Two of the nation's best cross country runners reside in one county in the small state of Connecticut with both 2013 Foot Locker Nationals runner-up Hannah Debalsi of Staples and 2014 New Balance Nationals Outdoor 5K champ Alex Ostberg of Darien reigning from Fairfield County, which held their rescheduled county championship meet on Monday at Waveny Park in New Canaan.
For Debalsi, the FCIAC Championship meet was her first race of the 2014 cross country season as she held out of early season meets to train and prepare for a late season peak. The junior who set a national sophomore class record in the two mile last spring (9:55), dominated the 4K/2.5 mile course at Waveny Park with the nation's fastest time at the distance in 13:37. A tad slower than her 2013 win in the same meet (13:29), but she won by a huge margin of 62 seconds and had to time trial the race essentially. The Staples girls led by county champ Debalsi crushed their local competition tallying 37 points with 4 girls finishing among the top 7 places.
Meanwhile, the senior Ostberg was coming off a huge win and amazing time of 11:57 at the Manhattan Invitational, which moved him to a #2 ranking all-time in the historic course in New York. He followed up that performance by running a cross country 5K personal best time of 14:47 at the FCIAC meet to destroy the old meet record set by last year's winner Trevor Hopper in 15:15. Ostberg was second in that race last October with a time of 15:18 to showcase the incredible improvements made by him in a year's time. However, the big jump was already being seen this past track season for Ostberg when he won the New Balance Nationals outdoor title in a nation's best 5K time of 14:16 and dipped well under 9 minutes for 2 miles at the Loucks Games. His county meet performance ranks as the third fastest 5K time run in the country this fall behind only defending Foot Locker Nationals champ Grant Fisher (Grand Blanc MI) at 14:43 and Penn Relays 3K champ Andrew Hunter (Loudoun Valley VA).
The Staples boys were attempting to make it a sweep of the titles with their female counterparts, but the Danbury boys denied them first place by a single point in a tight team battle.
Could Fairfield County, Connecticut be the home of both 2014 Foot Locker National boys and girls champions in Debalsi and Ostberg? Their county championship races certainly point towards that possibility becoming a reality on the second Saturday of December in San Diego.
More to come from the FCIAC Championships on Debalsi's US #1 4K debut and Ostberg dominant record breaking XC 5K PR run including complete results from the meet!