Regionals and hopefully Nationals. As for Oakton, the 43-second gap between fourth and fifth man must be patched up if they hope to shoot for the highest spots in the nation. They will probably retain their #1 spot in the region since they ran better than #2 Midlothian VA in the D race, but it might cost them in the national rankings. Yet we cannot take away from the fact they were the only team today to put four runners under 14 minutes, with Joe LoRusso leading the way in second place with his 12:44.3. It must be heartbreaking to have four boys in the top 9 of a race and still lose the team competition! In a close battle for third, Chaminade NY outran West Windsor Plainsboro North NJ by a margin of 140-152. Not surprisingly, Colby Delbene of Pawling NY took the individual crown with his 12:36.8 clocking. Delbene, who had the third best speed rating in his state before today, took out the race conservatively, hanging back in 10th-15th place at the beginning. After gradually moving up, he took the lead right after the bridge, 1200m into the race. As he described it, “I put in a surge after the bridge to get into the lead, and then another surge at the halfway mark, and I ran alone for the rest of the race.” Delbene said his main goals for this season include winning the New York Federation meet and placing as high as possible at Footlocker Regionals and Nationals. With stars from Oakton and Danbury dominating the next few places, it was easy to overlook a great 10th place finish in 12:59.3 by WWP North freshman Joe Rosa, who for the second weekend in a row narrowly missed the freshman record on a famous course (last week it was Holmdel Park). Indeed, his future looks very bright.

 1 Danbury 56  
 2 Oakton 71  
 3 Chaminade 140  
 4 West Windsor 152  
 5 Holy Ghost Prep 193  
 6 Washingtonville 223  
 7 Scarsdale 254  
 8 Chelmsford 291  
 9 Archmere-Claymont, DE 298  
 10 Forest Park-Woodbridge, VA 311 

 Runner  Team Time  
1 Colby Delbene Pawling 12:36.80  
2 Joe LoRusso Oakton 12:44.25  
3 Wille Ahean Danbury 12:45.13  
4 Julian Sheinbaum Scarsdale 12:47.14  
5 Chris Brown Chelmsford 12:50.59  
6 Matt Terry Danbury 12:53.69  
7 Brian Henricks Oakton 12:54.76  
8 Neal Hendricks Oakton 12:54.76  
9 Andrew McCullen Oakton 12:57.00  
10 Joe Rosa WWP North 12:59.26  
11 Scott Tibbetts Archmere Academy 13:00.79  
12 Matthew Chylak Holy Ghost Prep 13:01.82  
13 Eric Arnold Holy Ghost Prep 13:02.67  
14 Tucker Schaefer Danbury 13:06.66  
15 Ricky Balmaseda Danbury 13:09.64  
16 Chris Carington North Rokland 13:13.28  
17 Nick Hughes North Rokland 13:16.03  
18 Justin Ray Danbury 13:18.47  
19 Mark Castelli Carmel 13:20.51  
20 Jordan Hamm Canisius 13:20.86  
21 Mike Schieck Chaminade 13:21.43  
22 Charlie Donnelly Chaminade 13:21.86  
23 Michael Pierce Holy Ghost Prep 13:22.14  
24 Dillon Buckley Archmere Academy 13:22.34  
25 Ian Donnelly Washingtonville 13:23.50  
26 Chris Tonn Chaminade 13:23.97  
27 Frank Fezza Sahem North 13:24.82  
28 Tyler Corkdale WWP North 13:25.67  
29 David Hurley Chariho  13:27.05  
30 Joey Bubniak Danbury 13:27.70